Big 12 Expansion: Adding Old SWC Teams Would Harm Future Viability

The Big 12 has been one of the major victims of the recent conference reshuffling.  The conference has lost three of the original Big 8 programs in Colorado, Nebraska, and Missouri, and long-time University of Texas rival Texas A&M. 

The conference, however, has been able to cheat death by adding West Virginia and TCU.  That currently places (as the conference is currently) at 10 teams.  There are some pundits and fans that wish to return the Big 12 to twelve teams.  Some people believe that the conference should expand to include another Texas based institution.  This opinion is probably rooted in many fans nostalgia for the old Southwest Conference. 

If the conference should expand back to 12 teams, they should not expand to include those old SWC teams like SMU or Houston. 

The first reason why the conference should not include any more Texas teams is because it would limit the size of the Big 12’s TV audience.  This opinion stems from the death throes of the SWC.  The SWC during the 1990’s consisted solely of Texas schools.  As a result the conference was unable to secure a long term and most importantly lucrative TV contract. 

In an act of desperation the SWC wanted to merge with the Big 8 in order to increase their television footprint.  The Big 8 declined the proposal and waited for the conference to dissolve and invite four institutions from the SWC. 

The point is that by increasing the amount of Texas schools it would isolate the conference further and the odds of getting another TV deal would be greatly diminished because of the concentration of Texas based schools.  The Big 12 already has a stranglehold on the Texas market and increasing to include schools like SMU or Houston would not enhance the national brand of the Big 12, in fact it would make the Big 12 a much more regional conference. 

Another reason is that the conference would potentially mess up the scheduling of the most important rivalry the conference currently has, The Red River Shoot Out.  In a scenario where both SMU and Houston are brought into the league it would force Oklahoma State and the University of Oklahoma to be in the north division of the conference.  

That may sound ludicrous to some observers, but that in fact did happen to one of the most storied rivalries in college football, OU-Nebraska.  When OU and OSU were placed into the south division with the old SWC schools it caused scheduling of the rivalry to be near impossible.  The end of that rivalry could in fact be one of the main causes of the defection of Nebraska to the Big 10 because they no longer had a major rival in their schedule and in their view became alienated from the conference.  The Red River Rivalry is one of the potential reasons why OU has in fact stayed in the conference after threats of leaving to the Pac-12 surfaced earlier this year. 

In the end, the SWC does not exist anymore.  Many of those fantastic rivalries in the conference are now in the annals of collage football lore.  The Big 12 has the opportunity, if it can survive (which I think it can) to forge its own traditions that can set it apart from any other conference. 

Hopefully the Big 12 will decide not to take the easy route and add more Texas schools in an already Texas-dominated conference.  If anything the conference should remain at 10 teams to help foster new rivalries in the conference.  Imagine a Kansas State-West Virginia rivalry developing or a Oklahoma State-TCU rivalry.  By sticking to 10 teams every team will play each other and that can in a way foster greater conference unity.