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

2. Arizona Wildcats

And the other pairing of schools on this list of potential expansion candidates out of the PAC-12 in this imaginary scenario for the Big 12 to consider starts with the Arizona Wildcats.

The Big 12 could see a head coach at another former school from this conference join the ranks. Former Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin is still taking the reigns with Arizona’s football program, even though he is likely sitting on one of the hotter seats in the entire country. This is still a potent athletic program for the Big 12 to try and draw in, though.

Unlike pulling a school from the PAC-12 North, or out of California, the Arizona schools still bring that appeal to the table of being more geographically relevant to the Big 12. If the Big 12 could land the two Arizona schools, then they could form a two division system again that keeps a traditional in-state rivalry together.

Since the 2009 campaign, the Wildcats did find themselves ranked at least once in the AP Poll in six different seasons. Their most recent successful season on the gridiron came under the direction of former head coach Rich Rodriguez, back in 2014, where they finished up with double-digit wins and an appearance in a New Year’s Six Bowl game.

The state of Arizona is a pretty fertile recruiting ground and a nice TV market to have. Getting both Arizona schools would allow the Big 12 to command both of those factors. Arizona itself is a football program with potential, and the men’s basketball program is one of the blue bloods in the western half of the United States.