Could Big Ten Expansion Impact the Big 12?

Reports are swirling that the Big Ten is looking to expand with Texas, Missouri, and Iowa State of the Big 12 and a few Big East teams all having been mentioned. But will the Big Ten’s decision to expand to 12 teams effect the Big 12?

With recent rumors pointing at Connecticut becoming the next member of the Big Ten it seems the Big 12 is “safe” from the Big Ten stealing one of their members. However, Colin Cowherd mentioned this topic on The Herd today and mentioned the fact that the Pac 10 may then react with expansion of their own.

Cowherd’s contacts tell him that Utah is one of the two teams they are targeting for Pac 10 expansion and Colorado, a current member of the Big 12, is the other stating that Colorado fits the West Coast, laid-back lifestyle of most Pac 10 schools.

So what does the possibility of losing Colorado mean to the Big 12? Two obvious candidates would be Houston and TCU, both being schools that are dedicated to athletic success and right in the Big 12’s backyard.

Boise State’s football program would be attractive, but their location seems to be too far out of the Big 12’s main geographic area. BYU would also seem to make sense but they, like Boise State, are a bit out of the Big 12’s area.

The Big 12 could cherry pick a Conference USA school and it seems likely that the Big East, should they lose more than one or two schools in all of the shuffling, could also be looking at C-USA schools including East Carolina, Southern Miss and more.

At the end of the day, the Big 12 Conference needs to be ready to act and react should they lose a member to the Big Ten, Pac-10 or elsewhere, and there’s no doubt that if the Big 12 is forced to act that they will continue the chain reaction effect that we saw years ago with conference realignment.