Big 12 planning to add BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF | College Football Enquirer
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the Big 12’s plan to add 4 schools, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, in the wake of Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: Let's start with the Big 12, which is making its move. The Big 12 CEOs met over the weekend. There was no vote on expansion. But it is coming. Central Florida, Cincinnati, BYU, and Houston are filling out applications. What exactly does that entail?
PETE THAMEL: I hope there's essays. What four people would you want to have dinner with? And it would be Bob Bowlsby and Matt Campbell. Mac Rhodes.
PAT FORDE: Tell us about yourself in 500 words.
DAN WETZEL: Yes. All right. Thoughts on the four. To me, the two obvious misses here, or the next two in line would be Boise and Memphis.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah, well we're in a time right now, and Pat and Ross did something in the last week, and we're in the stage of this where everyone's competing to confirm the obvious, the increments of the obvious. They met, the application's coming through, they're scheduling a meeting, they voted them in. They're going. We could just all operate like they're going. So I was told that BYU had the best metrics. Now I'm not saying they have the best football program. You don't have to tell me their Bowl record since like 1954.
But the combination, I believe 6% of America is Mormon. They have a huge footprint. And they do have a much better history when you start talking about national championships and going back a century. And that stuff matters with TV resonance. Those four are coming in. Everybody else is scrambling. And yeah. We're moving on.
PAT FORDE: Yeah, I mean, those are the four. And I think if you're the Big 12, you probably got the four best of what's available. I'm not saying you got four absolute stone cold great programs that elevate you, but you help yourself. You solidify your numbers. You get a foothold in Florida, you bring in a Cincinnati program that's very solid in a pretty large market in an area that loves football and produces recruits. You got Houston, which checks all those boxes as well. And then you're right, Pete. I think BYU really was from people I talked to kind of the one that once people kind of got over reticence or reservations about BYU being, quote unquote, "a difficult conference member", that they had gotten that wrap, I think once you get past that, they've got a lot going for them.
They do. They got a big stadium and they put people in it, and they have a national audience, a big following. They got back on the beam last year going 11 and 1. They've had 40, 50 years, really, of pretty consistent success. And they're out there and ready to be had. So you go get them without any of the complications of pulling them out of another conference, really that you have with some of the other schools.
DAN WETZEL: Well look, we've been saying forever none of this stuff makes sense. And football is one thing. The other sports are another. But for these other four, what can these programs do? I mean Cincinnati's got it going pretty good right now. How much better are you going to be joining this thing?