Big 12 football: 4 worthy expansion candidates with UT, OU leaving early

Arizona

The best spot that the Big 12 could look for potential conference expansion in the near future if it wanted to pick schools from another Power Five conference would be the PAC-12. If the Big 12 were to make a move while TV contract negotiations are still ongoing in the midst of the latest round of dominoes to fall in conference realignment, it could still get a leg up on the PAC-12.

I would imagine that if the payouts were more lucrative, namely from the TV money, schools such as the Arizona Wildcats would be more than willing to hear out what the Big 12 has to pitch.

Theoretically, Arizona makes a lot of sense now for the Big 12 if it were to come as part of a package deal with the other major school from that state. With the Big 12 expanding west with the addition of BYU in 2023, the geographical connection would be present if it were able to also add the Arizona schools.

And purely in terms of what Arizona brings to the table from its marketability and long-term success as an athletic program, there is a lot to like here. Arizona is a very strong basketball program that has a bright future under head coach second-year head coach Tommy Lloyd.

Meanwhile, the football program does look to be on the up and up after third-year head coach Jedd Fisch led the Wildcats to a four-win improvement year-over-year last fall.

If there were some candidates to break away from the PAC-12 in the near future, I definitely think Arizona would be one of the realistic expansion candidates to consider for the Big 12.