On Monday, the Big 12 held a press conference about its future, which resulted in nothing.
For a few weeks, speculation has surrounded the Big 12 conference about potential expansion. They have been at 10 teams ever since TCU joined the conference in 2012 and this came after Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas A&M departed in 2011 and 2012.
On Monday evening, the Big 12 held a press conference about its future. The question of whether they would add more schools got answered as well, solving the speculation.
In the presser, Oklahoma President David Boren announced that the school would remain at 10 members what got described as a “thorough” discussion. “Unity” was a word tossed around as well to describe the conference, which could be attributed to all 10 schools voting to not expand.
There hadn’t been any discussion on voting to add schools, which was stated multiple times. They felt the conference is strong as is and are at appropriate national levels of competition. Potential changes in technology got brought up, although no specifics were given.
The Big 12 not expanding shouldn’t come as a surprise. There didn’t seem to be a particular school or two deemed a guarantee to join the conference. Cincinnati seemed to be an option, but they obviously won’t be joining.
A keyword used a few times was “for now” on not expanding. It could mean we see the Big 12 become larger at some point without a known timetable. That may be tomorrow, next month, next year, in five years, or never. If a conference like the Pac-12 and Big Ten, who have been active in recent years, decide to expand, could that lead to the Big 12 trying to match them?
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For now, the Big 12 will remain at 10 teams with a conference championship game coming soon. It’s a step forward for this group of teams to compete with other Power Five conferences.