http://www.cincinnati.com/story/spo...2/07/uc-big-12-speculation-heats-up/20054963/ With the lack of a deciding game perhaps costing the 10-team Big 12 this year, talk began again Sunday about which teams could be candi dates to boost the league's membership to 12 teams. Those schools could include UC, Memphis and UCF of the American Athletic Conference. BYU, Boise State, Marshall and Colorado State also have been mentioned, among others. Sources say that UC is looking to move into the Big 12 or another Power Five league, although UC will not confirm that. This past week, Cincinnati.com asked UC athletic director Mike Bohn about where the university stood in terms of league realignment. Bohn would not comment on realignment possibilities, saying:
Big12 should just give in and take BYU. Figure out how to make the Sunday issue work. They are a far bigger/better program than anyone else available out there.
IIRC BYU won't participate in *any* athletic events on Sunday. From a conference scheduling and TV standpoint, you can imagine how annoying/problematic that is.
If nothing else, the B12 should just take them in football and they can stay in the WAC in everything else. Or maybe Basketball too - neither of those sports play on Sundays anyway.
not a big12 or college football fan, but why not add UH? too small of a program? UH isn't all considerably smaller than the other listed schools. would be a good add rivalry-wise
You just can't have 5 schools from one state if you want a conference to seem like a "national" conference. They also don't bring much value from a TV standpoint if you compare adding in more households to an area that you are already getting as oppose to a completely new market or state. Great for UH but it does nothing for the big 12. I'm sure though a lot of coogs would tell you it's because UT is scared of UH. So pick whatever you want to believe.
BoiseSt makes a lot of sense I think. And as a Tech fan... PLEASE bring Cincinnati in! I'd love to play Tuberfail every year!
Boise makes no sense. Again, it's a very weak program from a TV perspective. No new meaningful market. Teams are going to be very picky since they could be adding two teams to the TV contract but not getting any more money because of it. 20 million a year would turn into 16.6. This is why (IIRC) the big 12 was not upset to lose Colorado because they got a surprisingly low amount of tv sets in the state. Also, they need to build east to balance out the conference geographically. Springing north west and having a team that is practically on the east coast makes little sense. It's just possible that we again have a stocked big 12 south and weaker big 12 north. Kansas St, West Virginia and Cincy could turn into more consistent programs though.
I really just mean competitively... You would think the big12 would want to strengthen the conference with the addition. And I'm sure Boise wants to play in a power5 conference. May not make sense financially or be realistic. But to me, as a fan, it makes sense.
I think national conferences suck. Teams spread out across the entire country don't make for good rivals. I like a conference to be in a specific region. Almost all the best rivalries are between schools in close proximity of each other. Neighbor against neighbor. I really don't care about tv money or any of that. Do they give a trophy to the university that makes the most money each year. If they do, I don't care anything about that. The big 12 is becoming another conference USA. It sucks.
The flipside is that if you're too regional, you become the SWC again. That thing failed for that exact reason - no one outside of Texas cared about it.