(08-27-2013 12:10 PM)RebelRobert Wrote:  Big-12 best options are to go to 14 schools by adding these four:

UNLV (Las Vegas)
SDSU (San Diego)
BYU (Salt Lake City)
Cincinnati

Those are the four schools the Big12 should add immediately.

If they can't come to an agreement on BYU, they should take New Mexico (Albuquerque) market instead.

For the Big-12 to survive they must go west. They must get the Las Vegas and San Diego markets.

I sort of agree - but I would go to 16 - but not with both Florida schools as so many concepts do - and ONLY if it includes BYU (without BYU, there's no reason to stretch in both directions):

WEST: SDSU, UNLV, BYU, TexasTech, Texas, Baylor, TCU, Memphis
EAST: Oklahoma, OklahomaSt, Kansas, KState, IowaSt, Cincinnati, WVU, USF or UCF (but not both)

There's no reason to dilute their influence in Florida into two schools (and it doesn't matter which you pick - by virtue of being in the Big12 instead of the AAc, it takes a huge step in recruiting/image/money over the other school). In other words, whichever of the Florida schools the Big12 picks - becomes the school that excels over the other, so it doesn't even matter what they look like now. If they try and take both in the hopes that both improve - the double drain may make it hard for either to rise to the level of a Florida, FSU or Miami.

Throwing Memphis into the west (even though it is a little further east than some other choices) avoids breaking up the Oklahomas or the Kansas schools (or the Texas schools, for that matter) and helps offset the BB imbalance of having Kansas/Cincinnati/WVU in the east.

Having Texas/TexasTech/BYU in the west and Oklahoma/KState/WVU in the east gives you decent balance in FB.

It could also be aranged like this and the balance is about the same:

WEST: SDSU, UNLV, BYU, Oklahoma, OklahomaSt, Kansas, KState, IowaSt
EAST: TexasTech, Texas, Baylor, TCU, Memphis, Cincinnati, WVU, USF or UCF (but not both)

But this all depends on getting BYU. If the Big12 can't get BYU, I say they go completely to the east.

All-east expansion:
North: IowaSt, Kansas, KState, Oklahoma, OklahomaSt, WVU, Cincinnati, UConn
South: Texas, TexasTech, TCU, Baylor, Memphis, SoMiss, ECU, USF or UCF (but not both)