Good article

[Buckaineer]

Big 12 can't risk falling behind rest of Power Five, so expansion it is

 

[Buckaineer]

Big 12 expansion a near-certainty as it aims to avoid being left behind

A source familiar with the Big 12’s thinking told SI.com on Tuesday that it looks “nearly definite” that the league will expand by two schools and “highly possible” the league could expand by four schools....

The Big 12’s television consultants put forth a compelling presentation in Dallas on Tuesday. They showed how four new teams combined with the addition of a conference championship game could add nearly one billion additional dollars before the league’s deal with ESPN and Fox expires in 2025.

 

[Buckaineer]

From the above:

As one Big 12 source put it: “If we kept status quo, it would have meant moving back.”

 

[Buckaineer]

excerpt:

But why, wondered one industry source, would you "water down your league." There's a reason the Power Five conferences emerged out of the last round of realignment.

They are the best collection of schools, the ones for which the networks will pony up to own their television and streaming rights.

"There's several teams in the AAC and Mountain West that were BCS teams just five years ago," Bowlsby said. "Those are just monickers."

Great to see intelligence at the league level.