Amid the Concerns that the Big 12 conference will become irrelavant due to losing two schools with the largest fan bases in college football. I see this as an opportunity the Big East never took to expand properly like they did in basketball. And that is a conference I miss, especially having grown up in the northeast.

This is an opportunity to move into expansion mode and capture more of the country and bring back actual rivalries that matter and form new ones from areas of the country that have population and eyeballs for tv screens. I will break this down regionally to show how this makes sense.

Iowa St. And West Virginia needs better recruiting markets and a travel partner. Imagine adding talent rich areas In the midwest right in the Big 10 and SEC footprint in the that midwest and southern Midwestern area. WVU since the joined the Big 12 it has been a stretch in terms of travel and keeping fans interested since the days Geno Smith and Tavon Austin and Adam “Pacman” Jones. Add Northen Illinois and Cincinnati solves both of those problems. The Huskies were a BCS busting team and have the relevancy of the only other team status in a major state Illinois along with market size to make adding them make sense and Cincinati helps in football and in Basketball as they are Good in both and have the recent relevancy and were almost added as A former big east team. Both are under 330 miles from Iowa st and WVU and have fans who care alot.

Oklahoma State, Kansas and Kansas State have all different need and both football and Basketball matter to all of them and being small markets in less populated states matters. So here we add Relevant teams from the American Conference Tulsa USF, UCF and Memphis. Three of em are great football recruiting areas and have teams that matter in both sports outside of USF and its basketball woes. Adding Tulsa gives the cowboys a In state rivalry that they need to generate attention. They make sense geographically as this gives The Big 12 two of the largest markets in both Florida and Tennessee without pro football teams in Memphis and Orlando that have growing populations and fans who show up and watch. Which will add to ratings, money and meaningful games something the Big 12 has lacked late in the year. Also This will matter to both the ACC and SEC as they will not like the Big 12 encroaching on the South east and with teams aho have a great interet in competing and money to do so.

Last But not least you can add Houston & SMU to double down on owning the state of texas You surround your SEC Counteerparts in A& M and UT with schools in the areas where the talent is and more reason to stay in state. It also gives Houston the stage it has wanted for years since the days of Bill Yeoman and Andre ware. SMU being adding will assure that the reaming Big 12 texas contingent has The attention they need in the state that matters most and adds Florida, Ohio and the Chicago area. All places that are talent rich recruting areas and 9 states in Football crazy areas.

Will this Go down this way exactly I doubt it, but given the chance to form a 16 team superleague of their own and adding teams in both the BIG10 and SEC areas will keep them ahead of the ACC as They will become more of a 1 team than they already are.