College football realignment rumors: Big 12 not done expanding as surprise targets emerge

College football realignment is far from over as the Big 12 sniffs around the leftover programs in the Pac-12 and Mountain West.

If you thought the Big 12 was content with having 16 teams after picking up Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah from the Pac-12, think again.

It looks like two more programs may be in Brett Yormark’s crosshairs as expansion plans continue.

According to Jason Scheer of Wildcat Authority, “Oregon State and San Diego State have had very preliminary talks with the Big 12 over the last 48 hours.”

College football realignment rumors: Big 12 talking to Oregon State and San Diego State

Scheer stressed the word preliminary and warned that the Beavers and Aztecs would be looking at reduced shares of Big 12 revenue if they did join up.

That’s what makes this rumor interesting.

With USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in the Big Ten and the Four Corners schools in the Big 12, it seemed obvious that the remainder of the Pac-12 would look to the Mountain West for a lifeline.

A merger would make sense, though there’s been pushback on that wording. John Canzano cited a source who said the conference was interested in “adding — not merging.”

San Diego State was already looking to gain admission into the Pac-12, so they were an obvious place to start with the adding.

Word that Oregon State and San Diego State are exploring the Big 12 changes things. It may just be a contingency plan on the Beavers’ part and an opportunistic push for the Aztecs.

But it’s also a reminder that the fate of the remaining Pac-12 schools is still very much an unknown. The Pac-12 got into this mess because each individual school was looking out for itself in the end. Oregon State, Washington State, Stanford and Cal may want to work something out together, but assuming there will be lockstep unity will only get them into trouble.