Peterson: Who follows Colorado through Big 12's? Here’s a vote for Connecticut and maybe Arizona?
Among the first to leave.
And the first to return.
Now that Colorado is finally officially coming back to the Big 12, what’s next? Is the conference set on 13 teams, or does it keep growing?
Was Colorado just the first domino to jump from the Pac-12’s sinking ship? Speculation throughout the past year has centered around Arizona, Arizona State and Utah eventually hooking up with the Big 12, which, in case you forgot, is losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC after the upcoming school year.
When does the music stop in this ongoing game of conference musical chairs? The one that has college football fans hotter than a RAGBRAI rider on a 100-degree day.
Somehow and some way, everyone has always seemed to find a chair, and I suspect that will happen again (albeit temporarily) possibly as soon as the start of the 2024-25 football season. Every day – or hour – another situation arises. The ACC says it’s interested in adding teams (good luck with that). The Pac-12 is collapsing (quickly). The Big 12 has (considerable) juice right now.
More: Peterson: Big 12 expansion must preserve Iowa State's rivalries, including Cy-Hawk game
And here’s a thought: How about the nation’s best men's basketball conference (that’d be the Big 12) getting unreachably better with the addition of defending NCAA champion UConn? How about that for commissioner Brett Yormark, who has been on the job barely more than a year?
“We want to continue to be the top basketball league in the country,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said Thursday. “To do that, there’s a level of aggressiveness you have to have when you’re talking with other schools.
“We want to continue to be the best league in America.”
UConn men. Geno Auriemma’s 11-time national champion women’s team. Legitimately, another Big 12 target? You bet.
Wow, and wasn’t it just about a decade ago when smart people were writing and saying the Big 12 was dead?
Talk about a stern and strong show of strength. Colorado Buffaloes. Deion Sanders. Ralphie the buffalo, the team's four-legged mascot. The Rocky Mountains. A top-20 TV market.
Who’s next, Notre Dame?
Kidding, probably, but you get my point.
By this time next year (or heck, maybe next week), the Big 12 could be a 14-team league, after the two defectors leave following this 2023-24 school year. Getting back to an even number would mean adding someone else – maybe Connecticut, and if not the Huskies, then how about Arizona?
First school to knock on the Big 12's door gets in"
Don't bet against it.
As I’ve done so often the past two years, I asked The Des Moines Register’s Iowa State texting group for input. What do they think about Colorado returning to the Big 12? Here are some of their comments and my responses.
Texting group: Why stop at Colorado? Let’s bring back Nebraska and Missouri ...
Randy responds: Yormark said at Big 12 Media Days three weeks ago that he’d be all right with 14, after Oklahoma and Texas leave. I’m a UConn advocate. I actually covered a game in Storrs – when the Iowa women played there in the 1997 NCAA Tournament. After beating N.C. State in the opening round, the Hawkeyes lost against the home team in the second round. Nice city, is what I recall. Leafy campus area.
What about Big 12 legacy teams Nebraska and Missouri, you ask? They’re making more money where they are now – Nebraska in the Big Ten and Missouri in the SEC. To them, how they’re doing in the major sports standings doesn’t seem as important as how much their bank accounts bulge.
Text group: Will Colorado actually play a full Big 12 schedule in the 2024-25 season?
Randy responds: That’s the plan. Since its departure coincides with the end of the Pac-12’s TV contract, there’s no exit fee. Buffaloes at Jack Trice next year for the first time since Iowa State won 17-10 in 2009? Iowa State playing in beautiful Boulder for the first time since losing 34-14 in 2010? Depends on how the schedule shakes out. Makes sense to me, but I thought Iowa State and Kansas playing home-and-home basketball made sense, too.
Text group: I’m predicting the Big 12 to be at 14 teams sometime before the end of this football season. Do you agree?
More: Peterson: From Provo to Orlando − and all Big 12 Conference football games in between
Randy responds: Wholeheartedly I agree. At least 14. Arizona and Connecticut will bring the number to 15. If the Big 12 is of the mindset to have an even number, then add Arizona State. This all assumes UConn can pay a hefty $30 million to buy its way out of the Big East, and it assumes the Big 12 can wait for the Arizonas to finally figure out there’s no future in the Pac-12. That’s a lot of assuming, I know, but any Big 12 newcomers will be eager to start playing regular games in the recruiting-rich states of Texas and Florida. The hunch here is that the Big 12 will be a 14-team conference.
Text group: Looking forward to 'Prime Time,' an entertaining guy for sure. Win or lose, it’s good for the TV revenue
Randy responds: The branding realities that football coach Deion Sanders, aka Coach Prime, has brought to Colorado are off the charts. There’s no reason that won’t carry over to the entire Big 12. Younger, hipper and cooler are the words Yormark uses often to describe how he wants his conference to feel.
Text group: Not crazy about Deion coming into the league, so I'll be rooting for his failure
Randy responds: Of 250 or so texting-group responders shortly after the Thursday afternoon news dump, there were 20 or so who were not as enamored. That’s to be expected. “Go ahead and jump in that portal and do whatever you’re going to do,” Sanders told his players shortly after being hired to resurrect a program that slumped to 1-11 last season. “Because the more of you jump in, the more room you make.” That struck a nerve, especially when 71 entered the portal. There’s at least 55 on this season’s roster that transferred in from Division I schools.
Text group: I have a little inside chuckle about CU. They left thinking they were chasing the glory, and now as the Pac 12 crumbles, they come back with their hands out. Not a big fan of huge conferences where you don't play everyone, but I realize that is where this is all heading.
Randy responds: I’m not sure Colorado was chasing glory as much as it thought it would eventually need conference security that some thought the Big 12 might not offer. Times have changed, the Big 12 offers plenty of security now. The conference could include up to 16 teams soon enough. Round-robin scheduling – that’s history.
Text group: Excellent decision. Now, I want UConn, crappy football et al.
Randy responds: You’re not alone.
Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson is in his 51st year writing sports for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at rpeterson@dmreg.com, and on Twitter @RandyPete
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: UConn and/or Arizona should (will?) follow Colorado to the Big 12
