Cougarbib wrote:
Unbalanced. Like the old North South, only moreso, the east would start out as the little brother division. Perhaps, that would self correct over time. Usually, if a vacuum is created at the top, something or someone rises up and fills it.
I think The Big 12 coukd grab AZ and ASU and Utah and Colorado if they created a power move in the west by grabbing BYU and getting one more team out of UNLV, New Mexico, or SDSU to step up their investment in and committment to athletic facilities.
PAC is landlocked and has failed to protect itself by grabbing 2 or 4 more teams to keep pace.
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Here's an out of the box idea -
After Las Vegas gets the green light for the new, state-of-art, 60K-seat stadium, the Big 12 grows to 14 in one move and adds Arizona OR ASU (not both - ASU is the better grab, IMO) along with BYU, UNLV, and SDSU. On the eastern front, the Big 12 adds Cincinnati and UConn. Suddenly, the Big 12 stakes its flag right in the middle of PAC 12 territory and nearly doubles its footprint. The four new members have stadiums that hold at least 60K and sit in top-50 markets.
The Big 12 footprint currently sits at about 11.5 million TV households, highlighted by Dallas (2.5 million), Houston (2.1 million), Kansas City(937K), and San Antonio (818K).
The expansion would add about 10 million TV households to the footprint, with Los Angeles (5.6 million), Phoenix (1.8 million), San Diego (1 million), SLC (919K), and Las Vegas (728K). You would get Texas and Oklahoma into new markets and directly compete with the PAC 12. And, who in the world does the PAC 12 take to replace ASU? New Mexico? Hawaii? Baylor? Boise St.?
The Big 12 could eventually get the Holiday Bowl back and add the Las Vegas Bowl to its lineup (it already has a contract with the Valley of the Sun Bowl in Tempe).
On the eastern flank, the Big 12 could also add Cincinnati and UConn to bump the conference to 16, with four 4-team divisions. The two best division winners play for the conference championship. You would play everyone in the league (outside your division), at least once every other year. Boom.
UConn gets you about 1 million TV homes (and a foot in the door to the #1 New York market) and Cincinnati gets you 915 TV homes (about the same as SLC) - and obviously great Olympics sports to build the WVU bridge.
WEST
BYU
Arizona St.
UNLV
SDSU
LONESTAR
Texas
TCU
Baylor
Texas Tech
CENTRAL
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
EAST
Iowa St.
Cincinnati
WVU
UConn
If you wanted to get really crazy, you go four 5-team divisions and add UCF and USF to the East (Florida!), slide Iowa St. to the Central and add Air Force or Colorado St. (top-20 market) to the Lonestar and Fresno St. (California!) to the West. With a nine-game schedule, you still play everyone in the conference about once every 2-3 years.
Men's basketball takes a huge jump, adding UConn, Cincinnati, UNLV, SDSU, and BYU to the already strong Big 12 lineup.
Whatever the analysis, if the Big 12 doesn't act within the next 8 years or so, the likely scenario is that the PAC 12, Big Ten, SEC, and ACC will pull out Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and whoever else is desired (Kansas St. and Oklahoma St.?) and leave nothing but Little Leftovers.
