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Big 12 Presidents Unanimously Opt Against Expansion, But Future Remains Tentative
The Big 12 will "not be adding any new members, ending a three-month expansion exploration with a decision that the league is better off with its current 10 members for now," according to Pete Thamel of SI.com. This "marks the end -- for now anyway -- of a protracted and public three-month period in which the league engaged with 20 potential schools, interviewed 11 of them and concluded at the end it was best off with no new members." Meanwhile, the addition of a conference championship game to the Big 12’s television contract "essentially opens a window for the league’s TV partners, ESPN and Fox, to construct a new contract that would include more money for the current schools." Neither ESPN nor Fox was "pleased that the Big 12 was going to use the pro rata clause in its current deal to get" an additional $25M per school. The conclusion to not expand "allows the league to potentially get more revenue and eliminate the pro rata clause from the television deal" ( <a href="http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/10/17/big-12-expansion-proposal-rejected" target="_blank">SI.com, 10/17</a> ). Oklahoma President and Big 12 BOD Chair David Boren said that the decision was "unanimous and no specific schools were discussed or voted on during five hours or so of expansion talk while Big 12 presidents and chancellors met" Sunday night and yesterday. Boren said that his interest in expansion was "tied to his desire for the Big 12 to start a television network." Once it was determined that the market was "not there for a network, his interest in expansion cooled" ( <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBC_BIG_12_EXPANSION_CTOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">AP, 10/17</a> ). Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said the process became "perhaps a little more of a sweepstakes than we thought it would be at the very beginning." Boren noted the conference would not completely close the door on expansion, but said, "We do feel it would be wrong to indicate it is an active agenda item. We don’t feel a need to expand for expansion’s sake" ( <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/article108792842.html" target="_blank">K.C. STAR, 10/18</a> ).
