The Big 12 is staying at 10 teams for now

Tonight, a report coming out of ESPN states that the Big 12 conference has not reached consensus on adding more teams. Apparently they interviewed Air Force, Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Colorado State, the University of Connecticut, Houston, Rice, South Florida, Southern Methodist and Tulane.

I’ll let ESPN take it from here:

But Monday, after the Big 12 presidents and chancellors deliberated for more than five hours at the Grand Hyatt, no expansion candidate generated a supermajority, or the eight votes, necessary to garner an invitation. The process never resulted in a formal vote being taken on any individual expansion candidate, another source told ESPN.

On July 20, the Big 12 voted unanimously to explore expansion. Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said then that the Big 12 would be looking "for members that will grow over time as we grow -- [schools] that bring stability, that have a high top end."

ROFLCOPTERS.

Who wants to join a conference without a good conference-wide TV deal and be subservient to Texas?

Nothing against the University of Texas, it’s a fine school, but admit it Longhorn fans, you’ve got your conference mates over the barrel with the Longhorn Network.

Here’s my quick half-assed HOT SPROTS TAKE on the each school that was discussed.

Air Force Academy: The Colorado Springs market brings no TV markets. However, a flyover in what, F22 Raptors in games is really cool.

Brigham Young University: I’m not to familiar with this school, besides LaVelle Edwards beating Michigan for a national championship in the 80s and Jim McMahon’s favorite moment of school was “leaving”. Can they play games on Sundays? They’d probably bring (maybe) lot of TV sets given the size of the Mormon population in the US.

University of Cincinnati: this makes a lot of sense, and I think it's a backhanded way for a Texas conference to mine Ohio for recruits

University of Central Florida: The West Virginia Mountaineers would get a travel partner (kind of) and it would be an inroad into fertile Florida recruiting.

Colorado State University: (I think a) lack of TVs is a nonstarter. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong in the comments.

The University of Connecticut: Our expert on UConn is the illustrious ZuzuRU, and I’ll let her take it away (in a Slack chat from earlier today) before I chime in:

I am getting sweet sweet warm and fuzzies thinking about how angry UConn fans are right now

UConn, you’re not New York City’s college team, that’s Rutgers.

Shaddup Syracuse, no one likes you.

Your campus is in Storrs, and I think I’ve heard it described as a shithole in the woods. Also, your best football export is what, Randy Edsall? /notimpressed.gif

Houston/Rice/Southern Methodist: Seriously, why don’t we get the old Southwest Conference back together?

Houston is doing very well with Tom Herman, Rice is sucking, and correct me if I’m wrong, but SMU is still not fully recovered from the death penalty. I’m not impressed.

Houston is the best out of this lot (Good luck keeping Tom Herman). I’m curious to know how each school voted on these three Texas schools.

University of South Florida: Ooh, more Florida recruits to raid! Then again, do people really care about this football team anyway? Aren’t the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a bigger deal in that town? What do I know, I write football for OTE.

Tulane University: I actually like this school because they’d compete for recruits against LSU and New Orleans would be an amazing road trip. I gotta get down there for Mardi Gras.