Big 12 wraps up league meetings as expansion rumors swirl

The Big 12 Conference has wrapped up its league meetings at the plush Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, with commissioner Brett Yormark admitting on Friday that the conference has a plan with potential league expansion, with numerous reports indicating discussions about the topic occurred amongst league members.

A once floundering league that has already seen the departure of Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M, and Missouri in the 2010’s, with the departures of Texas and Oklahoma coming in 2024, the Big 12 suddenly seems ready to pounce into football relevance, while keeping the potential of branding itself as the top college basketball conference in America.

On July 1st of this year, the Big 12 will balloon to 14 institutions, as Central Florida will join Cincinnati, Houston, and Brigham Young University in jumping into the conference.  

While Yormark stopped short of naming specific schools during a media videoconference, the Big 12 is believed to be ‘kicking the tires’ on the possibility of adding national power Gonzaga University of Spokane, Washington as a “basketball-only” addition.  Other schools believed to be discussed are the University of Memphis and the University of Connecticut.  Another school receiving some amount of interest from both the Pac-12 and Big 12 about expansion is San Diego State University, which, if added to the Big 12 along with UConn, would give Yormark his goal of a “coast-to-coast” makeup.

Perhaps the most intriguing possibility of Big 12 expansion involves the University of Colorado.  One of the four schools to leave in the early 2010’s, CU’s time in the Pac-12 may be running short, with the Buffaloes brass concerned about a conference about to be severely weakened by the 2024 departure of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten.  Colorado would get the Big 12 back into the lucrative Denver television market, and the Buffaloes football program will certainly be getting eyeballs in 2023, with Deion Sanders bringing instant excitement into Boulder.  CBS Sports is reporting that “substantive” talks have been occurring between CU and the Big 12.