2. Kansas
US News & World Report University Ranking: 124
Enrollment: 27,552
Media Market: 34
Pac-12 Expansion Fit: This would be a good place to start. There are a whole bunch of positives, including the Kansas City media market and a good national base.
If you remember when all the expansion stuff was happening back around 2010ish, Kansas absolutely freaked the freak out that it was going to be without a chair when the music stopped.
There was talk of Oklahoma and a slew of other Big 12 schools going off to the then-Pac-10, Texas and the Big Ten were playing footsie, and Colorado was about to make the move to join Utah as a part of the new Pac-12.
For whatever reason, Kansas didn’t appear to be in any discussions for expansion. Oh sure, it probably would’ve found a home somewhere – I always thought the Big Ten would’ve made the call with Nebraska about to come aboard in 2011 – but those were worrying times for the school that didn’t want to be relegated to Group of Five status.
But things have changed a bit over the last decade, starting with that move of Colorado to the Pac-12. Now, Kansas and the Buffs would be a relative geographic fit, and while the football program might be lacking, don’t dismiss how much of a positive that might be.
Pac-12 schools – especially the coaches – aren’t going to be too fired up to add a slew of superpower football teams to the mix.
Basketball isn’t the big deal you’d think it is when it comes to expansion – the Big Ten wants North Carolina for its big enrollment and big school status, but not the smallish, private Duke – but it wouldn’t hurt.
Kansas would make even more sense geographically if the Pac-12 could somehow get …