It sure looks like a team from the Big 12 is exploring joining the Big Ten
It’s beginning to look more and more like the wheels have been in motion running on the ground for longer than we thought with this Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC news. If it does indeed happen, there’s a good chance that it’ll create a landslide of dominoes across other conferences including the Big Ten.
If the Big 12’s two most prominent members leave the conference, it’s not hard to envision a world where the conference is put in jeopardy of being relevant, if it can even exist at all long term. And with expanded college football playoffs potentially coming, along with the advent of name, image, and likeness legislation, it’s a very uneasy and unpredictable time.
And now, it appears another Big 12 member not named Oklahoma or Texas may be shopping around before it gets left out in a game of conference realignment musical chairs. And yeah, it looks like it might be looking at the Big Ten, at least according to Bleacher Report’s Mike Vernon.
According to his sources, Kansas has a call set up with the Big Ten to explore options of joining the conference.
OPINION: this is the best case scenario for Kansas.
Texas and OU are gone. Sticking around in the B12 remnants is not in the best interest of KU.
— Mike Vernon (@M_Vernon) July 23, 2021
Who knows how this will be received from the Big Ten. Kansas doesn’t really move the needle when it comes to football revenue and ratings, but it would add a blue blood to a basketball conference that hasn’t won a national title since 2000.
And despite what we all feel about the leadership of Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, if the SEC does land Texas and Oklahoma, he’ll have to do something to keep up. The Big Ten is historically the conference that brings in the most revenue, but the SEC is on its heels and closing fast with this news. It already has a leg up on the Big Ten when it comes to winning on the field, and this has the potential to make that gap wider.
We’ll stay on top of this news and anything else that circulates regarding how the Big Ten will react to Texas and Oklahoma’s efforts to join the SEC. It’s going to be a wild ride so hang on.
List
What if the Big Ten were to revisit expansion? Ten teams that make sense.
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