Big 12 Basketball: 4 schools the conference should add soon

In the hypothetical Big 12 basketball expansion conversation, which four schools would make the best candidates to add in a weird pandemic year?

The time has almost arrived for the Texas basketball program to tip off the 2020-21 regular season. On Nov. 25, Texas will officially tip off their regular season schedule against a non-conference foe in UTRGV. Big 12 basketball play will then begin on Dec. 13 for Texas in a really difficult matchup on the road in Waco against the No. 2 ranked Baylor Bears.

Texas itself has a difficult non-conference schedule lined up for the coming season. And nothing is made easier for head coach Shaka Smart and his squad by having to face the best team in the conference to open up Big 12 play, and it comes on the road.

The entirety of the Big 12 has a tough road ahead to make this college hoops season work. And the fact that they have the least amount of teams of any of the Power Conferences, making the season work with potentially prominent postseason results is even more difficult.

There will be trials and tribulations along the way. No doubt that the looming college hoops season will be a roller coaster ride in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, just like the college football season has been and will be moving forward.

This very realistically brings back up the conference expansion conversation for the Big 12, with so many balls in the air as is, to get a larger and possibly even more competitive field at play in men’s hoops. The Big 12 has an especially large pool of intriguing possibilities in terms of teams to add to the mix if they only do so in hoops. Take the example of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish taking part in ACC play in hoops but not football.

Let’s take a look at four of the most appealing hypothetical possibilities for the Big 12 to expand for college hoops.