Big 12 reportedly only expanding by two, decision may not come until October

Brett McMurphy of ESPN appeared on The David Glenn Show on SiriusXM Monday morning and released some new insights regarding Big 12 expansion. There are three important pieces that should be addressed from.

Big 12 will add two, not four

The general consensus seems to be that the Big 12 will choose to expand by two instead of four. Early on it was expected that they would decide to bring in four more teams because that would bring the most money from ESPN and Fox Sports.

Given the recent events and ESPN and Fox Sports being opposed to expansion in general, looks like the Big 12 doesn’t want to burn their bridges with the two media companies. McMurphy went on to say they only way that they expand to four is if they get a conference network, also unlikely.

While it’s certainly in the Big 12’s best interest to grab as much money as they can, this makes sense given that they will likely want to re-up their contracts with ESPN and Fox Sports. They would lose some bargaining power if ESPN and Fox feel like they have been treated unfairly.

Three team race for two spots

Despite the fact that the Big 12 announced last week that they would seek presentations from an astounding 17 schools, McMurphy is reporting that this is really just down to three schools. Those schools are Houston, BYU and Cincinnati.

High school recruits do this kind of thing all the time. They release a “top 10” of schools that they are “interested” in but the truth is that they have narrowed it down to two or three.

Deciding between two schools among Houston, BYU and Cincinnati makes the most sense logically as those are the three best options for football. Boise State has an argument as well but for whatever reason, they haven’t garnished near the amount of speculation compared to other schools.

Decision may not come until October

Oh boy, October!? We have been led to believe that a decision would be made before the season even starts. Well, that doesn’t seem to be realistic.

The season starts in less than three weeks and given that the Big 12 just barely announced who they will receive presentations from, it’s hard to believe they can make a decision before then.

It should also be mentioned that we are not even sure at this point that the Big 12 will expand at all. McMurphy is reporting that the Big 12 coaches and athletic directors are in favor of expansion, but it’s still unclear what the president’s want.