Big 12 Conference to begin exploring expansion candidates

The conference must have at least casually vetted expansion candidates. Boren did not comment publicly on the specific schools that have contacted the Big 12, but said each school has approached the league individually.

— A UConn student sent a report prepared by the school’s alumni to West Virginia athletic director Shane Lyons that points out the Storrs-based school provides access to TV markets (including NY and Boston) with potential to reach 11.7 million homes while the combined markets reached by Cincinnati, UCF, South Florida and Houston is 12.3 million homes.

Tuesday figured to be the day the topic died. The only difference will be in what the Big 12 values.

“What we heard is if we don’t go to a championship game, we’re at a disadvantage”, he said then.

“We try to keep an eye on the changing environment at all times”, Boren said, “and we did want to be brought up to date in terms of potential impact that the ACC matter could have”. New technologies are being adapted. Houston’s attendance has lagged so far in the new stadium, but the school reportedly has sold a record 22,000 season tickets so far for this season. I guess we’ll all just have to stay strapped in and keep our hands and legs inside the vehicle at all times for a while longer. UC could bring into play for the Big 12 the football-crazed OH market, long the province of the Big Ten. The agreements, signed in 2011, now pay the conference about $230 million a year and rise each year.

The 10-member league most likely will add two or four schools, possibly by the start of the 2017 football season. Potentially another $100 million per season in television revenue could come into play.

South Florida’s lobbying efforts as a Big 12 expansion candidate took a blow Wednesday with word the men’s basketball program is under NCAA investigation for possible academic fraud involving Oliver Antigua, a USF assistant and brother of coach Orlando Antigua. The Big 12 lawyers that drew up the contract earned every penny they got. Boren said at the OU Board of Regents meeting on June 21 the topic was all but dead.

BYU could also be invited as a football-only member. Any schools willing to jump on board now can expect to make significantly less than the current members. “We’re keeping a very close eye on that”, Bamford said. “And it’s a mutually binding contract that we put in place four and a half years ago. I think that will influence our commissioner moving forward as we examine what is moving on”.

The Big 12 now includes 10 universities. School officials have taken a quiet approach, contacting the Big 12 through back channels rather than publicly lobby like other candidates.

Is the Big 12 being proactive?

“And also we’re very much looking at the reputations of these institutions for integrity”.

But the networks agreed to pay the Big 12 the pro-rated extra should it expand. “We were pleased by the commitment made by their regent’s chairman, Mr. Murff, to support appropriate institutional control going forward, and to assure full Title IX compliance”.

All of the schools thought to be candidates for Big 12 expansion outside of BYU and Colorado State are now in the AAC. Colorado State (No. 127) and UC (No. 140) are the other schools in the top 150. The firm released a 13-page report May 26, the same day Briles was immediately suspended before reaching a mutual agreement with the school for his departure about a month later.

Jim Grobe didn’t just insinuate Tuesday that Baylor isn’t the only college in the nation with a sexual assault against females. “I would say yes, it’s a forward step, it’s a positive step”.

Baylor’s mess became less of a topic once the expansion talk rekindled.