The main reason Finebaum gave for his reasoning? The lack of a conference television network is hurting every team in the league outside of Texas. The Longhorns, of course, have their own television network.
“I think the Big 12 is in trouble and I think this is something we’ve been able to detect for some time. I don’t think the Big 12 as we know it will still be in existence in five years,” Finebaum said on the air. “There are schools in the Big 12 that have looked to get out, and I think, continue to look to get out. They can deny it all they want but they don’t have the what the SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and what the ACC are going to have, and that’s their own network — which is critical in this world of exploding television reality. I don’t know how you can survive like that.”
Oklahoma and Texas, and probably Kansas (maybe Ok St riding OU coattails) will find nice landing spots. Baylor, KSU, Iowa State, Tech, TCU, West Virginia - welcome to oblivion.
Baylor - massive baggage, no conference will touch them with a 10ft pole despite Chip and Joana.
Tech - suck at everything, are in the middle of nowhere, never have won anything.
Iowa St - it’s in Iowa.
KSU - smaller market than Tech, Snyder only has a little left in the tank and will probably be taking off in time for them to completely collapse before realignment
TCU - May have a shot at an invite with Texas, they are in a large metropolitan area, a large enough student population.
West Virginia - never was a fit, would do well if they could get an invite to the ACC, but looking less likely.
The 2023 Big 12 will be those 6 schools with UH, SMU, Cincinnati, USF, UCF, and either Temple/Navy/BYU. All dreaming of a P4 conference acceptance aside, it would be fun to play TCU, Tech, Baylor every year
I think you’re right. But I’d guess the Leftover 6 would add UH, Cincinnati, Colorado State, New Mexico to get back to 10. If the new Big XII goes to 12 programs, then it would be a a combo of adding BYU/Boise or UCF/USF to fill the card.
Flugaur weighed-in on this topic. To be fair, he’s been mentioning this possibility since before the expansion decision was made. He supposedly has an OU contact via a B1G contact:
Nobody has a crystal ball including Finebaum. We all remember the facts on why Teams left uta. That’s the only common denominator here.
Arkansas bailed the SWC, Nebraska, Colorado and atm and others the small12 or whatever they used to be called. The hard fact to accept is that the small12 is still standing. OU leaves? History tells us that uta will find a way to keep THEIR conference alive. Let’s speculate that the small12 implodes? uta will still want to be in control of where they will go. They can’t have us to be part of their equation. They know we will dominate them. Our best case scenario is for OU and OSU to leave for the PAC12. The PAC12 adds U of H. The three Texas/OU/OSU then fight for the best recruits in the area. That will lessen uta and atm greatly. Adding Kansas for its Basketball history will help UCLA’s Basketball program and vice versa. uta will then broker a deal to bring in Cincinnati, CSU and a couple of Florida Schools. Again, I am just guessing but I will sign this deal ASAP.
What so funny about it? We get into the small12 with uta & I have no doubt that we will keep our best recruits in town and therefore crush them. In the current state of the small12 they can’t even dominate TCU.
You are exactly right they will then come crying to the ncaa and beg that we be put on probation. Sounds familiar?
I think you guys are selling TT short – they would brings dozens of TV sets to whatever conference gets them. They are very big in the least populated counties in Texas.
Someone on the reddit cfb page was trying to argue that UH was the fourth most popular school in Houston, Texas tech being on of the schools we would be behind. I almost laughed myself out of my chair. I get that a lot of UT and A&M grads are here but I don’t know anyone who likes tech.
New York Times had a map last year that displayed college fans by zip code. In the Houston city limits, Houston was 2nd behind UT in most zones. As you moved out, the Aggies inched ahead of Houston. In the outer zones, LSU did pass UH; nowhere was Tech even listed until you got out west.
I also go back to the survey that was done last year around election time where UH was the 3rd most liked college in the state
Texas leads the state in college sports loyalty with 26% to 16% for Texas A&M, 12% for Houston, 9% for Texas Tech, and 6% each for Baylor and Texas Christian
Tech fans like to think they have a lot of support, but there has been no evidence that they do other than in very sparsely populated counties in West Texas or on College Football forums. Tech fans are also some of the most disliked fans on the internet.
Someone with a reddit account should go tag that guy with all this, he was even trying to say LSU was more popular in Houston, obviously that had no basis lol.