53 Days Until Kansas Football: Conference Realignment Roundtable

It's been an eventful few weeks in college athletics, from the hiring of Brent Yormark as the new Big 12 commissioner to the re-emergence of conference realignment with USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten. And last week Chancellor Girod made some comments that could mean several different things. With a bit of time to process everything that has happened, the big question now is what the next step should be.

With that question floating out there, I pulled the Blue Wings Rising crew together to get everyone's opinions on what the conference should do. Sure, the conference didn't really ask for our opinions. But we are going to give them anyway.

So take a look at what we all have to say below, and make sure to share your own thoughts over on the Discord server or by reaching out to our Twitter account.

With the news of USC and UCLA leaving the Pac 12 to go to the Big Ten in 2024, what should the Big 12 do in response?

Derek Noll: The Big XII should be the aggressor for once and go get those PAC schools that are looking for a way out. Go get Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah. If you want more, grab those too. Now that still doesn’t mean that esteemed universities, like Kansas for example, shouldn’t explore all options. After all, this round of madness isn’t close to done, and everyone is looking to get theirs so it’ll be a while until all the dust has settled. But the Big 12 should absolutely go and grab as many teams as would like to join. And while we’re getting weird, since the Big XII already has a Florida school heading this way, see what Miami and Florida State are up to. Why not?

But ideally, and I know this doesn’t answer the question, I’d like football to be separate from other sports as it’s driving all of this anyway. Form a super league of 60-70 of your preferred schools, divide up geographically into pods and only play games against those other 59-69 teams, no little conference schools allowed. Then, let all other sports operate as they have for decades. Anyway, they’re never doing that, so go get teams Big XII, do it already. So I don’t have to keep hitting refresh on twitter if for nothing else.

Kyle Davis: Dnoll touched on this—whether you are a conference or an individual university, you better have multiple irons in the fire and conversations taking place. But I agree, you have to be aggressive. Now is not the time to sit around and wait.

The PAC-12 is vulnerable right now and panicking a bit. The Big Ten isn’t going to make an immediate next move (or so it sounds like). The two Arizona schools, Utah, and Colorado make the most sense from a geographic and rivalry standpoint and gets the Big 12 to 16 teams, which it feels like is going to be a magic number to stay thriving. But I also would start having conversations with Oregon and Washington. The Big Ten doesn’t have a compelling need to take them. Is Phil Knight going to be satisfied in a depleted PAC-12? The Big Ten still could look at poaching a couple Big 12 schools, so having 18 for now in case two bolt isn’t a bad plan.

The other response that is critical in all of this is the media rights deal. The Big 12’s deal expires after the 2024-25 season. New commish Brett Yormark should secure what he can from the PAC-12 and then get networks on the phone.

Brendan Dzwierzynski: For the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, it feels like the Big 12 is actually operating from a position of strength. Because of that, I’m in agreement with the guys, it’s time for Brett Yormark and company to go out and take something instead of having something taken from them.

I don’t know what the best outcome would be revenue-wise if the Big 12 starts poaching from the Pac-12, but there’s at least some logic behind going after Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. The idea of Washington and Oregon coming along is also obviously enticing, but frankly I’m willing to say the Big 12 can just move on if those two schools drag their feet. In my opinion, the approach should be: “Go ahead and wait for a Big Ten invite, we’ll do what’s best for us right now whether that includes you or not.”

Money is going to drive all of these moves regardless of what specifically happens, but I think that from an entertainment perspective there are huge plussea going after those 4 Corners schools in particular.

Andy Mitts: I agree with the rest of these guys. The simple fact is that consolidation of the major power conferences isn’t complete. Instead, it’s just on a hiatus of unknown length. At some point, the Big Ten and SEC are going to expand further, despite the assurances of an anonymous SEC official that the conference is set up for the long term with just 16 schools.

So the goal now is to set yourself up so that when the Big Ten or SEC comes raiding next time, the conference can survive. And the best way to do that is to expand with more teams that are roughly on the same level of those that are already in the conference (or slightly better if you can manage it). To that end, that means the Big 12 needs to identify any opportunity to expand with schools that are now potentially available. The obvious ones are Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, but Washington and Oregon are potential targets too.

The best part about pursuing these schools is the realization that the situation is still fluid. It’s pretty obvious that if any school in the Pac 12, Big 12 or ACC is targeted by the Big Ten or SEC, it is only a matter of time before they leave. That means that you can sell schools that think they are potential targets on the idea of consolidating into the strongest conference possible, with no hard feelings if the call actually comes.

There has been a lot of talk about needing to be unconventional and thinking outside the box, and the Big 12 has a great opportunity to do that in its pitch to current Pac 12 members. By acknowledging the likelihood that at least a couple of its members are going to get “called up”, they can sell both the potential of that call but also the stability of recognizing that and preparing ahead of time for those that will remain in the conference.

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