WVU close to leaving for Big 12

[1977 BearCat]

The only positive for me at the moment is the Big 12 has had two chances to grab BYU (assuming the West Va move is accurate) and seems to have passed. Although, if ND is truly in play, BYU for football and ND for all other sports is a possibility. Then just add one more school (UL) and the Big 12 is at twelve again and we are adrift....................

[bearcatgary]

The only positive for me at the moment is the Big 12 has had two chances to grab BYU (assuming the West Va move is accurate) and seems to have passed. Although, if ND is truly in play, BYU for football and ND for all other sports is a possibility. Then just add one more school (UL) and the Big 12 is at twelve again and we are adrift....................

Unlike the Big East, the Big 12 has no need for a non-football playing member. I can't see it happening.

--Gary

[bearcatgary]

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoot...-big-12-102511

A source said the Big 12, by holding Missouri, might hold at 10 teams for next season and then consider a jump to 16 teams. Louisville and Cincinnati are under consideration as well as Boise State and BYU.

[#41]

WVU to the Big 12 commits the conference eastward -- which helps Cincinnati should the conference ever go back to 12 teams. If it had been BYU, I'd have been worried about the conference staying closer to it's footprint or going westward with expansion.

Here, it creates the opportunity to "fill the gap" in the conference, geographically, with Cincinnati and Louisville.

[binturong07]

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefoot...-big-12-102511

A source said the Big 12, by holding Missouri, might hold at 10 teams for next season and then consider a jump to 16 teams. Louisville and Cincinnati are under consideration as well as Boise State and BYU.

I dont believe that Boise is under any consideration at all. Besides their onfield performance in football, they bring NOTHING to the table. No market, poor academics, extremely far travel, poor quality of other sports....even the BE didnt want them for anything for football. No way the Big XII takes them.

[#41]

The Big East is dead. The corpse has stopped twitching, and it's time to move on. The #1 thing on UC's mind should be finding a landing spot when this is all said and done. With WVU out of the picture, UC and Louisville should hook together and try to play up their case for the Big 12's expansion to (shockingly) 12 teams. They make sense as a package deal to fill the geographic gap between WVU and the rest of the B12.

The LAST thing that needs to happen now is more expansion talk for the Big East or increased buyouts that would make it MORE difficult to leave when needed. Though, admittedly, I expect all expansion talk will cool immediately now that WVU is gone. At this point, who'd want to join up?

Suffice it to say, Whit needs to earn his cheddar over the next few days.

[bearcatgary]

Agreed, the BE is dead as a football conference. The remaining 5 FB teams will do whatever it takes to get out. Adding 7 or more new teams makes absolutely no sense from either a football or basketball standpoint. Several of the teams that were invited probably will now decline.

Those (hopefully nobody) that are left behind will probably leave for the mega-conference.

[True Bearcat]

With West Virginia going to the Big XII this is the best news for U of L and UC. I think not only does the Big XII need to bridge the gap between WVU and the rest of teams, but adding UC and UL puts the Big XII right in the heart of the B1G and SEC. It also puts their tv network in direct competition with the B1G network. This move also allows the Big XII to the fertile recruiting ground of Ohio. I think to land UC and UL, WVU had to be the first team to move. WVU was the feather in the hat of BIG EAST, and now that it has been plucked the rest will fall in line. This is exciting times to be a Bearcat.

[Pete]

I think the hire of Babcock shows where UC would prefer to land, and is a direct power move in the BIG12 direction. Clearly he has the connections to sell UC's strong points to all BIG12 conference schools. I am sure having him on board also gives the other ADs a comfort level with who will be leading UC.

[shanacker]

With West Virginia going to the Big XII this is the best news for U of L and UC. I think not only does the Big XII need to bridge the gap between WVU and the rest of teams, but adding UC and UL puts the Big XII right in the heart of the B1G and SEC. It also puts their tv network in direct competition with the B1G network. This move also allows the Big XII to the fertile recruiting ground of Ohio. I think to land UC and UL, WVU had to be the first team to move. WVU was the feather in the hat of BIG EAST, and now that it has been plucked the rest will fall in line. This is exciting times to be a Bearcat.

It is not exciting until we land in the big 12. It could end up being awful if we don't get in.

[CaptainProbasco]

Interesting theory on Big 12 expansion possibilities. On KC sports talk radio today they are now saying WV fits Big 12 profile exactly, and this is what the Big 12 will be looking for in the future. Now they are saying Louisville (and by extension Cincinnati) would not be good fits because they are not massive land-grand schools out in the country, but are primarily city campus schools.

There are a couple problems with this theory - I used to live in Austin and it is a sizeable city (albeit a college-driven town). Norman, Columbia, Lawrence, Manhattan, Lubbock, and Stillwater certainly are smaller college towns. Plus, just last week they were saying the WV wouldn't fit the Big 12 profile...so they not exactly consistent in their arguments.

All this stuff about what makes a school "fit" is just window dressing. They make up what they are looking for after they've made up their mind. That way, they can say that the school they've added is a "perfect fit." There might be some truth to certain elements of it, but they'll twist everything to make the new addition seem like a huge victory.

Same thing with the Big 10 and Nebraska. The Big 10 worshiped Nebraska's AAU membership as proof that they're a perfect academic fit, despite the fact that everyone knew that Nebraska was about to get kicked out of the AAU.

[swilsonsp4]

I think to land UC and UL, WVU had to be the first team to move.

We want so badly for UC to come out of this in great shape that we're grasping at straws. As much as I want UC to land in a stable AQ conference, I don't believe for a second that WV became the bait to lure us into the net. That's the height of wishful thinking. There's nothing to indicate (or even hint at) UC being the more favorable target. Why would the B12 do an end-round to pick up the Mountaineers first when they probably surmise that UC wouldn't need any prompting to jump the Titanic?

[anbuc88]

We want so badly for UC to come out of this in great shape that we're grasping at straws. As much as I want UC to land in a stable AQ conference, I don't believe for a second that WV became the bait to lure us into the net. That's the height of wishful thinking. There's nothing to indicate (or even hint at) UC being the more favorable target. Why would the B12 do an end-round to pick up the Mountaineers first when they probably surmise that UC wouldn't need any prompting to jump the Titanic?

If the B12 wanted to add someone before the BE stabalized, then WVU was the team to take. Now the other schools the BE are targeting will have trepidation in joining a league that is not only unstable, but is likely to lose other members. From a geographic standpoint UL would have been a better option, but the BE could have absorbed this loss and still added schools as the top school to keep your AQ status would have still been in the fold. This is not the case anymore. Everyone knows that the B12 will not be complete with 10 teams, and it makes no sense to have one team as an Eastern outlier in a different time zone. Adding two or four or six more teams from this time zone would make travel easier and the conference more stable. At this point my dream scenerio would be for UC, UL, RU, UConn, USF and BYU to be added for an eventual super conference. Marrinato had mentioned that from from a basketball standpoint they had run models for up to 24 teams. Add the rest of the BE for a 24 team basketball conference, start your own network (like the B10 network) and tell ESPN to F themselves.

[True Bearcat]

We want so badly for UC to come out of this in great shape that we're grasping at straws. As much as I want UC to land in a stable AQ conference, I don't believe for a second that WV became the bait to lure us into the net. That's the height of wishful thinking. There's nothing to indicate (or even hint at) UC being the more favorable target. Why would the B12 do an end-round to pick up the Mountaineers first when they probably surmise that UC wouldn't need any prompting to jump the Titanic?

You missed the point. WVU had to be the first to go. WVU is the the best program in the BE. Now that the BE has been weakened even further it may just fall apart. Who would want to join with out one of the flagship schools in it? This helps UC and UL get out. Its exciting but scary we could end up in the Sun Belt, but the chance of landing in the Big XII will be worth it.

[JohnFrancis]

I am so sick of this. Looking at Mr. SEC (MrSEC.com) there are even more rumors (stress the word rumors via UTexas site) that Mizzou might be having buyers remorse, Notre Dame might want to join B12 in non-football sports, and on and on it goes....