Big 12 Expansion Candidates: Names To Know

Kyle Kensing
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LOGICAL? YES. LIKELY…?

From the most improbable to the most logical, two schools make perfect sense. That probably means neither will happen, given the nature of conference realignment.

CINCINNATI BEARCATS

Location: Cincinnati

TV Market: Cincinnati (No. 36)

Home Venue: Nippert Stadium (40,000)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 23,706 (main campus)

Major metropolitan market? Check. Respectable home venue? Check — the Bearcats can play at Paul Brown Stadium for matchups with Texas and Oklahoma, and Nippert when the Kansases and Iowa States come to town.

A proven track record for success? Check. Cincinnati reached as many BCS bowls in the last seven years as Texas.

A travel partner for West Virginia? An outpost in a deep recruiting area? A Big 12 flag flying in Big Ten country?

Really, there’s little argument against Cincinnati as one of, if not the top target for Big 12 expansion.

HOUSTON COUGARS

Location: Houston

TV Market: Houston (No. 10)

Home Venue: TDECU Stadium (40,000)

Undergraduate Enrollment: 34,830

Had the Southwest Conference disintegrated and its strongest members merged with the Big 8 a decade earlier, Houston might have made the transition.

Houston had one of the nation’s premier programs in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, but NCAA sanctions crippled the Cougars right as the SWC crumbled.

Houston’s flourished for much of the 21st century, launching the coaching careers of names like Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin and Kliff Kingsbury. But at no time before Tom Herman’s first season at the helm had Houston shown potential approaching that of its Golden Era.

A dominating win over Florida State in the Peach Bowl, success on the local recruiting trail and Herman’s spurning of other jobs show that Houston football’s strong. The Cougars play in a beautiful, new facility. They make sense geographically, and have rivalries in the Big 12 dating back to the SWC.

Everything makes sense about this invitation, except for the simultaneously lamest and most important caveat of conference expansion: TV market.

Houston doesn’t take the Big 12 into new TV territory, and that might be enough to ensure Houston doesn’t make it to the Big 12.

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Square Knight

There are several dozen data points likely under consideration.  Good thing for UCF that the Knights are at the top of most of them. From school size, to local TV market size, to state TV markets size, to multiple recent conference championships, to a higher average football attendance than any other G5 candidate except BYU...UCF is the obvious choice.


It would be stupid to select Houston since they would ad ZERO value to any potential B12 network.  UCF's value to a potential B12 network is $20 million - $30 million higher PER YEAR than Cincinnati, Memphis, UCONN or any other school except USF. 


According to a NY Times survey, Cincinnati is not even in the Top 3 most popular college teams IN Cincinnati, while the same study shows that UCF is clearly the #1 college team in the Orlando area.  The same NY Times survey showed that across the state of Florida, UCF is tied with the Miami Hurricanes on overall popularity.