BIG 12'S READT
Brass: No expansion planned, but U of M could be ‘viable’ candidate down the road
AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES 6-YEAR DEAL
FOR CONFERENCE TO PLAY SEC FOES.
When AutoZone Liberty Bowl executive director Steve Ehrhart invited 6- 6 Iowa State of the Big 12 Conference to play Conference USA champ Tulsa in last year’s game, it raised eyebrows.
There were more entertaining teams available, such as Louisiana Tech, which featured the nation’s highest-scoring offense.
But Ehrhart’s invitation was based on what was best for the game’s future. It paid off Friday when the bowl officially announced a six-year deal starting in 2014 with the Big 12 to have one of its teams face a Southeastern Conference representative.
“We wanted some bowls that were close enough for our fans to attend without having to get on a plane,” said Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who was an honorary duckmaster at The Peabody on Friday morning before a noon media luncheon. “That was a lesson we learned with Iowa State, which relayed to us the positive experience it enjoyed here.”
Though Iowa State lost, 31-17, approximately 25,000 Cyclones fans made the trip to Memphis.
“We hoped that Iowa State would go back to other schools in the Big 12
and tell them what a great, hospitable time they had in our bowl and in our city,” Ehrhart said.
It also didn’t hurt that the Big 12 was seeking a matchup against the SEC. The teams have met for the last 15 years in the Cotton Bowl, but starting next season the Cotton Bowl will be included in the BCS four-team playoff rotation hosting the national championship and semifinal games.
“The SEC has won seven straight national championships, so to be the best you’ve got to beat the best,” Bowlsby said.
In the new bowl structure starting next season, the SEC is scheduled to play the Big 12 usually in two bowls annually — the Liberty and the Texas Bowl in Houston — and also in the Sugar Bowl during the years the Sugar isn’t hosting a national title game or a national semifinal.
“The timing of signing with the Liberty was just right,” Bowlsby said. “Our athletic directors wanted to anchor as well as we can in Texas, and we’re doing that with the Alamo (San Antonio) and in Houston. We wanted to have a presence in the Southwest and we have the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl ( Tempe, Ariz.) For recruiting purposes, we wanted a bowl in Florida (the Russell Athletic Bowl in Tampa).
“But if you have a bowl approximate to our conference’s footprint (like the Liberty), fans will travel.”
The Big 12 has 10 members in five states — four in Texas, two each in Kansas and Oklahoma, and one each in Iowa and West Virginia. Eight schools are within a 9½-hour drive of Memphis.
In the last two years, the Big 12 lost four members and added two.
Leaving the league in 2011 were Colorado and Nebraska, which went to the Pac 10 and Big Ten respectively. Then last year, Texas A&M and Missouri jumped to the SEC. TCU and West Virginia joined the Big 12 last season.
Bowlsby said the league is happy with its current lineup of members and hasn’t looked at expansion. But if the league ever seriously revisits adding members, he said the University of Memphis would be considered.
“Certainly, it (the city of Memphis) is a big metropolitan area with a great university,” said Bowlsby, who became Big 12 commissioner in May 2012 after serving as athletic director at Stanford for six years and the University of Iowa for 15 years. “If we ever got to that point (of expanding), I’m sure they (the U of M) would be among the list of those (candidates) that would be viable. I’ve only been to Memphis four or five times. I’m excited about learning a new city.”