Big 12 Football: Where does conference go from here?
Adding Big 12 football teams
Personally, the Big 12 would be best served to add six schools, bringing them to 14, which seems to be the standard. Get the number up to 14 because in a world where (it appears) we’re heading for 16 team super conferences, 10 is not enough and 12 might be looked down at. Apologies in advance, because the AAC is about to be raided.
You don’t have to go far for the first two. In fact, you can stay right in the state of Texas: Houston and SMU.
Both the Cougars and Mustangs are sleeping giants. Houston already has a National Championship in its history while crashing the New Year’s Six. They’ve been down over the last few years, but Houston is more than capable of once again becoming elite.
The same goes for SMU: they were a force before the Death Penalty and have recently started to come around, being ranked in each of the last two seasons. Before that, the Mustangs hadn’t been ranked since 1986.
SMU brings Dallas with it. Houston and Dallas are the fourth and ninth most populated cities in the country, respectively. If you want to talk about market size, which is often given great consideration, you have to start with these two programs.
The next two are BYU and Boise State. These would be excellent additions for all the same reasons I’ve previously advocated for them to join the AAC. BYU brings an entire Mormon fan base, while Boise State is a national brand as one of the premier Group of Five/non-BCS teams in the country…just like current Big 12 member TCU.
The other two might not be as cut and dry. There are a few programs that would be great in the “new” Big 12. The first one I’d go with is UCF.
The recent leader of Group of Five programs, UCF has already proven they can hang with some of the big boys of college football. The Knights have been clamoring for a chance to consistently compete with the elite, and joining a Power Five conference would give the Knights exactly what they want. Plus, the conference expanding into Florida would do nothing but boost recruiting in that state.
The second would provide a boost in football and an even bigger boost in basketball: the Memphis Tigers. Memphis fits in the Big 12 footprint better than any of the other three teams. Memphis brings with it Tennessee, which is fertile recruiting ground as well.
Since joining the AAC in 2013, Memphis has won no fewer than eight games in all but one season, which was its first in the conference. They’ve been ranked in five of eight years and have a New Year’s Six bowl to their credit.