Big 12 football: 4 worthy expansion candidates with UT, OU leaving early
The Big 12 football landscape has started to shift for good in the last couple of years. Thanks to the move by the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners to leave the Big 12 for the SEC, the former of those two conferences were left scrambling to figure out solutions for the future in the last year or so.
The way that the Big 12 found a path for the future was by adding the likes of the BYU Cougars, Houston Cougars, Cincinnati Bearcats, and UCF Knights in the latest round of conference expansion talks. In 2023, the four new members in the Big 12 will compete with the two that are leaving for the SEC in the near future, Texas and Oklahoma.
But a recent agreement between the Big 12 and Texas and Oklahoma will allow the two schools to leave a year earlier than originally anticipated. Texas and Oklahoma will now be able to leave for the SEC in 2024, meaning that 2023 is the final year of football for these two schools in the Big 12.
What expansion candidates could make sense for Big 12 football now that Texas and OU are headed to the SEC in 2024?
Since the news emerged on Feb. 9 that the Big 12 reached an agreement with the two schools to leave early for the SEC in 2024, various reports have emerged indicating that the conference will still be looking to expand in the future.
After negotiating OU & Texas’ exit, the Big 12 & commissioner Brett Yormark are expected to “aggressively pursue” further expansion, a source tells @SINow.
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) February 10, 2023
Expansion is the 3rd of 3 goals that Yormark set for his 1st year in office:
1 TV deal
2 OU/Texas exit
3 Further expansion
A report from Ross Dellenger of SI Now notes that the Big 12 is expected to “aggressively pursue” expansion in the near future.
With that in mind, here’s a look at four possible worthy expansion candidates for the Big 12 to consider now that Texas and Oklahoma are officially leaving early for the SEC in 2024.