Yes, I am blogging about college football again. What? You want me to write about baseball and the trouble I have staying awake past the 3rd inning. I'd rather state that the players of the Lingerie Football League are better players than those in the NFL. So anyways, I have brainstormed a plan to improve the Big 12 and possibly to expand it to 14 or 16 teams.
1) Eliminate Missouri. Yes, I know that Missouri has the markets of St. Louis and Kansas City. But let's get real here. Missouri is making goo goo eyes at every conference not named the Big 12. So if they want to go so bad, let them go. Let them be a third tier team in the SEC, let them become another Indiana in the Big 10. Just let them go and do their own thing.
And the next steps are if we keep only 12 teams in the Big 12.
2) Eliminate Iowa State from the conference. In this makeup of the Big 12, Iowa State is out on an island. Why do we need to have our teams going into Iowa where more than ever, the Big 12 doesn't matter much. The King of the Big 12 North, Nebraska is now in the Big 10 and their following throughout Iowa is now looking at the Big 10 and the Big 10 alone. The cyclones are irrelevant and the fan base isn't one that makes anybody envious. So cut them loose so they can join C-USA or the Big East. Either way, that problem is out of the Big 12's hair.
3) Keep the split of the conference North and South. Only the dividing line is the Texas-Oklahoma border. You add 5 new teams to the conference which shouldn't be too hard since you still have an automatic qualifier in the BCS. So here are the new divisions:
NORTH:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State
Tulsa (C-USA)
Colorado State (MWC)
SOUTH:
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU (Big East)
Houston (C-USA)
SMU (C-USA)
And I can already hear the naysayers whining that you have a watered down conference. Well, for all you brains out there, I understand but there is nothing that you can do about that in the near future. Who do you go get that will cause your jaw to drop? Louisville? Why would you want that island in the middle of SEC country? To remind yourself that the SEC can come and poach from your conference any time it wants? I would give you Air Force over Colorado State, but the service academies are tough to have in a conference. BYU? Why would they say no to the PAC-12 and say yes to the Big 12?
In this case, you have eliminated the distance between schools and might be able to start building the fan base slowly back to where the Big 12 thinks it should be. You get Texas schools once again back together and battling each other. You have Oklahoma and Kansas still paying attention to your conference and you bring those old school Big 8/12 people in Colorado back hopefully by having the Rams in the league. You start with the goals in the 80's were for conferences. Get the people around the towns and cities that you play in to take notice of the rivalries that spring up between schools that are a short distance away from each other.
If we decide to go to 14 or 16 teams:
2) Keep Iowa State in the Big 12. It is a long shot, but maybe try and keep the fans that populate the I-35 cooridor between Kansas City and Ames, IA Big 16 fans by trying to build a rivalry between Kansas or Kansas State and Iowa State. Even though it is an island in a sea of the Big 10, maybe if the Cyclones can start a winning tradition, they can expand the fan base which in turn will bring more fans to the Big 16.
3) Keep the same split from above. The Border between North and South is the Texas-Oklahoma State line. And now we have 3 more teams that the conference brings in.
NORTH:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Tulsa (C-USA)
Colorado State (MWC)
Air Force (MWC)
SOUTH:
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
SMU (C-USA)
TCU (Big East)
Houston (C-USA)
UTEP (C-USA)
Rice (C-USA)
In the North, the only school that doesn't have a natural rival is Iowa State. The South is just one big grudge match. The good thing and the bad thing is that you are starting to run out of teams that would be halfway good fits in this conference. In the North, about the only one goegraphically that might interest you is Wyoming. In the South, the 2 New Mexico schools aren't appealing for any conference. Tulane might be an option, but there isn't anything else close.
With the news out there that the Big 12 is going to share the Teir 1 and Tier 2 revenues equally, the also rans in the conference will be able to improve their facilities and hopefully their teams. I also hope that the Big 12 looks at the conference buyouts that schools have around the country and adopt some of those same standards for schools that are thinking about leaving after a short while. Getting $20 Million for your conference if a team leaves won't solve all the problems, but it will help in the short run. Also, if you look at the spread here in this scenario, you will have some of New Mexico watching because of UTEP. The Des Moines-Ames market is still there. Each member of the South Division has a natural rival. And if you can parlay those rivalries all over this conference up into the national spotlight, the conference will appear stronger within a few short years.
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