Big 12 Spring Meetings Start Today, Bearcats on Radar for Expansion

Expansion had been rumored to be on the top of the docket, but then that one scandal came to a head at Baylor.

Big 12 Conference officials (minus all the people at Baylor who got fired this weekend) will meet starting today in Dallas.  It’s been widely reported that expansion will be the number one topic at these meetings – obviously a point of interest for the University of Cincinnati and the fans of its Bearcats athletic teams.  UC has widely been rumored as a top candidate – if not the top candidate – in the event that the Big 12 decides to expand back to – well – twelve teams.  If the league reinstates a conference championship game in football, it will probably make an extra $30-40 Million to be divided between member schools.

Tethered to the expansion issue is the Longhorn Network (LHN), ESPN’s thus far financially unsuccessful, all-University of Texas programming network.  The Big 12 is quickly falling behind the other four power conferences in TV revenues and TV exposure, and it’s only logical for the financial future and stability of the entire Big 12 for the LHN to morph into a Big 12 Network, with programming from all member schools that would entice more cable companies to subscribe and generate more revenue.  UT has a gigantic deal worth over $14 Million per year from ESPN, so Longhorn ears aren’t the most receptive to the prospect of giving up that much do-re-mi.

The logical compromise is to have a new Big 12 Network be heavily weighted toward UT programming (and why not – they sponsor a competitive program in almost every mens’ and womens’ sport, as long as you count 5-7 football as “competitive”), and allow UT to rake a greater portion of the proceeds from such network than the rest of the league.  Whether that will be acceptable or not is in the hands of UT administrators.

What’s undeniable is that expansion is going to benefit the Big 12- even if only only on the exposure front.  Texas Christian was indubitably bypassed for the College Football Playoff in 2014 for four (and only four) reasons: (1) they didn’t play a conference title game, (2) their jersey didn’t say “OSU-Columbus Branch” on the front, (3) their primary color was purple instead of scarlet, and (4) they’d draw less TV viewers and bowl ticket buyers.  Expansion would likely solve two of those four problems, and revisionist history would retroactively strip all the 10th grade graduates within the 614 area code of their favorite “OSU Bucks National Champs” t-shirts, which they regularly wear under their Taco Bell uniforms on their way up the corporate ladder.

The bottom line is that the Big 12 should expand (from the current 10) to at least 12 teams.  It’s 100% logical.  The benefit of 14 teams delves into the law of diminishing returns when it comes to TV money and TV exposure, so I think 12 is the number (commence Memphis-UCF-BYU death match).  The problem is that league by-laws require a super-majority of 75%, or (effectively 8-of-10 current member schools,) in order to act on any expansion recommendation.  The Longhorns have been rumored to have been strong-arming their fellow Texans (Texas Tech, Baylor, and the school they helped get into the league, TCU) into stonewalling any expansion efforts that would diminish UT’s revenue dominance.

Only time will tell whether the Big 12 will actually pull the trigger on expansion, but UC is almost assuredly at the front of the line, so we can only hold out breath.  Happy Big 12 Spring Meetings!