The only set in stone about the latest round of college football realignment is Texas and Oklahoma‘s move to the SEC. Nobody else is quite sure where the other eight Big 12 schools are going to land, if anywhere. It is entirely possible the conference attempts to invite other members.
Iowa State and Kansas were attempting to get ahead of the rest by reportedly reaching out to the Big Ten. While neither school may be the most marketable on the football field, the Cyclones are an up-and-coming program under Matt Campbell, while the Jayhawks can sell basketball.
Both seemingly fit into the Big Ten’s culture well but have reportedly been shot down by the conference.
According to Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman, Iowa State and Kansas “made a run at the Big Ten” but his source was not sure if they would get any place. While none of the talks seemed serious enough for the Big 12 to shrink to six schools, there was at least an attempt.
I'm told Big Ten is so much more interested in AAU schools than Pac-12 is. I'm told Kansas and Iowa State (both AAU members) "made a run at Big Ten, but I don't know if they'll get any place," Big 12 source says.
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) July 27, 2021
This puts Iowa State and Kansas in interesting situations. Option A seems to be hope and pray the Big 12 can figure it out. Add in a couple of new members who bring football value to the conference and TV contracts are re-upped by ESPN/Fox.
Option B is to see what happens with the Pac-12. Nobody is quite sure what the west coast conference is going to do. Could going further east than Colorado be of interest to new commissioner George Kliavkoff?
It seems as if the eight universities and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby have just over a year to figure everything out. The expectation is for Texas and Oklahoma to be in the SEC by next season, paying a massive buyout.
Consider the Big 12 on life support.
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