Big 12 Football: 4 more expansion candidates worth considering
Honorable mentions
Fresno State
Once we get deeper into this list, it will make more sense as to why the Fresno State Bulldogs do make sense for this hypothetical round of Big 12 conference expansion. Fresno State could help the Big 12 start competing in TV and recruiting markets with the PAC-12. And that would especially be the case in some of the more underserved urban TV markets in PAC-12 country.
Fresno State has proved to be much more competitive and willing to invest in its profit sports in the last decade. The football program has highlighted the heightened success of the Fresno State athletic program, which has emerged as one of the best in the Mountain West Conference in the last few years.
Colorado State
A common consideration for another round of Big 12 expansion over the course of the last decade or so is the Colorado State Rams. I would still personally consider Colorado State a great candidate in another round of Big 12 expansion. But it also feels like other schools have largely caught up with where Colorado State is at in terms of athletic investment.
This could be a really interesting situation in a world where the Big 12 could get a package deal to get the Colorado Buffaloes back along with Colorado State in the next round of expansion.
Air Force/Army/Navy
Adding the service academies to the Big 12 would likely mean a package deal between the Air Force Falcons, Army Black Knights, and Navy Midshipmen. This would mean that the Big 12 would need to consider moving to 16 teams given the fact that the latest round of conference expansion brought them back to a dozen.
There is a good level of viability and attractiveness that exists by adding the service academies to the Big 12, though. In the last decade or so, Air Force, Army, and Navy have each proved in their own respects to compete at the Power Five level, albeit not at a world-beating level.
This would certainly be an interesting idea, but one that the Big 12 would have to plan out carefully with a solid long-term plan in place.