Time To Make It Happen

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A few years ago the Big 12 Conference found itself on life support as the conference appeared ready to implode. After being disgusted at how the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners were going to get a bigger piece of the pie from the conference’s television revenue for football, the Nebraska Cornhuskers decided to leave for the Big Ten Conference, the Colorado Buffaloes in favor of the Pac-12 Conference, and the Missouri Tigers and Texas A&M Aggies left for the Southeastern Conference. This left the Big 12 with just eight members and in order for them to stay afloat, they convinced the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs and West Virginia Mountaineers to shun their commitments to the Big East Conference which ultimately ended that conference’s football operations. So as of 2012, the Big 12 was a 10-member conference, and all of its members appeared happy as they had lucrative television deals with FOX Sports and ESPN to televise their football games. And with a nine-game conference schedule for football, each school would play one another which should have been able to properly eliminate the debate about an undisputed conference champion.

But in 2014, the Big 12 allowed themselves to receive a Texas-sized headache when TCU and the Baylor Bears finished with indentical records of 11-1, while each team also went 8-1 within the conference. However Baylor defeated TCU in their head-to-head meeting which should have trumped the records. Instead Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby didn’t want to declare an outright champion which left Baylor and TCU as co-champions. And to make matters worse, neither team made the College Football Playoff as they were passed over by teams that were their conference’s outright champion.

By having a 10-team football conference as opposed to have a 12-member conference has prevented the Big 12 from having a conference title game which puts them at a disadvantage whereas other conferences that have a conference title game see their schools having another opportunity to pad their resume for the all important four-team field for the College Football Playoff. Even without a conference title game last year, the Big 12 did get a representative in the College Football Playoff as Oklahoma made the Orange Bowl. But with the Big 12 having to compete with the Pac-12, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference, and Southeastern Conferences who all have conference title tilts which enhances their chances for a spot in the field of four, the small debate that began a few years ago which could have been contained to a small section in a boardroom, is now more like the elephant in the room as the Big 12 “must” find themselves two more dance partners that would legitimize their chances of making the College Football Playoff.

The Houston Cougars have recently reached out to the Big 12 Conference, and for all parties involved it would be a marriage made in heaven between school and conference. The Cougars were a member of the old Southwest Conference. But when the conference folded in 1996, Houston was left in football limbo when Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and the Texas Tech Red Raiders joined the members of the Big 8 Conference to form the Big 12. Since then Houston has found itself in Conference USA and the American Athletic Conference as they’ve become an afterthought. However since 2009, the Cougars have won 62 games which included going 13-1 last season en route to winning the AAC, while also defeating the Florida State Seminoles in the Peach Bowl as that has put them back on the national stage for the first time in nearly 25 years. Houston is ready to upgrade their athletic facilities to meet the Big 12’s standards. And a membership in the Big 12 would give the Cougars an opportunity to re-ignite a rivalry with Texas that has been dormant since 1995.

In the past the Big 12 Conference has reached out to the Brigham Young Cougars to gauge their interest in joining them. But after leaving the Mountain West Conference in 2010, BYU has been a football independent, and they currently find themselves in the midst of having a television agreement with ESPN. At the present time BYU appears to be rather content with being a football independent as they don’t have to answer to anyone as far as sharing football revenue while they’re also enjoying life nestled in Provo, Utah.

The Central Florida Knights, Memphis Tigers, and Colorado State Rams have each reached out to the Big 12 with Memphis possibly emerging as a front runner to join. Memphis has emerged as a candidate due to the school’s proximity to the majority of the Big 12 Conference members, while the chairman of FedEx, Fred Smith has promised to provide sponsorship for a potential Big 12 Title Game that could sway the conference open its doors to the Tigers. And we all know that the ultimate equalizer in collegiate athletics is the almighty dollar as conferences and schools alike will never turn down a buck which means that Memphis has more than a puncher’s chance.

But everyone for now isn’t on the same page as far as Big 12 expansion goes as Max Weitzenhoffer who is the chairman of Oklahoma’s board of regents isn’t a fan of adding two more schools; especially since he saw his school win the conference title in football last year, while the men’s basketball team reached the Final Four last month for the first time since 2002. However the ship hasn’t left port of the matter of expansion in the Big 12, but the engine is beginning to churn which means that anyone who isn’t on board with it will either be quieted or they won’t have position of authority for that much longer.

It isn’t a matter of if, but more a matter of when the Big 12 decides to extend two more invitations to schools as this proud conference doesn’t want to get lost in the shuffle of the college football bonanza. And just like the Big East was raided once upon a time, this time around it could be the American Athletic Conference that will suffer the biggest hit.

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By | 2016-05-11T16:54:31+00:00 May 11th, 2016|Categories: College Football|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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