Shoot the messenger for passing along rumors.
The Upset blog has tweeted, but there is not a link on the site, that BYU has accepted an invitation from the Big 12 in principle. That means that it needs to be approved by the BYU board of directors. Those men and women happen to all be in Salt Lake for the LDS General Conference this weekend. No certain when they would vote on the matter. This has not been confirmed by KSL or any other official news agency, like ESPN. Just other blogs like this one.
Again, unconfirmed reports that BYU will join the Big 12 for 2012. Take from this what you will.
The Big 12 will become the Big 14 with TCU, Cincinnati, Louisville and West Virgina also on board.
If all this is true, with and east/west alignment, Cougar Fans can look forward to Texas, Oklahoma and TCU every season in conference play.
TCU was slated to join the Big East in 2012, but may join the Big 12 instead.
Apparently, it is believed that if the Big East football conference is in essence disintegrated, that Cincinnati, Louisville and West Virginia will be able to join in 2012. We'll see how this all works out. It will be a tough football conference, but imagine having Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia and BYU competing for a hoops conference championship every season? That will be cool.
This leaves out only UConn and South Florida in the Football Big East--just in case you lost your scorecard. However, they will rebuild and could begin with all three service academies (Although I am not certain Army is on-board), Temple, East Carolina and a couple of other C-USA schools. It remains to be seen if they can maintain their BCS status with this alignment. (If this happens, I think Air Force would be better off remaining in the MWC, myself, but scheduling is better for them if they are in the same conference as their sister academies.)
This is all expected to be announced Saturday.
Big 12 (14) East
Cincinnati
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Louisville
Missouri
West Virginia
Big 12 (14) West
Baylor
Brigham Young
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Source:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/871264-byu-big-12-expansion-latest-rumors-on-cougars-potential-move-to-big-12
Update September 30th...
According to ESPN, two facts about what has been reported yesterday may be inaccurate. 1. The Big 12 has yet to decide how many teams they will expand to. 2. Louisville is working to keep the Big East together as a football conference by inviting the service academies. There is also no refute of the story from any official source of the fact that BYU has agree to join "in principle" or that TCU is on board. All this may be good news for Boise State fans. We could imply that perhaps BYU and Boise would be in the Big 12 north and that TCU would be in the Big 12 south, if all of this is true. Out of all of the possibilities, Boise State would be the best available travel partner for BYU.
Most people are reporting that Louisville is on-board with the Big 12. We'll find out next week.
I was also listening to ESPN700, the flagship station for the Utes when Dave Fox was on. It seems that every media outlet in Salt Lake knows about what is happening with BYU and the Big 12, but are afraid to go out on a limb and break the news. They want to know for certain that Missouri is going to remain before they will break the news that BYU is in the Big 12. And they want to know how far the Big 12 is going to expand...10, 11, 12 or 14.
Theory 2 on Big 12 expansion....
North Division
Boise State
Brigham Young
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
South Division
Baylor
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
2 comments:
If WVU, Louisville, and Cinci go to the Big12(14) then the Big East is dead as a football conference. It looks as if UConn and either USF or Rutgers will be going to the ACC. The BE cannot rebuild because no one will want to come on board once those four/five schools leave. The BE will lose its AQ status in 2014 when the contracts are renegotiated.
I'm sorry that I forgot Rutgers. But there are also 8 Roman Catholic schools in the Big East that do not play football. They will have something to say about this before it ends. Villanova and Georgetown could move to the FBS and if the service academies join, they are back in business...but not as a BCS AQ conference. If the MWC can hold on to Boise, they could take their place...the chances are slim, but the they could.
Post a Comment