Big 12 Football: 3 least appealing schools for PAC-12 expansion
This round of potential conference realignment has Big 12 football as the central point of focus. With the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, the door is now open for the other power conferences to pick up what’s left in this group. There are now eight remaining schools in the Big 12 with Texas and Oklahoma set to go to the SEC.
And the conference that could wind up picking off a lot of the leftovers among the eight remaining schools in the Big 12 is the PAC-12. Considering that the Big Ten would face hurdles by its own criteria in taking on most of the remaining schools from the Big 12, that really only leaves the PAC-12 and ACC.
That is unless the Big 12 found it beneficial to try some type of merger between itself and the American Athletic Conference. But that would likely be less than desirable for the Big 12, by the standard of most of the fan bases of the remaining schools.
Big 12 football looking for some movement with the PAC-12?
Sources: Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby is meeting with Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff today to discuss the possibility of a scheduling alliance, merger or other options for their conferences to strategically work together.⁰ https://t.co/i3MFeMj9Ua
— Max Olson (@max_olson) August 3, 2021
According to a report from The Athletic and Max Olson on Aug. 3, the Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby did meet with the PAC-12 administration this week to discuss some type of potential merger or schedule alliance. That gives some level of concrete indications that the Big 12 and PAC-12 might at least have something in the works in the near future.
That would provide a decent landing spot for a number of the remaining schools in the Big 12 after the news that Texas and Oklahoma would be leaving for the SEC.