After losing a premiere football program in Texas A&M to the SEC this past season, not to mention a former conference powerhouse in Nebraska just two years ago, the Big 12 was hemorrhaging some of its signature universities. Texas, OU, OSU, and Texas Tech were all looking west towards the Pac-12 and the entire league was on the brink of extinction.
Then, Dan Beebe was let go and replaced by a new conference commissioner in Chuck Neinas. The Big 12 reeled in TCU to replace A&M to jump back to ten teams while the Oklahoma schools were kept at bay from leaving for the west coast. Everything was turning back around in one giant swing of momentum.
With the addition of West Virginia by at least 2014, the conference is looking to return to its namesake in a dazzling fashion worthy of a Hollywood drama. However, does the Big 12 just want to stick to what they used to be back when Nebraska, Colorado, and A&M decided things weren’t working out?
Would they rather become a signature conference comparable to the SEC? Getting up to 14 universities would seemingly be a reach at this point, but with the Big East barely hanging on, the ACC and the SEC expanding, and a dangerous Pac-12 breathing down their necks, is it unfathomable for the Big 12 to desire a more stable environment behind a larger pool of teams? Would 16 even be an option?
There are a ton of programs out there open to gaining some solid footing in a BCS-AQ conference. We take a look at the top seven places for the Big 12 to look and how likely it would be that they land any of them sometime in the near future.