The Big 12 expansion groundswell

[Top Ute]

Do they not care about their basketball identity?

The more they flounder in football, the less people care about them, the more they'll listen to money. Identity, schmidentity.

Right, because Notre Dame has never been offered the world to jump to a conference.

Notre Dame has not been a legitimate national title contender for nearly 20 years, and hasn't won one in 22 years. It is the longest such drought in their history. Meanwhile, the collegiate landscape is changing significantly, and it's a landscape largely driven by money. Yet NBC still sees enough value in Notre Dame to have begun a new five-year deal that begins this year.

So Notre Dame, by its standards, has been floundering for 20-plus years, yet you believe that as they continue to flounder, more people will care less about them. We're not seeing any evidence that anything close to that is happening. What we are seeing is fewer HS kids being attracted to Notre Dame, but that's not the issue here (nor is it what drives a program's value in the marketplace).

It would appear Notre Dame is going against the grain in staying independent, but this is also the same school that had a no-bowl policy in place for nearly 50 years. There is simply zero evidence to support the idea that if you throw buckets of money at Notre Dame, that it will change its stance on football independence.

[Borg]

If there was ANY possible way...BYU should try to approach Notre Dame on the basis of what the two schools share in common, their ideals, their goals, etc...and try to package both of them together.

There is about a million to one chance it would happen...but, they really are the perfect compliment to each other.

[Paperback Writer]

BYU will do away with no Sunday play before Notre Dame joins a conference. Both elements are viewed as integral components in their respective identities, and no amount of money in the world is going to change that. We saw that with Notre Dame still stiff-arming the Big 10 Network.

This might draw some snickers, but BYU fans should be huge New Mexico fans for football. Everything else the Lobos have would make it a great fit for the Big 12, and having BYU in the North and add a private, religious school to complement Baylor in the south would be a positive.

If someone can give me a better geographical, academic, cultural and athletic fit (save for the obvious sport that's already been addressed) for the Big 12 than UNM, I'd like to hear about it. In any event, a BYU-UNM tandem into the Big 12 could work.

New Mexico has a lot of improvement to make in football before the Big 12 will seriously consider adding the Lobos. The Big 12 is already weighed down by Iowa St. and an improving Baylor. Even with adding a CG, splitting the revenue 12 ways instead of 10 will probably mean less per school. BYU has the fan base and facilities to make it profitable for the Big 12 to add the Cougars but New Mexico does not unless they improve drastically ala Boise St.

And I agree that Notre Dame will never join the Big 12. If Notre Dame ever joins a conference it will be the Big Ten (along with a Big East team: Rutgers, Syracuse, or Pittsburgh).

That's why BYU's best path is as an independent. There's no other program to pair them up with to join the Big 12. TCU was the best option but Univ. of Texas did not allow it.

[LamarAlexander#2]

If someone can give me a better geographical, academic, cultural and athletic fit (save for the obvious sport that's already been addressed) for the Big 12 than UNM, I'd like to hear about it.

Colorado State? No one cares about UNM's ski team. CSU has better academics & is near a bigger TV market. Maybe Urban Meyer could return to coaching & resurrect the program?

For the record, I don't see BYU going Big 12 or Urban returning.

[Red Legger]

Colorado State? No one cares about UNM's ski team. CSU has better academics & is near a bigger TV market. Maybe Urban Meyer could return to coaching & resurrect the program?

For the record, I don't see BYU going Big 12 or Urban returning.

For me, at least, CSU seems to be a perfect fit. They are a green version of the ISU/KSuck/OSUs of the world. UT fans may consider parking Ksuck in the Big 12 the equivalent of parking a purple mobile home in a million dollar neighborhood, but where would the Big 12 be w/out Farmageddon or the Bucktoothed Wizard or Cotton Fitzimmons? It adds spice to life. If this were 10 years ago when CSU didn't suck so much, I believe it would've happened.

BYU going to the Big 12 is completely up to the money crunchers at ABC/ESPN. If the demographics continue, Utah will be equivalent in size to Indiana or Wisconsin in 20 years. The #1 college football product in Utah is a proven winner, a brand in QB U, sports a legendary coach and a MNC and is just sitting there for the taking. I don't see how the ABC/ESPN number crunchers don't require the Big 12 to expand afore forking over >1.5 billion in the next contract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmage...ican_football)

Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Beat Mizzou

[LamarAlexander#2]

I'd like to see BYU with CSU. Interesting idea to leverage the "cow colleges" against UT. Some are solid academic institutions. But without UT's blessing...

Here's a crazy suggestion: Rice. They stink at football & bring no new TV market. But one could say the same of Duke, Northwestern, Vandy & Stanford. Every stable league has a nerd school. Anyone outside of Arkansas/ND/Arizona/ASU would be another mouth to feed. Rice would at least appease the elitists & be happy in a subservient role.

[BoylenOver]

Here's a crazy suggestion: Rice. They stink at football & bring no new TV market. But one could say the same of Duke, Northwestern, Vandy & Stanford. Every stable league has a nerd school. Anyone outside of Arkansas/ND/Arizona/ASU would be another mouth to feed. Rice would at least appease the elitists & be happy in a subservient role.

The Big 12 will stay at 10 teams before they expand with Rice.

[LiveCoug]

Lots of smoke out there concerning aTm possibly jumping to the SEC. Be interesting to see who the SEC wants as 12th team and what the Big 12 would do if this happens.

[Donuthole]

Lots of smoke out there concerning aTm possibly jumping to the SEC. Be interesting to see who the SEC wants as 12th team and what the Big 12 would do if this happens.

Which two teams would be leaving the SEC to make a need for a 12th?

[LiveCoug]

Which two teams would be leaving the SEC to make a need for a 12th?

yeah, yeah... 14th team then.

[Uncle Ted]

Lots of smoke out there concerning aTm possibly jumping to the SEC. Be interesting to see who the SEC wants as 12th 14th team and what the Big 12 would do if this happens.

And folks over at Orangebloods are saying:

Re: Texas A&M BOR meeting about moving to the SEC on Thursday...

How about we replace Aggy with BYU and call it a day?

[TripletDaddy]

[LiveCoug]

That looks like an empty mailbox!

[TripletDaddy]

That looks like an empty mailbox!

Keep checking it, grandma!

[LiveCoug]

Keep checking it, grandma!

My mailbox was full today! I had 3 advertisements, 1 bill and a flyer!