The Big 12 has one true champion and now one voice on expansion
The Big 12's meetings this week didn't elicit any sweeping changes. A title game isn't likely to happen in 2016 and the conference hasn't unveiled any firm plans for expansion.
The lack of a final decision regarding a title game and any clarity on possible expansion means speculation regarding the two will continue until the league meets again over the summer. And while college football observers will freely discuss expansion publicly, the presidents of Big 12 schools won't be doing so.
The conference decided Friday that school presidents won't talk about expansion singularly. Rather, all comments on the matter will come from one voice.
“If you’re gonna have a family argument, is it better to have it at Applebee’s or at home?” Kansas State president Kirk Schulz said via the Tulsa World. “We decided to do it at home with the doors shut.”
(Applebee's is perhaps the perfect Big 12 restaurant when you think of it.)
That voice will be of Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. The move means we won't get to hear from people like Oklahoma president David Boren, who has been outspoken in his feelings about expansion for the conference.
The Big 12 now has the right to stage a title game with 10 teams after the 12-team mandate for conference title games was waived by FBS conferences. But Bowlsby is, rightfully, being pragmatic. Oklahoma made the College Football Playoff in 2015 after the conference didn't have a team in the inaugural playoff. With two years of contradicting data, there's no point in the conference acting rashly.
The conference has been pragmatic about expansion too. It hasn't rushed to fill the two spots vacated by the departures of Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M (and the additions of TCU and West Virginia) when the realignment circus was rolling in 2010 and 2011.
But there are clues that it's seriously considering the matter now. According to Cincinnati.com, the University of Cincinnati is refusing to release things like emails and travel records that could relate to possibly joining the Big 12. The paper asked for the records and after the school's attorneys reviewed the info requested, the board of trustees asked for the information and the paper hasn't gotten them.
Cincinnati would be a logical fit. It's in a major market and in an area of the country where the Big 12 doesn't currently have a foothold. And it makes West Virginia less of a geographical outlier.
Perhaps a Cincinnati possibility is why the Big 12 made the move it did to silence all but one official voice regarding expansion. Or maybe the Bearcats – or any other specific candidates – have nothing to do with it. We can publicly wonder these things even if the conference's school presidents can't.
- - - - - - -
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Get Nick's posts and thoughts directly on Facebook.
