As you all may have heard Oklahoma and Texas will be leaving the ten-team Big 12 for the SEC which pretty much leaves the Big 12 with eight teams. It was originally thought that the league would just fold and the remaining teams would have to scrounge to get in a conference. But there has become a widely growing possibility that the eight remaining teams could join the American Athletic Conference.
If not all eight, then at least five, and those would be Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas Tech, Iowa State, and Kansas State as the possibilities. The Big 12 is obviously worried that this is a possibility as they have sent a cease and desist order to ESPN to stop them from trying to push their agenda. As we know ESPN holds the media rights to the AAC as well as the Big 12.
Why It Works
Here’s why it will work! Logistically, the AAC already has a firm geographical footprint in schools such as SMU, Houston, Tulsa, and Tulane in football, as well as Wichita State in basketball.
So setting up schedules will be easy. In addition, this will also give Texas Tech and Baylor, in addition to SMU and Houston, bigger footprints in the state of Texas for recruiting. It will make those five teams perennial contenders for the league title, and it will also give the AAC the “power” in effectively replacing the old Big 12 as the fifth Power Conference.
What Needs To Happen
As we all know money rules in college football. And with the potential of the AAC bringing in five of those Big 12 teams, it would help but if they can somehow get all eight the AAC would be on par with, at least the PAC-12 in terms of talent and money. TCU and Oklahoma State would definitely be the bell ringers for the conference with UCF, Cincinnati, and Memphis being right there with them. This is an interesting turn of events and if it gets done it will be what the conference has been looking for since its inception that they would and can be a Power Conference.