The Big 12 is going to fight for its right to partay.
With the announcement Thursday that the Pac-12 Conference will not explore expansion in the near future, the fracturing Big 12 will throw its energy into looking at potential new members, Texas Tech AD Kirby Hocutt said.
The Texas Tech athletics director is part of a four-person expansion subcommittee tasked with leading the effort, which starts immediately.
“Right now, our complete focus is to make the Big 12 as strong as it can possibly be,” Hocutt said, “and I expect that Texas Tech will play a leadership role in that. We’re going to continue to be part of the Power Five structure in college athletics.”
You know they’re serious about it when they bring in the big gun.
Hocutt spoke hours later before a Red Raider Club kickoff event at which U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addressed Tech fans. A Tech contingent has been seeking redress from the state’s political leaders since Texas and Oklahoma threw the future of the Big 12 into disarray with decisions to leave for the Southeastern Conference by July 1, 2025.
… Speaking from the stage, Cruz told Red Raiders fans that Tech matters in West Texas, across the state and nationally. He said he was in Minneapolis two years ago, “cheering on Tech” in the championship game of the men’s NCAA Tournament.
“College football right now is in flux. This is an uncertain time,” Cruz said. “But I want to say something clearly and unequivocally: Texas Tech belongs in a Power Five conference.”
Yeah, that should do the trick. And if it doesn’t, there’s always whining.
Hocutt took thinly-veiled shots at the movers and shakers behind the latest realignment moves. He said that trust has been broken “and without trust, there’s very little relationships.”
“I’m not sure that we’ve ever seen so much distrust and just turbulence within college athletics as we’re seeing now,” he said, “and it’s really unfortunate, the lack of relationships and trust. I think we’ve got to really re-establish some foundational aspects of college athletics as we move forward because things are changing and they’re changing fast. It’s a different time, and it’s going to be different in the next five or 10 years.”
Like he wouldn’t be sprinting for the exits if a P5 conference wanted his school.
I don’t know about you, but I’m inspired.
Get The Picture 
Having spent a year in Lubbock one night, I don’t see TT being the catalyst for much of anything.
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Once upon a time, TT had a Coach TT who left under peculiar circumstances and surfaced in Cincinnati, saying that Lubbock was like Iraq.
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Born in Lubbock, USAF kid. Never been to Iraq, but from what my parents describe, its probably not far off.
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When did Bobby Knight surface at Cincinnati…
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There’s a lot of interest in the Big 12? Yeah, there’s a lot oh interest in Kmart too.
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Sir, this is a Wendy’s!
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There is a lot of interest in the BIG 12 (10) (8) conference. Interest just like a bunch of hyenas staring at a dead or dying animal figuring out which piece will they get.
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Hocutt is looking for trust and good relationships so he teams up with the most hated man (on both sides) in DC, Ted “Cancun” Cruz. He wouldn’t defend his own wife when Trump called her ugly dog face and you think he will have your back when the time comes? Let me know how that works out for you Bizarro Kirby!
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A reconstituted Big 12 is still just a Group of 5 conference because ESPN and Fox don’t care if they pick up UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and Memphis. They’re still going to find the value of their media rights sucks.
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I think we’re transitioning to the P4 now. I’d suggest the Big 12 scrape together what they’ve got and assemble a group of 16 schools, maybe even 20 – with the newer one’s coming from the batch you list. And perhaps some others that might make geographic & demographic sense. Colorado State seems appropriate.
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Nanci did a nice song of that name. https://youtu.be/6Y-WuxDj-94
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Wow. Texas politician supporting efforts by a Texas university to stay above water athletically. Shocking. Unheard of. This isnt really news is it? Who cares?
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Who cares? Who cares?
Cancun cares!
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I mean, they’re out of the “big boy” P5 but they’re not G5 either. Head and shoulders above that I’d say. In any given year there are individual teams in G5 conferences like Cincinnati (or past Boise/UCF type teams) who could be favored to win the leftover Big 12. But by and large those teams would be in a tier behind Oklahoma State, Kansas State, and Iowa State most years. Regardless, they ain’t sniffing the kind of contracts the rest of the P5 have next go round.
That being said, I do think their best course is to just add 2-4 competitively attractive teams. It might not be the SEC, but the leftover Big 12 plus some combination of Houston/BYU/Colorado St/Tulane, etc. would be damn good television and a conference whose better teams are not to be trifled with out of conference. Winning in that conference would be an accomplishment and the conference schedule strength would be head and shoulders above that of the usual “G5 contender.”
I hope they do it.
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Iowa St
Kansas
Kansas St
Baylor
TCU
TxTech
Ok St
West Va
Houston
Memphis
BYU/UCF
Cinci
Its no SEC but thats a fine conference IMO. (Especially for basketball) I know football moves the needle – but focusing on their remaining strength (Solid to exceptional basketball programs) could keep them relevant and in the “Power 5” fold.
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Exactly. Add in a 12 team playoff and they can remain relevant.
Personally, if you go four more and go east, I’d say App. State over UCF simply to give WV some sense of “regional” rivalry with App, Cincy, and kind of Memphis.
If the Big 12 really wanted to poke the SEC in the eye (specifically Alabama and Auburn), they could grant P5 status to UAB with an invite. Could do the same to LSU with Tulane.
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uhhh….not sure why the addition of piss-poor football programs would give either Bama or LSU any eye-problems, but whatevah…
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UAB isn’t piss poor.
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LSU loses their minds over Louisiana Lafayette calling themselves “Louisiana” and Bama had UAB’s program shuttered out of pure spite a few years back.
If the Big 12 invites UAB (not happening; that was a joke, to be clear) and/or Tulane (100% possible), those formerly G5 teams would suddenly have legitimate schools coming to town for games, the same shot at a 12 team playoff as any SEC champion, and the recruiting bump (however small compared to the power of LSU/Bama) to go with it.
They’d still be absolutely no match for LSU/Bama and it would have only a small effect on recruiting at the lowest levels of “signing day hole plugging.”
But if you think they’d just roll their eyes and laugh about it, you are very wrong. They’d shit. They’d enlist state legislatures to try to block it. Shady behind the scenes things will happen. It would be a fiasco.
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UAB is the Georgia State of Alabama, a wannabe FBS crash dummy. Like Georgia State with respect to UGA, UAB will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER reach parity with Alabama or Auburn.
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You think?
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Agreed.
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What’s this “Distrust” Mr. Hocutt speaks of? It can’t be any of the stuff that goes on behind the CFP Committee curtain that he chaired & served, now can it?
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Not that it would ever happen but restoring the Big8+4 with Colorado and Nebraska would be fun from a fan’s perspective.
Nebraska needs Texas talent to win and they’re not getting it in the Big10. They’ll ride the paycheck to join Minnesota in being a terrible program.
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Quick! UAB is on line 1
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UAB is like the tree that falls in the forest. No one sees them, hears about them, or cares very much about the result.
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Ask Bear Bryant junior if Bama doesn’t care about UAB.
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Ask Alabama taxpayers if they really want their tax dollars to subsidize a FBS football program at UAB.
Watching schools like UAB and UNC-Charlotte and Florida Atlantic throw money at football programs while basic public services go underfunded is maddening to me.
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Yeah that’s the kind of bull shit they’ll spew if somehow UAB gets a bid.
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Satellite universities do not have an existential right to a FBS football team. No one’s going to UAB to watch Blazer Football. No one’s going to Georgia State for that football program. No one goes to UNC-Charlotte because they dropped 50 million on a cute little football stadium.
At the bottom end of FBS, it’s a pointless waste of money for FCS schools trying to step up in class.
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Go all in, BigXII. Go to 16. BYU, UH, SMU, UCF, Cincy, Memphis, Boise St., and USF or San Diego State. Grab everyone who is investing in football, who has some tradition, and who will make your league fun.
If that crashes and burns? At least you went down swinging.
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Adding UCF, USF, Memphis and Cincy would be a solid day at the office. But they will be pressured to rescue smu and Houston.
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This thought experiment would be easier without WV involved but their location complicates things. I’d rather say go get a bunch of strictly western schools and Memphis.
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Is this like the pimple covered nerd in H.S. asking the Homecoming Queen to the prom.
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The PAC10, by doing nothing, has the most to lose. It’s clear, that now is the time to make as much of a power move as you are capable. Evolve or die.
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I have no connection with the Big 12 or any of its schools but what I’m not understanding is why Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC is causing so many people to hate on that conference like they are. It’s like dancing on someone’s grave. I just don’t get it
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B12 has been a major source of “SEC is overrated” sniping over the years by coaches and whatnot. Losing the 2 schools that made them viable as a conference to the SEC? Schadenfreude.
I feel bad for Iowa State and K-State, but the B12? Nah
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7 days, Bitches.
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Texas Tech belongs in a Power Five conference.
He said that shit out loud. LMAO
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