Texas A&M SEC Expansion: What This Means for Rest of Big 12 Conference

News of Texas A&M's official acceptance into the SEC has spread quickly, and the rest of college football is bracing itself for what may come next.

The Big 12 conference, which will shrink from 12 to nine members effectively over the span of about one year, should reserve the most consternation over conference realignment. If the Big 12 loses another member before it is able to bring in additional ones, that could very well dissolve what is left of what was one of the more powerful conferences in the country in the past decade.

Although the breadwinners of the conference have been Texas and Oklahoma for some time, the disparity between the two giants and the rest of the field is woeful. Plucking a marginal school from the conference would undoubtedly force the Longhorns and the Sooners to look under every rock for options.

This means that the stability of the Big 12 is as unstable as ever.

Although the SEC has given no official invitation to Missouri, many believe a move for the Tigers is imminent. The SEC has also said that it does not wish to be the reason for the collapse of the Big 12.

However, should Missouri end up with that coveted SEC invite, it will no doubt signal the end of the Big 12 conference as we know it.

Big 12 Break-up

For Texas and Oklahoma, the options would be virtually endless if the Big 12 were to dissolve. Luckily for Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, they could very well be attached at the hip to their proverbial big brothers.

The Pac-12 has already flirted with the idea of securing those four schools in a move that would redefine college athletics, transforming the conference into the country's first super conference housing 16 universities ranging from Washington down to Texas and virtually everyone significant in between.

That would leave Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Baylor and Missouri—theoretically—without a conference to call home. 

The Glue Guy

There will be, and should be, an effort to keep the Big 12 together, for schools breaking off in every which direction would wreak havoc on travel costs and concerns for the student-athletes, their families and coaches.

Consider the Big 12 broken, but not beyond repair. A couple of fixes, not necessarily quick, could re-stabilize and perhaps even strengthen the presence of the conference on a national scale, but its a situation that would require a dubious amount of time and more than a fair share of cooperation from every party.

Finding that glue guy, that one school that could bring the Big 12 back to respectable status, would be a short-term fix to re-calibrate the conference back to a 10-team division. Ultimately, it seems to be in the best interest of the Big 12 to revert back to a 12-team conference, competing for prestige against the Pac-12 and the SEC.

BYU and Notre Dame would be ideal candidates for that short-term fix to bring an ounce of stability back to the Big 12, but neither seem to want to budge from their independent status.

Domino Effect

Should the Big 12 become defunct, the four aforementioned institutions indeed go west—which is only one of a number of viable scenarios—and the Pac-12 does become the Pac-16, we could see a situation where the Big Ten, the SEC and the ACC scrambling to court schools to avoid being left in the dust of the complete transformation of college sports.

The Big 12 and Big East would become farms for the harvesting pleasure of the other, more stable conferences.

Once one conference makes a big move, others will follow.

At the end of the day...

The Big 12 is in trouble.

The longer the conference remains in a nine-team setup, the shorter the lifespan of the division. It is a sticky situation, mostly for the footnotes of the Big 12: Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Iowa State. Assuming Missouri indeed picks up for the SEC, the Jayhawks and Wildcats could easily look at the Big East, given their reputation as solid basketball schools. Meanwhile, the Bears and Cyclones could be on their way to non-BCS conferences, an absolute shot in the back.

Texas and Oklahoma will always have a place in any conference that would have them. Oklahoma State and Texas Tech likely will tag along for the ride.

If the Big 12 is to stay together in the long-term, there needs to be at least one school willing to sacrifice that short-term instability for the prospects of long-term profitability.

Stay tuned.