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As Texas and Oklahoma escalate their departure from the Big 12 for the SEC, schools in the Big 12 have come out of the woodwork reportedly expressing interest in the Big Ten. But not every interested party has a potential landing spot.
Though it was reported over the weekend that Oklahoma State — a school that would be an excellent addition athletically but not so academically — had inquired with the Big Ten and that the AAU academic requirement (which all Big Ten schools have except Nebraska — though it had that designation at the time of joining in 2011) wouldn’t play a factor.
It appears as if that’s not the case.
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According to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, the Big Ten will only be entertaining schools that have AAU accreditation — which interested parties such as Kansas and Iowa State have.
Heard today from several people that B1G only would be interested in adding schools from the AAU (Nebraska no longer, but was when it joined league). Texas is AAU member, along with Pac-12 schools like Cal, Washington, Colorado, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Stanford. Oklahoma is not AAU.
— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) July 26, 2021
We’ll see what happens in that regard. It’s hard to see the Big Ten expanding all the way to the West Coast, but with college football conferences’ footprints getting all the larger seemingly by the year, perhaps it’s just a matter of time.
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