[burger]

Thought I'd dig up the old thread instead of starting a new one..

The Big 12 is going after Arizona, ASU, Utah, and Colorado (plus Gonzaga): https://theathletic.com/4271149/2023/03/...ment-news/

Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

“I don’t think any of us are trying to dismantle the Pac-12,” Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades told SicEm365 on Tuesday. “If there’s opportunity, and whenever their TV media deal comes to fruition and if those institutions decide that it’s not good for them, then the Big 12 will be ready. And that probably is as simple as I can say it.”

So if the numbers for the P-10's next media deal are not great (a likely scenario), the Big 12 is going to pounce.

Geographically and culturally, this makes more sense than most of the other Pac-10 expansion / Pac-10 poaching proposals I've heard.  It would be a homecoming of sorts for Colorado.  And it would also be a near-worst-case scenario for Stanford and the remaining west-coast schools.

[burger]

Thought I'd dig up the old thread instead of starting a new one..

The Big 12 is going after Arizona, ASU, Utah, and Colorado (plus Gonzaga): https://theathletic.com/4271149/2023/03/...ment-news/

Sources briefed on the discussions say the conference has been in recent contact with the so-called Four Corners schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — which has renewed optimism that convincing them to join is possible.

Brett Yormark has eyed westward expansion since the day he was hired as the Big 12’s new commissioner last summer. Yormark has never been shy about his interest in expanding the Big 12 into the “fourth time zone” to establish a truly national conference and boost the value of his league’s media rights. The arrival of BYU this summer will get the Big 12 into the Mountain Time Zone. Yormark wants more, though he has always said any additions need to be additive and not dilutive.

“I don’t think any of us are trying to dismantle the Pac-12,” Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades told SicEm365 on Tuesday. “If there’s opportunity, and whenever their TV media deal comes to fruition and if those institutions decide that it’s not good for them, then the Big 12 will be ready. And that probably is as simple as I can say it.”

So if the numbers for the P-10's next media deal are not great (a likely scenario), the Big 12 is going to pounce.

Geographically and culturally, this makes more sense than most of the other Pac-10 expansion / Pac-10 poaching proposals I've heard.  It would be a homecoming of sorts for Colorado.  And it would also be a near-worst-case scenario for Stanford and the remaining west-coast schools.