Sorry guys, but the Bearcat, Shasta the Cougar, TOM the Tiger, and Kightro can’t hangout tonight; they’re waiting for an important phone call — one that would alter their lives forever. Yeah, I know, they couldn’t hangout last Saturday for the same reason. But you gotta understand, the Big 12 might call to offer them a spot in the Power Five. So they’ll keep waiting. Waiting. Waiting…
The Bearcat, Shasta, TOM, and Kightro are the mascots at Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, and UCF; the four schools in the American Athletic Conference most likely, according to various media sources, to grab one — or both — of the two potential openings in the Big 12 conference — the only Power Five conference without 12 or more members and a conference championship game.
These guys keep waiting by the phone for a call from Big 12 commish Bob Bowlsby. They’ve got a chance, so they think.
Here’s some of the media buzz surrounding these schools and potential Big 12 membership.
Mike DeCourcy from The Sporting News wrote last December:
“Big 12 officials recently met with administrators from the University of Cincinnati, a source close to the university told Sporting News. That is not an indication membership will be offered to the Bearcats in the immediate future — only that they would be a candidate were such an expansion to be undertaken.”
Mike Bianchi from the Orlando Sentinal also wrote last December:
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Why wouldn’t the Big 12 add UCF and USF and dominate the I-4 corridor that runs through the center of one of the most populated, recruiting-rich, football-fanatical states in the country? Combined, the Tampa and Orlando TV markets are the fourth-largest in the nation.”
Radio host Darren McFarland took media buzz on Big 12 expansion from speculation to reality:
“According to a radio host in Nashville on 102.5 the game, the Big 12 — which does not currently have a championship game — is going to add two more teams in the offseason and, according to his information, those two teams will be Cincinnati and Memphis.”
That report was also in December. See the trend yet? If my sources are correct, and who knows, they could be the same uninformed sources feeding Mr. McFarland information, last December saw Baylor and TCU (2014 Big 12 co-champs) left out of the inaugurial College Football Playoff in favor of Big Ten and eventual national champion Ohio State. Many of us thought, at the time, the final straw had been pulled with the Big 12 exclusion from the playoff: the conference was finally ready to expand.
Sorry guys, phone still hasn’t rung.
The latest media attention on Big 12 expansion involves Houston, and a new strategy for gaining inclusion in the Power Five league: just bully the Big 12.
“Put pressure on the [Big 12] presidents; say, ‘If you don’t do this, we’re not going to fund you for this,” UH Board of Regents chairman, Tilman Fertitta, said in a February meeting with the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board. “Be a big boy, step up and put this school that has almost 50,000 students and is so high profile, has so many of the top schools in the United States, it’s a tier one university — we belong in the Big 12.”
Okay, so now Houston is waiting for a conference it just pushed around in the parking lot to give it a call and say, “Hey, dude, I know you called me names and threatened me, but you wanna join my band?”
I’ve got news that really shouldn’t be news to Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, UCF, and any other AAC member drinking Big 12 Kool-Aid: the phone isn’t ringing. Not now. Now soon. Perhaps later — much, much later.
Through all these “rumors,” Bowlsby’s message remains consistent:
“Ten is what we are and I think the status quo with all 10 schools committed and with grants of rights for all our media, we’re distributing the largest amount of money per school of any of the leagues right now and I don’t think any of our members want to change that.”
Why would you shrink the pot of gold when you don’t have to? Let’s be honest, if Ohio State hadn’t made Wisconsin look like a high school team in the Big Ten championship game (won 59-0), Baylor or TCU would’ve grabbed the final playoff spot. Ask 10 experts from ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, or whatever sports entity you follow, and 9 out of 10 would agree.
Bearcat, Shasta, TOM, and Kightro, step away from the phone. The kids you think walk on water aren’t calling. Why not play with the kids who want you around. Tulsa, Tulane, Temple; they want you to stay around. Without you they have to go back to the island of misfit teams. With you, they have a chance to, if anything, to compete for popularity.
Time for the AAC to unite as a conference and drop the Big 12 talk; it’s just not happening anytime soon. The Big 12 is more likely to add a conference title game with 10 members before adding two members that, at the moment, do not add enough value to maintain the conference’s $25 million payout.
It’s tough to accept, but if they really wanted you, wouldn’t they have already called? I mean, we’re in March.
Forget the Big 12 for now, AAC teams, and become the best Group of Five league out there. Grab every New Year’s Six bowl birth you can and keep building your programs. When one of your co-champs (UCF) loses to a team that finished 2-10, you’re clearly not ready for the “Power” plug.
Memphis, show you’re not a One-Hit Wonder; Houston, stop underachieving; Cincy, keep up the good work; and UCF, keep building Bright House Networks Beach, uh, sorry, Stadium into one of the best new venues in the sport.
AAC, time to assemble and unite!
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