I speculated in an earlier post that Cincinnati may be atop of the leaderboard, not because they are the most wanted, but rather because they may have the least opposition. But in this post I'll argue that strategically a move west may make more sense despite probably opposition by West Virginia.
We are all familiar with Texas interest in the PAC-10 during the Big 12 expansion crisis of 2010. But what I didn't know about was that prior to the formation of the Big 12, there were flirtations between the PAC-10 and Texas. Sometimes history can tell us a little about what may happen in the future. Texas likes the academic status of the PAC-12. If the SEC had a high academic stature, Texas would probably have joined years ago.
I can argue that there remains a mutual attraction between Texas and the PAC-12. What might be the best strategy for the Big 12 is to try to work toward a merger or acquisition of PAC-12 before Texas decides to bolt on it's own. If there are no willing PAC-12 schools today, maybe a strategic move would be to establish a western presence. BYU being the obvious first choice. The issue would be finding a second school that checks all the boxes including academics. Eliminating western group of five schools because of academics reduces the list of candidates to Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. I may be forgetting a potential candidate, so please add them to the list. I left Boise State out intentionally and did not tap into Montana, Nevada or the rest of Idaho to find a hidden gem.
I don't know that anyone other than BYU does anything for the networks. I'm also not sure any combination of those candidates would help attract a PAC-12 defector.
I also wonder about the academic standards the PAC-12 is trying to maintain. In the 2010 expansion attempt, there were some very questionable schools in the mix. And Iowa State wasn't one of them. If academics were so important to them, why wouldn't the list have been Texas, Kansas and Iowa State?
Admittedly my argument for westward expansion isn't very strong, but I think it is worth thinking about from a strategic point of view for long term stability as long as Texas has wandering eyes.
We are all familiar with Texas interest in the PAC-10 during the Big 12 expansion crisis of 2010. But what I didn't know about was that prior to the formation of the Big 12, there were flirtations between the PAC-10 and Texas. Sometimes history can tell us a little about what may happen in the future. Texas likes the academic status of the PAC-12. If the SEC had a high academic stature, Texas would probably have joined years ago.
I can argue that there remains a mutual attraction between Texas and the PAC-12. What might be the best strategy for the Big 12 is to try to work toward a merger or acquisition of PAC-12 before Texas decides to bolt on it's own. If there are no willing PAC-12 schools today, maybe a strategic move would be to establish a western presence. BYU being the obvious first choice. The issue would be finding a second school that checks all the boxes including academics. Eliminating western group of five schools because of academics reduces the list of candidates to Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. I may be forgetting a potential candidate, so please add them to the list. I left Boise State out intentionally and did not tap into Montana, Nevada or the rest of Idaho to find a hidden gem.
I don't know that anyone other than BYU does anything for the networks. I'm also not sure any combination of those candidates would help attract a PAC-12 defector.
I also wonder about the academic standards the PAC-12 is trying to maintain. In the 2010 expansion attempt, there were some very questionable schools in the mix. And Iowa State wasn't one of them. If academics were so important to them, why wouldn't the list have been Texas, Kansas and Iowa State?
Admittedly my argument for westward expansion isn't very strong, but I think it is worth thinking about from a strategic point of view for long term stability as long as Texas has wandering eyes.
