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Big 12 football: Ranking the league’s 5 best expansion options ‘out west’

By John Scimeca

PALO ALTO, CA - AUGUST 31: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal runs the ball against the San Diego State Aztecs at Stanford Stadium on August 31, 2018 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
PALO ALTO, CA - AUGUST 31: Bryce Love #20 of the Stanford Cardinal runs the ball against the San Diego State Aztecs at Stanford Stadium on August 31, 2018 in Palo Alto, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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BERKELEY, CA – NOVEMBER 27: Chase Garbers #7 of the California Golden Bears throws a pass during a game between University of California-Berkeley and Stanford Football at Memorial Stadium on November 27, 2020 in Berkeley, California.(Photo by Bob Drebin/ISI Photos/Getty Images).
BERKELEY, CA – NOVEMBER 27: Chase Garbers #7 of the California Golden Bears throws a pass during a game between University of California-Berkeley and Stanford Football at Memorial Stadium on November 27, 2020 in Berkeley, California.(Photo by Bob Drebin/ISI Photos/Getty Images). /

4. Cal Golden Bears

The Golden Bears might seem like an odd choice for future Big 12 expansion. UC Berkeley is an elite academic institution that embodies the West Coast and anchors the Bay Area in California — could the athletic program really make a living by competing against teams based in Texas and the Great Plains?

The key to adding Cal to the Big 12 would be as a complementary member, likely as a pair with two Sunshine State-based teams further down this list. Without adding a program like Stanford, for example, it would make little sense for the league to just add the Golden Bears.

There’s not a ton of success from the football program — it hasn’t ended the year as an AP Top 25 program since 2006 and has only seven winning seasons in the past 15 years. Randomly, the 2007 squad was ranked No. 2 in the country after a sizzling 5-0 start and a win at Oregon, but the Bears responded to that by dropping their next three games before ending the year with a 7-6 record.

The cliché of media markets as part of conference realignment reveals the benefit of adding Cal — the Big 12 would be available (though not necessarily watched) on the TV sets or streaming devices of millions of people who call San Francisco and the Bay Area home.

If Rutgers gets admission to the Big Ten for its supposed ability to bring in New York City and its New Jersey suburbs to viewership, this argument could work for Cal, too.

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