Big 12 Football: 4 more expansion candidates worth considering
Boise State
Purely in terms of the value that the football program would bring to the table, there might not be a more appealing candidate for another hypothetical round of Big 12 conference expansion than the Boise State Broncos. Former Oregon Ducks defensive coordinator and second-year Boise State head coach Andy Avalos looks to have this football program trending in the right direction after former head coach Bryan Harsin bolted to take the same job with the Auburn Tigers.
Boise State has consistently remained one of the best Group of Five football programs in the entire country. That is evident in the fact that the Broncos kept their streak alive last season now with two-dozen consecutive winning seasons.
In fact, the Broncos haven’t put together a losing season since their first two years playing at the FBS level concluded in the late 1990s.
What also makes Boise State an appealing Big 12 expansion candidate in this round of the conversation is the fact that they could make for an entertaining geographic rival with BYU. The Big 12 doesn’t have a natural geographic rival with BYU at the moment, and Boise State could help bring that presence to the conference.
San Diego State
The newest potential Big 12 expansion contender in this hypothetical round of the conversation is the San Diego State Aztecs out of the Mountain West. San Diego State has largely come to the forefront of Group of Five athletic programs in the last few years. They’ve remained one of the most competitive and intriguing football and men’s basketball programs in the Group of Five in the last five years.
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It’s pretty intriguing to also consider the possibility of the Big 12 adding schools in PAC-12 country such as Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State, etc. While I’m not necessarily advocating for the Big 12 to add all these schools, it would make sense to bring in a few more to form an actual division out west if the conference moves to 16 teams.
I also like the possibility of landing two valuable TV/recruiting markets if the Big 12 could bring in a package deal of potentially San Diego State and either Fresno State or Boise State.