Will Arizona Football be the next to join the Big 12?

The Big 12 conference isn’t done with expansion and according to reports, Arizona could be the next team on the radar. 

College football realignment is the hot topic of conversation again following the departure of Colorado from the Pac-12 to the Big 12.

The addition of the Buffaloes will bring the Big 12 to 13 teams once Texas and Oklahoma leave. There have been questions about what’s next ever since the addition and according to On3.com, the Big 12 is looking to add a 14th team “quickly.”

“[Fourteen] has been identified as the ‘right’ number,” one source said Friday. “But it’s not a hard stop if going bigger made sense.”

Some college football fans might ask why Arizona? But there are a couple of reasons why Arizona actually makes a lot of sense for the Big 12 — especially if you think beyond football.

The Wildcats are a basketball power. Colorado is a quality basketball program and if you add Arizona, you can see how the Big 12 would have one of the top leagues in the country in terms of basketball.

Jedd Fisch has Arizona football on the rise in the Pac-12 as well and it would add another key metro region.

Plus adding the Wildcats would deal another blow to the Pac-12 and could potentially mean more teams are added to the Big 12, which hasn’t denied that it could add more teams if it made sense.

Here’s what Fisch said earlier this week to the Arizona Daily Sun about the move of Colorado to the Pac-12 and what it means for Arizona.

"“That’s a question I get every day,” Fisch said. “The biggest thing for us, as I’ve said numerous times, is that Arizona is going to be fine. We have a great brand — a national brand. We have championships and successes in all of our sports. We have a basketball program that has been to numerous Final Fours and Pac-12 championships, and we have baseball and softball teams that have won multiple national championships, and we have a football team that is clearly on the rise as well as having great success in the past and produced a lot of great players. Arizona is going to be just fine. We’ll have to figure out what’s best for the program and the university.”"

Of course, the Pac-12 is also talking about expansion — once it has a new media rights deal. Arizona is trying to wait for that too, according to On3.com, but these programs are only going to wait so long.

Oregon, Washington, and others in the Pac-12 have to be antsy. You have to wonder if the Big 12 could make a play for a few more Pac-12 schools, especially if Arizona winds up making the same move as Colorado.