The Big 12 conference



  • Imagine a true midwest big 12:

    The U.S. Census Bureau’s definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.



  • @approxinfinity Feel like you could build a pretty solid 18 team conference out of those states.



  • @benshawks08 for sure. Id trade Horned Frogs for Jackrabbits as our bottomfeeders. Top half is nice.



  • @approxinfinity I like it, you could have two divisions, and call one the Great Lakes, and the other Great Plains. That would keep many of the traditional leagues together while adding new regular opponents to the mix occasionally.



  • Plus, bus rides and short plane trips to all. Better for the student-athletes; lower costs, lower impact on environment.

    One can dream.



  • But wait, the drama continues!

    Now it appears the Pac 12 is making a desperate attempt to KEEP Arizona and the Pac 12 intact.

    Stay tuned!



  • And within seconds it’s changed again!

    Oregon and Washington to BIG!



  • Disappointed we cant pull Stanford. But at least we no longer need to settle for assuming that Arizona is overrated every year when filling out a bracket, and actually watch them get their ass handed to them in the B12 conference season.



  • @approxinfinity I wish Sean Miller was still the coach. Would make a good villain.



  • @approxinfinity said in The Big 12 conference:

    Disappointed we cant pull Stanford. But at least we no longer need to settle for assuming that Arizona is overrated every year when filling out a bracket, and actually watch them get their ass handed to them in the B12 conference season.

    Utah’s arrogant fan base needs to be put in place - -would love to see Big 12 schools just beat that ass in football



  • BYU and Utah in the same conference will create drama in Utah. It’s the kind of drama that sounds like a pin dropping in the rocky mountain forest, but it’s about the only rivalry created by all of this realignment.

    Also-- this conference now has quite a few games at high altitude. Not sure if that’s ever a factor, but it is unique in the P5 — er P4.

    I guess UConn is UGone.



  • RIP to a normal conference. This is so messed up. College sports will never be the same!

    Perhaps I’m alone but my Fandom for college sports continues to decline



  • @bskeet said in The Big 12 conference:

    BYU and Utah in the same conference will create drama in Utah. It’s the kind of drama that sounds like a pin dropping in the rocky mountain forest, but it’s about the only rivalry created by all of this realignment.

    Also-- this conference now has quite a few games at high altitude. Not sure if that’s ever a factor, but it is unique in the P5 — er P4.

    I guess UConn is UGone.

    The " HOLY WAR " quite the battle between BYU & Utah. - -They truly really do have a dislike for one another



  • @BeddieKU23 soccer scratches the itch, just sayin.



  • @BeddieKU23 said in The Big 12 conference:

    RIP to a normal conference. This is so messed up. College sports will never be the same!

    Perhaps I’m alone but my Fandom for college sports continues to decline

    Probably going to have to split into quadrants for smaller sports to help with travel costs. The Utah and Arizona schools as a quadrant. Colorado, KU, KSU, and OSU as a quadrant. The Texas schools as a quadrant, and then Cincy, ISU, UCF, and WVU as the last quadrant.

    There’s not really a good pairing for UCF in regards to travel since they’re 800 miles from their closest Big 12 school.



  • Well, looks like it’s official.

    Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12.

    That should settle things for awhile – in the B12 at least.

    Next stop: East Coast!



  • I find myself more interested in Big 12 football now. Maybe it is because I haven’t been in the midwest for 45 years, and expanding the conf to nearly span the country gives me more teams to follow without having to try to follow the old region’s rivalries.



  • @approxinfinity said in The Big 12 conference:

    @BeddieKU23 soccer scratches the itch, just sayin.

    Lovely sport, grew up playing and was a big fan but it just doesn’t scratch the itch for me.

    Coming soon are games in Arizona that don’t start til 11pm eastern time which for me on a work day is ridiculous. I know others it won’t be so bad or will be beneficial even but for me this is a major put off.

    The arms race for money will continue to erode whatever organic beauty college sports provided.



  • @BeddieKU23 said in The Big 12 conference:

    @approxinfinity said in The Big 12 conference:

    @BeddieKU23 soccer scratches the itch, just sayin.

    Lovely sport, grew up playing and was a big fan but it just doesn’t scratch the itch for me.

    Coming soon are games in Arizona that don’t start til 11pm eastern time which for me on a work day is ridiculous. I know others it won’t be so bad or will be beneficial even but for me this is a major put off.

    The arms race for money will continue to erode whatever organic beauty college sports provided.

    Kansas and Arizona are two of the biggest brands in basketball. Do you really think ESPN would want that match up to be relegated to the late night time slot even if the game was in Tuscon? If the Big 12 is smart with their scheduling, when teams go out west, they’d pair them up with one of the games on a Saturday which would mean possibly 1 midweek late night tip per season in Big 12 play. I’m just gonna say that I think that’s manageable.



  • What is the most likely division of teams now? East/West or North/South divisions? Where will KU be? I assume the Big12 will be divided into two divisions, most likely East/West. So, Pac12 teams, plus Tex Tech, TCU and KState in the West. Or OSU in the West so KState and KU are in the same division? What about 3 divisions? I vividly remember this exact same time of year, several years ago when it looked like the Big12 was going to fold and the discussion was KU to the Mountain West. I’m so glad the Big12 has survived. RC



  • @Texas-Hawk-10 said in The Big 12 conference:

    @BeddieKU23 said in The Big 12 conference:

    @approxinfinity said in The Big 12 conference:

    @BeddieKU23 soccer scratches the itch, just sayin.

    Lovely sport, grew up playing and was a big fan but it just doesn’t scratch the itch for me.

    Coming soon are games in Arizona that don’t start til 11pm eastern time which for me on a work day is ridiculous. I know others it won’t be so bad or will be beneficial even but for me this is a major put off.

    The arms race for money will continue to erode whatever organic beauty college sports provided.

    Kansas and Arizona are two of the biggest brands in basketball. Do you really think ESPN would want that match up to be relegated to the late night time slot even if the game was in Tuscon? If the Big 12 is smart with their scheduling, when teams go out west, they’d pair them up with one of the games on a Saturday which would mean possibly 1 midweek late night tip per season in Big 12 play. I’m just gonna say that I think that’s manageable.

    True, they are going to want that Ariz/KU game in a primetime slot - - just like KU/UK a lot of times. Going to be classic match ups , they want s many eyes watching this game for viewership



  • Been wild few days for sure, not sure I love all the changes across several conferences. But at the end of the day I’ll give Brett Yormark credit for being aggressive in all of this. Lots of folks thought this conference was going to implode the last few summers.



  • I don’t like any of the changes. There’s no nostalgia/pride left to salvage, so just ditch the Big 12 name too.



  • KU / AZ has Saturday afternoon eastern/noon pacific on CBS written all over it.

    Imagine UNC/Duke, followed by KU/AZ. That’s the kind of lineup that tv execs dream of.



  • @bskeet I think the football and basketball match ups will be good. The extra travel cost is what will be interesting especially for the non money making sports.



  • @kjayhawks Totally agree. The impact on the non-rev sports is very much TBD. I think it’s going to be adverse…



  • @bskeet seems impossible for non revenue sports. Maybe these conferences should only be for revenue sports and the rest of the sports could be regional conferences. What does it matter if they aren’t aligned?



  • I really want good seats for both the UNC game in Allen Fieldhouse as well as the first Arizona game. Gonna be some fun games the next couple years. 2024 might be worth snagging season tickets even with a 6.5hour drive each way.



    • what conference is Florida State wanting to join?


  • @dylans said in The Big 12 conference:

    • what conference is Florida State wanting to join?

    The BIG



  • Sounds like Florida State and Clemson are begging for SEC entries.

    IMO the ACC is up next for realignment, despite having a long term media deal in place.



  • Fsu to the sec makes sense. I don’t get the appeal of the big 10 (for anyone really) other than media $$$



  • @dylans said in The Big 12 conference:

    Fsu to the sec makes sense. I don’t get the appeal of the big 10 (for anyone really) other than media $$$

    The appeal of the Big 10 for many schools is academic. Being a member of the AAU is a requirement for Big 10 membership and these are generally considered to be the top research universities in the country. Access to those research grants is very appealing to university presidents and the Big 10 has historically been considered the top academic league among the power conferences along with the PAC 12. Academics are also why schools like Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, and Georgia Tech have been mentioned as potential Big 10 targets over the years.


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