I would agree with you if this was the Big 10, SEC, or ACC, but the Big 12 has no stand-alone network. Their model would work with Houston.
EDIT: Dawgs1 - I wanted to edit my post. If Houston ends up not being a part of this, it will tell you that the Big 12's TV contract model is going away. The Longhorn Network, which has been a financial disaster for ESPN, will become the Big 12 Network sooner rather than later.
Last edited by The Historian; 12-09-2014 at 07:21 AM.
Fox Sports SW already has special programming for the Big 12 along with C-USA.
Colorado State is a legit contender. It sits on par with its Pac12 sister. That would put the Big12 back into the Denver market.
The problem with expanding way is that WV is all alone in the east. wv may not seem to have options, but the conference has been burned on that before.
If they do go west, the conference has never shown interest in Colorado State like they have in Air Force.
Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere:
The Sporting News is reporting: "Big 12 met with Cincinnati before playoff was finalized"
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...160133203.html
For what it's worth Brett McMurphy has said pretty unequivocally that the rumors of expansion lack a basis.
This whole thing about the Big 12 needing a championship game would not have guaranteed a Big 12 team in the playoff this year. If there had been a championship game this year, it would have been between Baylor and K-State, a team that already had 2 losses. Ohio State still beats out Baylor even if Baylor wins. The Big 12 is not going to bring in teams that aren't going to help their image and Cincinnatti and Memphis won't do that.
The Big 12 won't expand just for a championship game. A championship game can either hurt you or help you. It just depends on the year. In the BCS era, the championship game hurt the Big 12 several times and never really helped the Big 12. The CFB Playoff era won't be any different. This was a rare, rare year in which the five big conference champs were ranked 1-5, so rare that it NEVER came close to happening in the BCS era.
Last edited by Dawg06; 12-10-2014 at 11:51 AM.
The first thing I would do if I were the Big 12ish is petition for permission to hold a championship game with the existing 10. The worst they can be told is "no."
Good old Memorial Gym
Have not heard that before. Here is what Graham Watson said in a column this week:
The Big 12 has applied for a waiver to have a conference title game without the requisite 12 teams, which would keep the Big 12 out of the expansion fray. But Bowlsby knows that solution might not be good enough and the conference might have to seek two teams to brings its numbers to 12 and create divisions.
Good old Memorial Gym
In the Chronicle yesterday, the B12 commissioner said that they recently visited on the Cincinnati campus, but that was before the Baylor/TCU fiasco and he said 'don't read anything to that - yet'. Their big thing is to first try to get a 'special dispensation' allowing for a Champ game with only 10, but if that doesn't work they will look at two more.