Trotter: Big XII Expansion Inevitable

[YNot]

What the Big 12 should do is grab Cincinnati for a travel partner for WVU, then grab BYU and Boise St. as travel partners in the West. This adds three of the best performing options, from both the on-field and TV ratings perspectives. The fourth addition should then be either Houston or Memphis, a team within or near the current Middle America footprint.

This maintains the core Big 12 territory and identity and simply adds two small branches on either side of the footprint.

This setup adds at least TWO weekly football games to the Big 12 TV lineup (more in the OOC portion of the schedule), which justifies the increased conference TV payout. BYU and Boise St. allow for the 10pmET kickoff time that will provide some competition for the PAC in that late TV kickoff slot and grab some good ratings. Plus, BYU, Boise St., Cincinnati, and Houston/Memphis are accustomed to hosting home games on Thursday nights, which could actually benefit existing Big 12 members who are more reluctant to host a home game during the week.

For basketball and other Olympic sports, you arrange travel partners for road trips, including BYU-Boise and WVU-Cincy. The only weird travel partnership would likely be Iowa St. and whoever they are paired with (Memphis or Houston), but Iowa St. is kind of on its own right now anyway - although not quite the island as WVU.

[scott715]

Found this discussion of Big12 Grant of Rights. It could allow some Big12 teams to leave. Sounds like the guy knows his stuff

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Here is his latest blog on expansion. http://sportspolitico.com/2015/06/25/de ... expanding/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[scott715]

[scott715]

The latest Greg Flugaur news is not good for us.

[hawkwing]

I've said for years BYU will never be invited to the Big12. That ship sailed when Colorado joined the Pac12.

[KingCoug]

Why the Big 12 wouldn't want BYU, considering the fanbase we bring, is beyond me. But if that's the case, I don't see where else BYU could get a P5 invite. The liberal/secular PAC 12 is a perfect fit for Utah but would never take BYU. The SEC and ACC are too far away. The Big Ten is closer but already has 14 teams and could find any number of teams closer to them geographically if/when they expand to 16. That brings us back to the Big 12. If we don't get an invite when they expand back to 12 we will be waiting until they expand to 14 and 16 teams. Which means we could be independent for a long time to come.

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[BOID]

I'm not going to agonize or hold on to hope about a P5 conference home. I like independence for BYU. My only previous worry was if all the "power" conferences went to 16 members and BYU was still left out. But now, I actually don't think of that as a possible scenario any more, because I think that the super conferences would run out of viable expansion candidates and one or two of them would be compelled by necessity to pick up BYU before the others did. Also, even if the "power" conferences do expand to 14 or 16 members without BYU, they still may need BYU as a scheduling partner to keep their strength of schedule high for play-off consideration. They may have eight games in their division, with the division winners facing off in a conference championship game. With this scenario, they would need four OOC games, and very few options for scheduling other "power" conference teams for their open weekend dates. In other words, I really don't imagine that the demand for BYU's P5 equvalence would ever go away. And yeah, BYU will be functionally the same as Notre Dame (play-off access and recruiting should improve if BYU keeps winning). And even without a conference, contrary to some previous quotes, I believe that BYU can afford to continue the football program in independence as long as they want to.

In a nut shell, BYU does not need the validation of a P5 acceptance, and I'm not going to sweat over it any more. However, I will be laughing if the dysfunctional B12 does break up.

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[Fido]

It would be a disappointment to see some P5 conference expansion that didn't include BYU--but I'm not losing sleep over it. BYU appears destined for independence for the foreseeable future and I'm okay with that. I've always been a little leary of the stability in the B12 anyhow and I don't see that resolved--especially if Texas is opposed to expanding and the rest of the league forces it.

[mormonrasta]

It would be a disappointment to see some P5 conference expansion that didn't include BYU--but I'm not losing sleep over it. BYU appears destined for independence for the foreseeable future and I'm okay with that. I've always been a little leary of the stability in the B12 anyhow and I don't see that resolved--especially if Texas is opposed to expanding and the rest of the league forces it.

I agree with this. However, Holmoe has said that independence is not sustainable long term. That has me concerned.

[scott715]

Perhaps it is time to make the Big12 a deal that they can not refuse. Not sure what concessions would work. I hope they understand that other teams would reduce the pie slice except for us.