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

Boise State

The first non-PAC-12 program on this list is also one that could make for an intriguing conversation in this hypothetical round of conference realignment.

If I were Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, one of the first expansion candidates that would come to mind for me at this point from the Group of Five ranks is the Boise State Broncos. You won’t really find a better expansion candidate in terms of the marketability and strength of the football program from the Group of Five than Boise State.

And it does make sense to give a school like BYU another geographic rival that could also make some noise early on in this conference with a program like this one.

I really like this idea if it would also involve the Big 12 adding three other schools west of the Mississippi (i.e. the Arizona schools and one other out of the PAC-12).

From an athletic perspective, Boise State has always had a lot of the characteristics of a PAC-12 school. There are a lot of resources poured into that football program in Boise, ID. And while the basketball and baseball programs aren’t very good right now, with a similar level of investment thanks to a hypothetical increase in revenues by joining a major conference, the rest of the athletic program would have a chance to catch up a bit with football.

If I were to pick a handful of Group of Five schools that would make sense for the Big 12 in this hypothetical expansion conversation, Boise State along with the Memphis Tigers would be the strongest candidates that come to mind.