Clint Lamb
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Once Texas and Oklahoma are accepted into the SEC, which should be official by the end of the week, the next step will be figuring out what happens next for the Big 12. Does the conference seek new members? Does it dissolve altogether? There are a lot of possible scenarios.
According to Dennis Dodd with CBS Sports, one of those scenarios includes the remaining members of the Big 12 getting poached by another conference. And no, it’s not another Power Five conference.
The Big 12 believes that all eight of those remaining members are being targeted by the American Athletic Conference, also known as the AAC. That conference’s commissioner, Mike Aresco, did not respond to Dodd’s multiple attempts for a comment, so it’s unclear if that is in fact true.
Stewart Mandel with The Athletic had another idea. Instead of the Big 12 and AAC going after each other, why don’t they just merge? After Texas and Oklahoma leave, the Big 12 will have eight remaining members. The AAC has 12, so a 20-team conference isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility.
Here's an idea.
Merge the AAC and Big 12.
Like, work on it together rather than see who's gonna raid the other first.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) July 29, 2021
Would the Big 12 be willing to do that? It’s hard to say, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And even if others such as West Virginia still choose to leave, 16 or 18 teams still makes some sense.
Conference realignment is in full force.
Follow Clint Lamb on Twitter @ClintRLamb.
Merging is way too obvious and sane a solution.
Add SMU, Houston, CFU etc to the remnants of the Big8/12 and you have an “Almost Power5” aggregate. OK… next BFD!
Mandel is exactly right in his tweet. These conferences need to start communicating like adults on this stuff rather than going behind backs or it’s going to get uglier with lawsuits flying all over the place. The way this is being handled by conference leadership is pathetic and unprofessional.