Big 12 expansion no longer interested in Pac-12 teams amid rumors of possible intervention from FBS Powerhouse: Reports

Reports of another Big 12 expansion plan saturated the college football world last week. The reports came off the back of continuous delays in the ACC’s invitation to Stanford, Cal, and SMU to join the conference.

It was reported that should the ACC’s invitation to these schools stall for a few more days, the Big 12 would intervene and add all the remaining Pac-12 schools.

The reports were not confirmed and college football insider Brett McMurphy has now debunked them. He claimed that sources within the conference have denied any contact between them and the schools.

"Despite various reports to the contrary, Big 12 has not had conversations w/any of the Pac-4 schools & has no intention in engaging w/those schools," he tweeted.

The conference has had its fair share of realignment, with moves away from and into it characterizing the present realignment window.

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What are the possibilities of a Big 12 expansion?

It began with Texas and Oklahoma securing moves to the SEC in 2021. In response, the Big 12 added BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. When the opportunity arose to add schools from the Pac-12, the Big 12 responded by adding four in only a matter of days.

As things stand, the conference will move from having 14 members this season to having 16 by the start of the 2024 season. It is fair to question its capacity to take on more members. At the moment, only the Big Ten has more members and unless there’s a big strategic advantage, it’s hard to see why the Big 12 should aim for more members than the Big Ten.

Commissioner Brett Yormark had set the modality for a Big 12 expansion back in June. Two things are important from the conference’s point of view, opportunity and profitability.

We saw how it played out with the addition of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State and it’s clear there may be an opportunity with the present state of things in the Pac-4. But how is a Big 12 expansion profitable at this point in time?

Moving forward, the stakes have become higher for the ACC. Even if the Big 12 expansion reports are untrue, the ACC now knows it can face competition over the Pac-12 schools at any time. Welcome to conference realignment, where every moment matters.