Bob Bowlsby’s gotta plan, man.
Supposedly things are moving fast enough that he’s already met with Houston. And, yes, it’s impossible to ignore the irony of a league whining about being raided turning right around to do the same thing to shore up itself.
The $64000 question, of course, is will that do the trick. Color me skeptical. The Big 12 is losing Sagarin’s number two and number ten rated teams and attempting to replace them with numbers 23, 34, 65 and 95. How much does Bowlsby figure that’s gonna impress the selection committee?
To put it another way, Bob Bowlsby may not be saying it out loud at the moment, but he’s firmly on the 12-team playoff train.
Get The Picture 
Yep, this was that other shoe that needed to drop…now the Big12 and Pac12 desperately need the cfp to expand to be somewhat relevant…since they didn’t merge
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As long as his conference champion is top 6, the Big 12 will get a playoff spot. The value of the new Big 12 media rights is a totally different question. From looking at last year’s bracket, it would a hell of a good basketball conference.
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That didn’t help the Big East.
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Very true, but the Big East was always shaky as a football league. A number of the big basketball brands didn’t play football at the FBS level.
My point is that under the 12-team proposal, a reconstituted Big 12 champion is likely going to be a top 6 conference champion or in a scenario where they change the conference champions to the top 5, likely to be the highest Gof5.
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Interesting of him to assume his current schools aren’t seeking membership elsewhere…
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Big 12 shit on UH for years. Now rolling out red carpet. Amazing
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What are his other options, though? Seems to me he’s recognizing that the conference’s very survival depends on doing exactly this.
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This is the AAC all over again.
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In a good way. I see this as a very wide-open conference that should be fun to watch. I bet Patterson sticks around and becomes a “good” coach again.
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Question is whether adding teams keeps them a P5 conference, or solidifies the new P4.
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WCD, the question on Power 5 comes down to money. All of that depends on the value of media rights if these schools join the conference. A really big question is whether the conference will allow for BYU’s requirement of not playing games on Sundays.
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Without those marketable institutions that conference TV contract won’t put them where they ultimately want/need to go…oh, and that cfp expansion doesn’t solidify their weak sister position…
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I would bet that there is no way that BYU would be even discussing this if their honor code requirement of not playing on Sundays was even brought up by Bowlsby. Considering that the NCAA was going to move games around in the Sweet 16 this year if BYU advanced, I am guessing that any discussion of playing on Sundays in any sport is a non-starter. I don’t have a subscription to TA so I can’t read the article, but I would be interested in knowing if this was for all sports or just football and basketball.
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Good point. The West Coast Conference has been able to make allowances for BYU. It seems based on some articles I looked at the Big 12 may as well. It sounds like BYU is interested in being a part of the league for more than football.
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That is exactly where my mind went — my guess is right now they are closer to being a top G5 conference than a P5 conference. My guess is they evaluated what they could do to retain the P5 status and this is their long shot play.
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My thoughts wxactly
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Question: does the Big 12 remain a P5 conference after this? If so, why?
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and ut and ou come are on the sec schedule and family next year.
SEC = B.A.M.F. (same as Jules Winnfield’s wallet initials)
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If it’s all about TV markets, maybe we should go after Houston, SMU, or UCF. Those markets are certainly bigger than Starkville, Fayetteville, and either Columbia.
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The last 4 you mentioned are state universities, they carry way more eyeballs than their metro area. Plus they are in the SEC so everyone wants to watch.
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If UCF joins the travel would be a major problem. Every away game is a plane flight, and a long one. Makes about as much sense as WVU. Will be interesting to Gus freeze his butt off in November.
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He’s literally all over the map. But those are decent teams in markets with enormous volumes of “eyeball” share to gain.
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Way to be bold Bobby. I’d call Disney and ask for help in bringing Nebraska and Colorado back. At least grab SMU with Houston to wrap up Texas.
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If I was Big 12 I’d go after Boise over Houston….
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