KIRK BOHLS: WHY BIG 12 DECIDED NOT TO EXPAND
Big 12 presidents opt against expansion, stick with 10-team league.
So, the Big 12 is GRAPEVINE — fine as is. Little did we know it’s all good.
Sorry about all that fuss, Houston. Our bad, Cincinnati. Uh, next time, BYU.
And if I’m one of the 11 remaining viable candidates for Big 12 expansion who turned out to be not all that viable, my message to the Big 12 would be this: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Or maybe they don’t ever call the Big 12 again.
The Big 12 presidents and chancellors, who met here at the DFW Airport for a threehour working dinner Sunday
night and again for almost six hours Monday before decid- ing not to expand at all, owe those schools who applied a huge apology.
Even though Big 12 board of directors chairman David Boren said it “wasn’t wasted time,” I’d disagree. The inter-
ested parties wasted tons of money — in one case, up to $100,000 — manpower, time and energy putting together voluminous presentations to make their pitch, only to be told thanks, but no thanks. Guess they got some good exposure out of the deal, but that’s a sad parting gift.
Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said he had 11 “very good conversations” with the 11 jilted candidates. “They weren’t happy, but who wouldn’t be?” he said.
The Big 12 leaders said the decision was unanimous. Texas President Gregory Fenves saluted the decision, saying, “Ten is the right number.”
Depends on whom you ask.
So once again the conference said it’s good. Never been more unified. Never been more committed to the future. You kept looking in the back of the room for some marshmallows and a campfire. Why, Boren even referenced the grant of rights that ties the Big 12 schools together and said, “No one’s looking to walk away from this conference.”
Ri-i-i-i-i-ight. Not today, anyway.
But. he did say, why address the grant of rights now when they don’t expire for another eight years? Oh, I don’t know. Peace of mind for the rest of the league, maybe? But he said the marketplace is changing too rapidly to make that kind of commitment. But, uh, the conference is committed, remember?
Is this any way to run a conference? Never mind that the consultants told the Big 12 that it could better its chances of reaching the College Football Playoff by as much as 15 percent if it enlarged the league membership as well as add a championship game, which it will do next season.
Know this: The Big 12 was wrong in not adding any schools.
It was bad form for the league and bad business because no Power 5 conference is viewed as being weaker. It undoubtedly will grab more cash from television partners ESPN and Fox, delighted not to be owing the Big 12 an additional $25 million per school, but Bowlsby would only say the league will get more money for the title game and “other components.”
The Big 12, it seems, is on life support. Or will be soon enough because all the Power 5 schools are taken and there just aren’t enough Big 12 teams that consistently compete for national titles, which hurts TV numbers, ticket sales and attendance figures. Bowlsby wouldn’t answer when I asked if any Power 5 schools had expressed interest in joining the Big 12.
Maybe the league presidents didn’t notice, but their football programs aren’t exactly knocking down Alabama’s door to get a playoff spot. Unless Baylor or West Virginia runs the table, the Big 12 is almost a lock not to make the playoffs for the second time in three years. It’s a flawed league that needed strengthening. Expansion would have helped. BYU’s THE brand name of all the candidates. Houston’s coming on. Cincinnati, Central Florida and South Florida would have expanded the footprint.
We presume this decision by the Big 12 not to grow is final. Well, at least for a month or two. Boren said, “We never say never. It’s just off the agenda at this time.”
With this league, you never know. If the Big 12 had no dysfunction, it would have no function at all. This is the same conference that said it didn’t want to expand, that it did want to expand, then that it might want to expand, then no, it feels pretty darn positive it doesn’t want to expand. But it’s only Monday.
In the end, no one blew the Big 12 away. Of course, the conference might do that on its own.