Big 12 Expansion: Dwindling Conference Has Little Time to Pick Up the Pieces

The Big 12 was on the brink of extinction, but after the Pac-12 decided to stay as is, it opened the door for the Big 12 to add more teams. However, the conference has to move quickly, or else they could lose another team.  

All of the conference realignment craziness could have been avoided if the Big 12 did the smart thing a year ago and immediately found replacements for Nebraska and Colorado. 

However, they were too fixated on what to do with Texas and the Longhorn Network, which didn't make a few teams happy. 

You know the rest: Texas A&M is set to leave for the SEC, and the Big 12 was about to have the plug pulled. 

According to ESPN, Dan Beebe and the Big 12 have reached a "mutual agreement" for Beebe to step down as commissioner.

The remaining Big 12 presidents have acted quickly in stating that they wish to remain together and have the revenue of their TV deals distributed equally, but now they must focus on finding at least a 10th member for their division. 

That is, if Missouri doesn't decide to leave. The Tigers have denied that they were going to join the SEC, so for now we'll view them as a Big 12 member. 

Anything is possible, however, and you never really know what all these teams are thinking. So much is up in the air right now, which is exactly why the Big 12 cannot wait much longer to add teams. 

According to the Desert News, the BYU Cougars are the top choice to join the Big 12, which would be smart for BYU, but not very beneficial for the Big 12. 

Maybe being in a bigger conference will help BYU thrive, but it will be years before they can hang with the big boys of the conference. 

Nevertheless, the Big 12 needs new members, and, besides BYU, they're looking at Air Force, Louisville, West Virginia, Houston, TCU and SMU.

These aren't ideal schools, but a lot of change is taking place and sacrifices have to be made.

BYU, TCU and West Virginia would be the best three to add, but there's no guarantee they will get any of them.

BYU and TCU should join if offered, but West Virginia is being coveted by a number of conferences, and I doubt they'd want to join the Big 12.  

If they wanted to, the Big 12 could easily get back to 12 teams, but obviously they wouldn't be as strong as they once were. 

The blame for that falls on the conference, which is one of the reasons Beebe is out. Luckily for them, the conference is still alive and capable of saving itself from collapsing.

The Big 12 must act fast before any of their nine current schools decides to leave, which would result in a huge blow to their restructuring process.

In the end, the conference will more than likely add just one team for now, in order to stay at 10. They can manage that style of play for a year or two and then expand further, once the dust has settled.