Big 12 Expansion: It's Down to BYU, Houston, and Cincinnati

Get ready for the summer of expansion. If it did anything, last week’s Big 12 meetings only further defined what it would take for the Big 12 presidents to authorize expansion, and the criteria seems to paint a path for a few schools

UH makes sense from a competitive standpoint on the field and the attendance woes should be easily dispatched given the attendance of 2015, the Peach Bowl and 2016 tickets sold.

Rivalries and proximity for the majority of the current Big XII for olympic sports should also be a plus for UH.

Basketball is a pretty big minus, but the new training facility is somewhat of a positive. UH needs CKS and his program to bring it in 2016, and work on getting more students to the games.

If chosen, UH should be ready to make some concessions regarding revenue and promises of rebuilding Hofheinz and building a brand new indoor football practice facility … IMO anyway.

Go COOGS!

Big XII would help whatever shortcomings we may or may not have. I’m not sure how long that conference will be around

They wonder how low we would accept as an introductory rate…the gap is so extreme, a lowball to them is still a big raise for us, and we’ve proven we can compete already. The dog circling the bed before lying down routine is getting old, just extend the invite already.

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I would expect a five year “buy in” of reduced but increasing tv income and having to play UT and OU at NRG until we expand TDECU to an agreed upon capacity of 50-60,000 fans.

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Haven’t they already made those promises for Hofheinz & indoor football practice facility?

Why 60K ??

TCU and Baylor do not have 60K stadiums.

I suspect we expand to 45K initially at a relatively low cost and see how it goes. If necessary, we expand to 60K (much more costly) after we get into the bigger money !!!

Some other things to consider …

IF IN FACT there are other P5s interested in UH … ACC SEC or Pac12 (B1G was wishful thinking considering their AAU guidelines) …

Then as a tradition at weddings … if anyone has any objections OR A BETTER OFFER like a better buy in or no buy in at all … THEN …

Come forward and counter the Big12 before it is too late and we will know for certain if Yurachek’s other open options were for real or just smoke and mirrors.

OU and UT don’t make the Frogs play them at Jerry World. I think it would be unreasonable for them to ask us to play our home games against them in NRG if we expand TDECU to 45k.

Uhhh … I also don’t see that likely … especially if BYU won’t be asked to play away from Provo or Cincy away from Nippert and Paul Brown Stadium instead.

I’ve done some personally calculated metrics that some may recall I posted a couple of months ago. I came to the conclusion mathematically that UH and BYU were the 2 best candidates overall by a clear margin. Cincy was 3rd. The only other remotely viable candidates were UCF and USF due to market size but that is obviously dead now that The Big12N is off the table. UH now becomes even more attractive in the event of a Big 12 expansion. I’m personally for UH and BYU. We can both bring multiple “high level” games to the Big 12. UH and BYU both have great football tradition as well - I think they are easy sells to the public that Big 12 quality is not being diluted by expansion. BYUtv is now not a problem since no Big12N until LHN over. I think a 20-40-60-80-100 buy-in over 5 years is fair. I also think playing UT and OU at NRG is fair until we expand to 50K- beggars can’t be choosers. No UT-Houston under any circumstance. Contrary to what I’ve been hearing about out of state schools not wanting us, I think that’s BS. We will be put in the North IMO - the North schools would love to play in Houston every other year.

North- BYU, UH, WVU, KU, KSU, Iowa State
South- UT, tech, Baylor, TCU, OU, OSU.

South would think championship game would be formality and the extra data point of championship game would give them (mainly OU and UT) a better shot at the playoffs.

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Would you mind posting those calculations if you have them readily available? If not don’t worry about it, just curious.

I still think if were invited to the Big12 we could expand the stadium to 45k at least before we even start playing in the Big12. If they play Baylor and TCU in their 45k stadiums then we should be able to too. Although, if that was for some reason a deal breaker I wouldn’t mind conceding, as much as it would suck.

With the average Big 12 bb attendance hovering around 10,000 I would think UH would want to revisit its plans for an 8000 seat arena. It’s just too damn small.

The solution here might be to go to 14 teams. This would give the conference it would not have with 12 teams.

I’d like 14 because that would certainly include UH. The problem, as this article points out, is that there are really only 3 “good” candidates in UH, Cincy, and BYU. The 4th wouldn’t measure up in some significant way.

I have it on my computer at work :innocent: so I’ll post it tommorow.

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Screw that. Go to 14 teams with UH playing natural rivals:

NOTH:
Iowa State,
BYU
K State
Kansas
W. Va.
Cincinnati
Pick 'm

SOUTH:
Texas
OU
OSU
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Houston

Immediately the Big 12 is once again a true Power Conference. BYU has huge travel problem, but probably no worse than it faces now. For example, Colorado State would be a good fit in the Northern Division. BYU will take the deal, guaranteed. OU gets it’s presence in Texas solidified. And the Big12 South rivals the SEC West. Every UH game is a sell-out in a 60,000 seat facility.

I would make Memphis or Temple #14.

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Until the ‘inside’ sources reveal that the Big12 is contemplating 14 then all 14 member postings are ludicrous and you might as well be discussing how many angels can dance on pin.

The consensus so far from many reliable media sources is discussions on which two from 3 finalist which pretty much eliminates the 14 number ELSE WHY would they all be in agreement that only two will be considered …

That and …

We are fortunate that there is STILL talk about expansion but we have no assurance that the presidents and ADs will accomplish it before the 2017 season deadline or even agree to two much less four.

So lets stick to what we BARELY have … maybe … instead of drifting into wonderland.

I also hold the long term viability of B12 suspect.

Best case scenario is that another conference wanting to expand their network footprint snatches us up bit this isn’t probable.

Biggest risk for UH - UH HAS to stay competitive. One bad year can cost the school dearly. It works both ways. Last year was a boon for us. Don’t think we would be in the mix if Levine was still on the sidelines.