Big 12 Expansion: Schools the Conference Should Look to Add

With the talk that the Florida State Seminoles are unhappy with the current deal between the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN/ABC (h/t Gene Williams of Warchant.com), the possibility that the school could move to the Big 12 in yet another major expansion is growing in likelihood.

The sport of college football has been moving towards four mega-conferences—Pac-12, Big 12, SEC and Big Ten—and the possible move of Florida State and another school would continue down that path.

As Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports says, we’re almost there already.

With all of the talk surrounding another college football conference expansion, the questions about who the Big 12 would recruit to fill the two new positions have come to the forefront of the conversations.

Florida State Seminoles

With the rumors flying about the possible expansion of the Big 12 and the now vocal dissatisfaction of the Seminoles in the ACC, the first university likely to jump to one of the biggest conferences in college football would be Florida State.

The Seminoles have a huge hold on the state of Florida—splitting recruits with the Gators and few others—and the Big 12 would be smart to include a school with the lineage and geographical impact of Florida State.

If the ACC can’t talk Florida State out of possibly leaving, the conference will lose one of the most dominant schools under their name. With mega-conferences posturing for expansion at an alarming rate, the ACC losing the Seminoles would be the death knell of the conference.

Virginia Tech Hokies

As Dodd recommends in his piece, if the Big 12 were to expand and look for another school to join alongside the Florida State Seminoles, it should be the Virginia Tech Hokies.

With four conference titles in the last eight years, as great as the acquisition of Florida State would be for the Big 12, stealing the Hokies from the ACC would be a devastating blow that it would not recover from.

Virginia Tech would fit right into the offense-first mentality of the Big 12, and the school would have a chance to showcase their talent against some of the best teams in the nation.

While staying with the ACC is a profitable option, joining forces with the Big 12 now would likely yield more for the school over the long haul.

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