A Jersey Guy: Big 12 Should Use Military Option
If you are still a member of the Big 12 conference this morning, you are facing a tough choice.
Test the waters of free agency (tepid at best) or make a decision to carry on by going after four, six or eight or even 12 new members.
If you are a member of the American Athletic Conference this morning, you are facing a tough choice.
Try and expand to 14, 16 or even 20 teams by expanding your footprint into Big 12 territory and beyond..
If I am Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby this is what I do AFTER I settle the money buyout that will allow SEC bound members Oklahoma and Texas to leave by the start of next season.
I go big--from 8 to 14 teams--by asking UCF and UCF and Cincinnati to come to my party..--which would give you a footprint in Florida and a top tier team in Cincinnati.
But then I would go radical.
I would convince Navy to move from the AAC, entice Army to leave its independence status in football and give myself western exposure by going after Air Force.
Combined, the three service academies have more market value than any teams the AAC could pick up.
It would give the conference a great rivalry game in Army-Navy, which could use as a lead rivalry weekend game, which could arguably also be the best rivalry in the Big 12.
There would have to be some heavy negotiations about television right fees and the danger of the Atlantic Coast Conference could make a late run to go to 16 with an Army-Navy addition, but that might be too fast a lane for both schools preference as a football only presence.
The Big 12 could go to 16 teams by adding those six schools and then also go after Memphis and Boise State.
For AAC commissioner MIke Aresco, the choices are more limited.
It seems unlikely that any Big 12 school will want to join the AAC.
Aresco's best and perhaps only move would be to attempt to form a 20 team mega conference COMBINING the AAC's 11 teams and the Big 12's 8 teams and then adding one more team (Army, Air Force, BYU, Boise State?) for a 20 team, 5 pod set up.
Before any of that can happen, however, the Big 12 has to establish the exit fees for Oklahoma and Texas and get them out of the hen house ASAP.
It then has to determine that NONE of the remaining 8 Big 12 schools has enough market value to entice any serious free agent bids.
Once that issue is settled, the make up of the Big 12 and AAC can be settled.
If I were the Big 12, I would use the military maneuver.