It will never be Boise. They have 0 value TV wise. Adding 2 teams to the conference is going to reduce the amount of money each team gets in their TV deal. They have to find teams that have a lot of value in order to get that contract bumped up in payout to minimize that.
The problem with a school like UH is that they bring nothing. Not a top tier program, but more importantly the Houston market is already carried by UT. Likewise Boise has a solid football program, but they bring a very small market and are terrible in every other sport. Not to mention geographic problems. BYU is really the only possible addition that makes some sense, but they just don't seem to want each other.
FTFY. The Big 12's ratings in the Houston area leave a lot to be desired if UT isn't involved. Not sure what that will mean for expansion. Pretty much any program left is going to be choosing from the best of the worst. They all have warts. Cinci, Memphis, and Houston have no fan support. ECU and Boise have no market. UCF and USF are severe geographic outliers that have a lot of unknowns about their future/level of commitment to athletics. It's not going to be a painless selection process.
tOSU beat Mich State (top 10 all year long) and Wisconsin (top 5 in total defense and rushing offense). TCU's only impressive win was Kansas State. The committee got it right. They did contradict themselves by dropping TCU from 3rd to 6th after a blowout but they got it right.
They may have got it right, but it certainly stinks of TV bias as well. TCU/BU are small private schools... the 4 who got in are large state schools.
Baylor got punished for having the worst non-conference schedule in the history of college football. Rightfully so. Get over yourself, J Sizzle.
the big twelve has the texas market locked up. They don't need another Texas team. Memphis represents an opportunity to bridge the gap between Texas Oklahoma and west Virginia. Fan support means nothing in this. I've heard also that Fred Smith has opened his wallet to make this happen.
It's interesting for all the whining about Baylor's schedule, they were the only team in the 6 being considered that actually beat any of the other teams that were being considered. TCU was the only team who's loss was to any of the teams being considered. The team with the best win was left out, and the team with the best loss was left out.
Unfortunately this is not true when it comes to East Texas. There's room for improvement for the Big 12 in that market. The data from the mid-2000s to the early 2010's shows that the Big 12 doesn't pull weight over here outside of UT (with the singular exception of 2008 when TTU-OU-UT were in a 3 way death struggle for the national title berth). Mmk, whatever that means. Cinci fills that perceived role too, FYI. Fan support = TV ratings. TV ratings = almost everything. We've all read that rumor from a Nashville radio station too. Just another in a long line of "zomg click here" twitter baits.
Regional TV RATINGS, I would agree. Another Texas team's TV ratings. Doubtful. Right now west virgina is on an island. a tennessee team added to the league would make it easier for west virgina. Houston has no chance to make it to the big 12.
Valid criticism, nice that you don't have Pryor's win over Arkansas though...(abdicated who cares). Ohio State is much improved on their inside receivers and lineman improved. The SEC teams that beat them out speeded them now that might not be the case. Is Alabama the favorite, yes but you can't hold Tressel's losses on Urban Meyer. Tressel liked big "NFL" Linebackers which don't translate to most SEC teams (LSU, Florida) Alabama is different in that they are more physical.
I mean if you want to expand your big 12 network outside of the state of texas and oklahoma, you don't do it by adding another texas school, which is overkill. You do it in a region that can help you both EXPAND your footprint and also doesn't have tremendous competition. Tennessee is sec country in the far east, but not in the midsouth where Memphis located. Regionally you gain more of a tv footprint NOT by local support of a team, but by regional viewership. Memphis also is one of the few teams in the country that has an NBA Arena for college basketball, it has strong corporate support with FedEx and Autozone and International Paper. What does houston have?
