Big 12 Football: 3 least appealing programs in conference realignment

Baylor

It’s clear that the two least appealing football programs out of the Big 12 if the conference does dissolve soon are the Kansas schools. Finding what the third least appealing school remaining in the Big 12 is can be a tough assignment. There’s a decent argument for most of the remaining schools to hold a spot on this list.

But we wound up going with the Baylor Bears thanks to the lack of consistency in recent years, and the argument that sustainability will be difficult for that program over the long haul. Baylor does have a very strong men’s basketball program and showed more life even in baseball of late. Football was not strong in the past five years, though, outside of one solid run under former head coach Matt Rhule.

Baylor likely wouldn’t be considered one of the three least appealing schools in general in the conference realignment conversation out of the Big 12. The strong men’s basketball program and academic prestige would likely be enough for Baylor to have a good chance to land in the PAC-12. But it’s hard to see either the Big Ten or ACC wanting to take in Baylor.

That is largely why Baylor finds itself in such a difficult spot. It is a bad geographic fit with the Big Ten and the ACC. Unless you package Baylor with the TCU Horned Frogs, finding a way to make this football program that appealing at the moment is a tough ask.

Remove the Art Briles years for Baylor and you have one season since 1990 where the football program finished in the AP Top 25. Baylor had a very tough run at the outset of its football membership in the Big 12. And it’s hard to imagine that trend wouldn’t continue if Dave Aranda can’t resurrect the program, and the Bears made the move to somewhere like the Big Ten or ACC.