Big 12 Season to Offer Taste of Conference Realignment
Via Icon Sports Wire
The college football landscape is quickly changing before our eyes and the Big 12 conference is no exception. 2023 will see the addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF to the Big 12 and should hopefully give us a glimpse of what’s to come in the world of college sports.
The decision to bring in schools that have little to no geographical correspondence with the current conference members is not unique to the Big 12. Last summer, there was the major surprise announcement that UCLA and USC will be packing up and leaving the Pac-12 in 2024 to join the Big Ten, subsequently resulting in a conference that’ll have 16 teams stretching coast to coast. And in 2021 the presidents of all 14 SEC schools voted unanimously to add Texas and Oklahoma to their conference within the coming years (granted, those schools are much closer on the map in comparison to the Big Ten move, but it still shows the shifting nature of collegiate sports).
It's no secret that the decision to expand the Big 12 was largely made out of fear that the conference could fold without the enormous revenue that Texas and Oklahoma’s athletic departments generate. That also seems to be a worry amongst the Pac-12 and ACC, who have either struggled on the field in recent years or are losing valuable programs to more lucrative deals. The possibility that those two conferences add some non-Power Five schools to bolster their lineup certainly remains on the table.
We can’t forget that all this comes after last year’s announcement that the College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams for the 2024-2025 season instead of its current four team format, giving universities a major opportunity to promote their institutions on a larger scale and make tens of millions of dollars in the process.
There may not be an immediate impact on play this season with the Big 12’s new pickups, but this sport has proven to be unpredictable before. No matter what the future holds, it is obvious that college football is evolving, and it’s evolving fast.
