Why the Big XII-10 aren't expanding

[Mars]

how about this proposal. They take Memphis and BYU. The two teams split the Fed-Ex $10 and the revenue fromt the conference championship game. Each team gets about $7-10M and the rest of the conference reaps better tv numbers, attendance with BYU games and two more bball invites.

BYU's biggest problem in joining the Big X-II isn't Sunday play (which is a legitimate issue with school Presidents, conference commissioners, Athletic Directors, and TV experts... though not quite as big a deal-breaker as advertised)- it's geography (and not having a solid travel partner).

The closest school in the Big X-II to BYU is Kansas, and they aren't anywhere close to us. That's a worse stretch than a Utah/Colorado rivalry, and those two haven't played for decades! Seriously, what's the all-time BYU-Kansas football series sitting at right now? We can count our all-time games against Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M ("The Big 3") combined on our hands.
While schools like Arkansas, Memphis, Louisville, and Cincinnati aren't much more than 500 miles away from most Big X-II schools, BYU is nearly 1500 miles away.

What this means...
IF the Big X-II survives, and IF they ever expand out past 10, and IF they can't land a big fish like Notre Dame, Arkansas, LSU, Arizona, or Arizona State... they'll take a long, hard look at BYU. But only IF there is another school near BYU that helps off-set the ridiculous travel costs that adding the Cougars would weigh down their conference with.

BYU and Arkansas? A north school and a south school, and a 1335 mile drive according to mapquest.com. Neither school will ever travel even 100 fans to the other for a road game. The "culture" the two locations share is just about "zip".
BYU and Memphis/Louisville/Cincy? Same crazy differential. Not worth it for the Big X-II when they consider their mem's/women's swimming/diving and men's/women's track/cross country teams.

BYU and Air Force/Colorado State? Do you really consider either of those two schools as a "BCS" level institution? Colorado stunk, but CSU is worse. Air Force isn't even a MWC-level institution, IMO. I think they add almost ZERO to both our TV money and our overall athletics. Have they EVER won the MWC in any sport?

BYU and TCU? Again, one north school, one south school. Again, geographically a terrible pair- certainly NOT a travel parter. And besides, the entire South Six will vote "NO!" to this, as Beebe has already made abundantly clear. All TCU (or any other Texas school) would do is dilute both the Big X-II TV money and the recruiting... It doesn't matter that they're better than Baylor in almost every respect.

Sad to say it, but there it is. Sorry guys.


And yet... my hope that we somehow magically join the Big X-II by September of 2012 remains alive, against all reason or logic.....