Main news is that presentations will occur this week, although, nobody seems to know when. ESPN went ahead and ranked the expansion candidates and the top two are who you’d expect. Tom Herman is in line for a salary bonus (not salary increase as Fox Sports erroneously reported) if the Coogs go P5. Another article about Mountain West expansion. Berry Tramel says that Texas needs to be Texas to help the Big 12 (while also seemingly coming around on Houston after this past week). UCONN newspaper explains why getting in the Big 12 would be nice. Rice paper argues with itself. And CUSA apparently didn’t want to be a MAC 2 for Fox Sports which caused Fox to walk away.
Big 12 expansion candidate tracker: Kickoff Week
Guess who’s #1? 
Tom Herman is in line for a massive salary bonus if Houston joins the Big 12
While the phrasing is a tiny bit misleading, here is what you need to know: If the Cougars join the Big 12, Herman is about to get PAID. He’d go from his $3 million annual salary now, to $5.5 million over the next two years, a number which would put him in line with some of college football’s highest paid head coaches.
Note: Duarte refuted this on twitter:
https://twitter.com/Joseph_Duarte/status/773255132217618433
The Big 12 isn’t the only FBS conference considering expansion
http://footballscoop.com/news/big-12-isnt-fbs-conference-considering-expansion/
Should the AAC lose two (or four) of its top members and the Mountain West grab a couple of the leftovers, Thompson’s league would be in position to win back its claim as the top mid-major conference.
Big 12’s quickest remedy: For Texas to be Texas
Berry Tramel
http://newsok.com/article/5517043
Bitter, but still necessary. The Big 12 might need BYU and Houston, might need expansion and a conference title game, might need some new blood to make the nation take notice and put the league on solid ground.
But what the Big 12 most needs is for Texas to be Texas.
What a Power 5 Conference means for UConn
http://dailycampus.com/stories/2016/9-6/what-does-a-power-5-conference-mean-for-uconn
The benefits of being in the Big 12 Conference are unquestionable. The Power Five conferences all have lucrative media and television deals. In fact, the Big 12 announced that all ten of its members drew $30.4 million from last year.
The Fifth Quarter: Rice, Big 12 a perfect match
The Final Kauntdown: Rice does not belong among giants of Big 12
Chuck Landon: C-USA schools should play mid-week
“Fox Sports asked about mid-week games, among other things,” confirmed Courtney Morrison-Archer, C-USA’s associate commissioner for public affairs.
When the league’s athletic directors turned thumbs down on the offer, Fox Sports completely withdrew from television negotiations with C-USA. The result was a horrific decline in television revenue per member school from about $900,000 to a chin-dropping $200,000.
