Bob Bowlsby, Big 12 Commissioner, Comments on Potential Realignment Options

The Big 12 is a conference in crisis. It lacks the growing infrastructure of a conference-owned TV network thanks to Texas' Longhorn Network, and it's the only Power Five conference without a championship game.

Suggestions for how to fix the problem have been boundless. Coaches have called for the dissolution of the Longhorn Network while imploring the league to look at expansion. At a meeting Wednesday, it appears the brainstorming went further.    

"They looked at 14-team scenarios, they looked at a few 16-team scenarios," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com. "They looked at 12 teams, they looked at 10 teams, they looked at with a playoff, without a playoff. They looked at an eight-game schedule with a strong opponent, an eight-game schedule with a medium opponent. You name a scenario, they've looked at it."

Rittenberg came away thinking expansion is "likely" but couldn't give a timetable. The Big 12 has been mostly treading water since nearly dissolving a half-decade ago, when a last-ditch effort to keep Texas from joining the then-Pac-10 resulted in the Longhorn Network. According to some within the conference, though, that decision has left the Big 12 in a stasis. 

“If we don't eliminate the Longhorn Network and create our own network, they're going to continue to have issues with this league,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said, per Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports. “You don't have a Big 12 Network; you have a network within the league that people consider a failure.”

Right now, the Big 12 is stuck at 10 teams, which means it doesn't have a conference championship game. Twelve teams has long been the standard for a conference to have a title game, mostly because all teams within a 12-team conference do not play one another. SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 teams play eight-game conference schedules, with a weight toward a division.

While expansion may seem like the most plausible scenario, Texas is reportedly holding things up. Jason Williams of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported the Longhorns are working behind the scenes to prevent a supermajority of schools from voting for expansion.

The reasoning, once again, is based on the Longhorn Network—a revenue-generator for Texas that does nothing for its Big 12 compatriots. New members, the thought goes, may add even more pressure to Texas to give up the fledgling network. 

In essence: The one thing that saved the Big 12 earlier this century may be the one thing that leads to its destruction now.