Big 12 Football: 5 PAC-12 teams best for conference expansion

3. Colorado Buffaloes

The only team on this list that is a former member of the Big 12 is the Buffs. Colorado left the Big 12 for the PAC-12 after the 2010 season. They were out of the conference one year earlier than Texas A&M and Mizzou did to join the SEC West.

Since leaving the Big 12, Colorado has managed just one winning season in nine tries in the PAC-12. That was the magical 2016 season for the Buffs where they looked to be a dark horse College Football Playoff contender at one point in time. But Colorado would collapse a bit before the end of the season. Their 2016 campaign actually rounded out with a loss in the Alamo Bowl at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

If the Big 12 was able to bring over Colorado and Utah from the PAC-12, then they could keep together an intriguing regional rivalry that isn’t too far from the rest of the conference’s team. Utah has found much more sustained success in the last six or eight years in the PAC-12 than Colorado, but that just gives the latter of the two teams more of a reason to go back to the Big 12.

Bringing the Buffs back into the fold does two additional good things for the Big 12. Colorado has a respectable athletic program across the board, especially when they’re up in football and men’s basketball. And they would re-establish a decently valuable recruiting pipeline and TV market with the state of Colorado.