3 Group of 5 teams Big 12 Football should consider adding for 2020

The Big 12 Football conference has the logistic challenge of trying to make the 2020 regular season work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although it wouldn’t make much of a different at this point, there are some interesting thoughts that could be had for how the Big 12 football landscape would change if the conference added some members from the Group of Five level. The Group of Five conferences have a mixed set of teams planning on playing a 2020 season.

The Texas football program will get to face one Group of Five opponent during the planned 2020 regular season slate. Texas is supposed to open up the 2020 season against the UTEP Miners out of the Conference USA, at home at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Sep. 12. And the Big 12 opener is set for Texas on the road in Lubbock on Sep. 26 against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

But as far as the football is concerned for the Big 12, this was one of the leading conferences that pushed to have some form of an altered 2020 season schedule. It appears that the SEC and ACC will join the Big 12 in pushing ahead for a 2020 season in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Big 12 does still have one week of non-conference games on tap to prepare for what will be a 10 game regular season in total for each of their members. That could give some inspiration to think about where the conference could go from here in terms of the potential expansion conversation.

Here’s a look into the three additions from the Group of Five conferences that the Big 12 could make for the upcoming football season, to even out the playing field, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.