Big XII Makes Its Move

[SuperHornet]

Official invites for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida. This makes the Big XII look like the Sun Belch in geographic terms, IMO. Travel budgets will balloon.

Next on the clock: the American. More midwest/southeastern FCS move-ups? Steal from the MAC? Surely they wouldn't steal from the Sun Belch....

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/big-12-off ... 31354.html

[GannonFan]

Official invites for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida. This makes the Big XII look like the Sun Belch in geographic terms, IMO. Travel budgets will balloon.

Next on the clock: the American. More midwest/southeastern FCS move-ups? Steal from the MAC? Surely they wouldn't steal from the Sun Belch....

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/big-12-off ... 31354.html

Other than adding a Florida team, why is this really any different from what the Big 12 is already? Adding Houston will give it another school in Texas to add to the 4 already there (well, 3 once Texas leaves). Cincinnati is a short trip from West Virginia, and although BYU's little more western from the bulk of the conference, it fits the conference in terms of being a midwestie kind of location. Like I said, other than adding a Florida destination, this isn't much of a geographic change for the conference.

[SuperHornet]

I'm old school. I want to see a return of the original Big VIII and the Southwest Conference. I'm sick of these mega conferences that exist only for the sake of money-making championship games, just like I'm sick of the P5 defining people out. Both had good, tight geography to minimize travel costs, but the SWC was in a slightly better position with nine teams to facilitate for an 8-game conference season with three OOC games. This is what I see as ideal leading to an FCS-style playoff where EVERY conference which chooses to participate gets an auto-bid with at-large bids on top of that, rather than the define-people-out mentality of the BC$/CFP that claims to be a playoff but really isn't....

SWC

Arkansas
Baylor
Houston
Rice
SMU
Texas
Texas A&M
TCU
Texas Tech

Big Eight

Colorado
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State

[UNI88]

Official invites for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida. This makes the Big XII look like the Sun Belch in geographic terms, IMO. Travel budgets will balloon.

Next on the clock: the American. More midwest/southeastern FCS move-ups? Steal from the MAC? Surely they wouldn't steal from the Sun Belch....

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/big-12-off ... 31354.html

I'm not sure a MAC school makes the jump. The AAC traditionally poaches from CUSA who poaches from the Sunbelt but I think G5 schools are realizing that slightly larger TV contracts don't always cover the lose of attendance and support from traditional rivalries and the additional travel costs for the Olympic sports.

[SuperHornet]

Official invites for BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and Central Florida. This makes the Big XII look like the Sun Belch in geographic terms, IMO. Travel budgets will balloon.

Next on the clock: the American. More midwest/southeastern FCS move-ups? Steal from the MAC? Surely they wouldn't steal from the Sun Belch....

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/big-12-off ... 31354.html

I'm not sure a MAC school makes the jump. The AAC traditionally poaches from CUSA who poaches from the Sunbelt but I think G5 schools are realizing that slightly larger TV contracts don't always cover the lose of attendance and support from traditional rivalries and the additional travel costs for the Olympic sports.

That's why I want to go back to traditional 9-team conferences that are geographically small....

[UNI88]

I'm not sure a MAC school makes the jump. The AAC traditionally poaches from CUSA who poaches from the Sunbelt but I think G5 schools are realizing that slightly larger TV contracts don't always cover the lose of attendance and support from traditional rivalries and the additional travel costs for the Olympic sports.

That's why I want to go back to traditional 9-team conferences that are geographically small....

9 teams works for football but isn't as good for the Olympic sports.

[SuperHornet]

That's why I want to go back to traditional 9-team conferences that are geographically small....

9 teams works for football but isn't as good for the Olympic sports.

So you find a tenth associate member for hoops and other sports like that for a travel partner. Just make sure that team is within the geographic footprint of the other nine....