Big 12 Basketball: 3 underrated candidates to add in expansion

Gonzaga

There might not be a single more attractive school that the Big 12 could add in this round of conference realignment than the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Head coach Mark Few has Gonzaga among the national powers in the college hoops landscape in this day and age. And you can’t ignore that if the Big 12 were to take a hoops-first approach to conference expansion this time around.

Few and the Bulldogs came so close to winning a national title this year. But Gonzaga came just one game shy of winning it all this year, falling short at the hands of Baylor.

Once again, the problem with adding Gonzaga out of the West Coast Conference lies with the school’s lack of a football program. The Big 12 would have to get creative with the way it would want to add Gonzaga to the mix in this round of conference realignment to get the most out of the geographic expansion in footprint and really only getting the school for the men’s hoops program.

Gonzaga would likely want to join the Big 12 over a conference like the WCC. There’s nothing that would compare to the level of competition Gonzaga would get in this conference with the likes of the West Virginia Mountaineers, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Baylor, Kansas, etc. That could be a potential point of appeal for Gonzaga to want to join too.

If the Big 12 were to find a way to get Gonzaga in the mix thanks to the edge it gives the conference thanks to its men’s hoops program, then this would be a solid addition. And finding this edge in a new niche among the power conferences thanks to a strong presence in college hoops could be a different approach the Big 12 could try to run with.