Big 12 Football: 3 teams that would benefit from leaving the conference

2) Teams that would benefit from leaving the Big 12: Iowa State

Speaking of teams that are somewhat of a poor fit in the Big 12 geographically, head coach Matt Campbell and Iowa State do have a long way to travel for pretty much every team they have to face. The Kansas schools and West Virginia are about as close as it gets to Ames, IA. A conference like the Big Ten would likely best serve the geographically relevant schools to Iowa State.

While the Cyclones did find a good amount of success in the Big 12 in the last few years, especially on the gridiron, they haven’t won a championship in any of the major sports in a while. Iowa State’s men’s basketball program is usually the best team that the entire athletic department has to boast in the last decade or so.

If Iowa State was able to join the Big Ten, then they would keep together the Cy-Hawk Trophy game that is played annually (except for this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in the same conference. The Iowa Hawkeyes are a good fit in the Big Ten West, and it’s hard to argue that the Cyclones wouldn’t be in that same boat.

Iowa State is probably going to have a set ceiling in terms of success on the gridiron in the Big 12. And it might just be a matter of time before Campbell bolts for a better job elsewhere. He was a name rumored with the Ohio State Buckeyes job before Ryan Day got the promotion.

While Iowa State is a pretty versatile athletic program, and isn’t the furthest away from the bulk of the Big 12 schools geographically, it would fit on the top three of this list in terms of those that would find some level of benefit to go elsewhere.