The University of Colorado has decided to leave the Pac-12 to rejoin the Big 12. The Big 12 is making moves and more teams could be added soon. Here are five potential schools for Big 12 expansion.
Related: Colorado Set to Return to Big 12
Arizona has picked up some steam as being the potential next team added to the Big 12. They would give Colorado a team close to match up with, which could be nice considering the Big 12 will have teams in all four time zones in the country.
While Arizona doesn’t have the richest football history, the Big 12 has been adamant that their basketball is important too. The Wildcats will make the best conference in college basketball even better. After adding Colorado, who has more football tradition, they can go after a big basketball brand and a school that seems willing to leave the conference.
Washington was initially pushing to join the Big Ten, but it seems like that conference is in a holding pattern after adding USC and UCLA. They may be waiting on Notre Dame to finally join a conference in football and although they are loosely attached to the ACC in football, would be a better monetary and geographic fit in the Big Ten.
The Huskies reportedly have started talks about joining the Big 12 according to Mike Farrell. With them and the rest of the Pac-12 unhappy about no television rights deal being done, Washington could opt to join the Big 12 before other schools make the same decision.
Oregon, like Washington, seemed to be a school that would be waiting to join the Big Ten. Now that other teams are moving, that could change. Mike Farrell also included in his tweet that Oregon has started talks with the Big 12.
If the Ducks want in the Big 12, there is no doubt the conference would accept them, as they are one of the biggest brands in college football. The Big 12 originally didn’t want to go above 14 teams, so Oregon may need to move fast. This may require them to have some discussions with the Big Ten about whether the door is open or not before making a decision.
The Big 12 already added BYU to their conference for this academic school year. BYU and Utah are rivals who are also in close proximity to each other. They could be travel partners in the conference and help give the conference more scheduling flexibility with the teams out west.
For the Utes to join the conference, they will have to be voted in, which could be tough given that their rivals are in the conference. It would be great to have the rivalry in conference for football. Utah has had some recent football success too, which makes them an appealing option.
Before Colorado made the move to the Big 12, UConn was rumored to be making a move to the conference. They provide the conference with even more basketball firepower. Their football team was improved last season, but adding UConn is more of a basketball play.
UConn is coming off a national championship in basketball and they are a big brand. They also provide more teams in the Eastern time zone if the Big 12 decides that is more preferred than the team already listed, who are in the Mountain and Western time zones.
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