Five reasons Texas should hire Tom Herman immediately
By John Buhler
3. Texas won’t want Houston to join the Big 12
While Oklahoma represents the Big 12 Conference in the second annual College Football Playoff, not having a conference championship game in the 10-team Big 12 could prove costly in the coming years should the conference avoid expanding to 12 teams.
A logical choice for expansion would be to bring in Houston, an American Athletic Conference behemoth and a former Southwest Conference team as well. Texas likely doesn’t want a fifth team from their state in the Big 12, but the media market, Houston’s strong football program, and its basketball ties to Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon may put the Cougars in the discussion of expansion whether Texas wants them to be included or not.
The best way to keep a fifth team from Texas from joining the Big 12 is to poach Tom Herman away from Houston by making him its next head coach. Should Herman stay and Houston keeps winning he may get his opportunity to stay with the Cougars while being able to coach in the Power 5. That could help give Herman a Gary Patterson-like reputation should he stay put and continue to win at his school after moving to the Power 5.
Getting beat by Houston as a full member of the Big 12 in the Power 5 with Herman as its head coach is a worst case scenario for Texas. It isn’t great to struggle against Art Briles, Patterson, and Kliff Kingsbury, so why add Herman to the list of annual adversaries and not bring him to Austin before it’s too late?
Next: Herman is great with quarterbacks