Big 12 looking to add 1 more school following addition of Colorado

The Big 12 took a massive hit with the losses of Texas and Oklahoma, which will join the Southeastern Conference starting in 2024. But the conference has a plan to fill the gaps. After Colorado announced this week that the program would not stay with the Pac-12 and would instead return to the Big 12, the latter conference is now looking to add another school to make an even 14 members.

According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Arizona, currently a member of the Pac-12, is the top school to keep an eye on as the potential last addition. Arizona State and Utah have been mentioned, too. UConn and Gonzaga have also been rumored as possible additions, although those schools bring little to no value when it comes to football.

Big 12 athletic directors reportedly met with commissioner Brett Yormark on Friday morning, just one day after Colorado made known its intention to join the Big 12 following the 2023-24 season, to talk over all possible scenarios. The idea of adding three more schools to make a 16-team league has reportedly been talked about, as well. But the current sense is that 14 teams is the immediate goal.

“Fourteen seems to be our best number,” a source told ESPN’s Dinich. “Now that we’re at 13, who’s going to be the first to make a move to start having a conversation with us was the general discussion today. We talked about a lot of different schools, but it’s more about, ‘Hey, we’ve got room for one more and who wants to be the first to really want to be a part of the Big 12 now and join us?'”

With Texas and Oklahoma — two co-founding schools of the Big 12 — on their way to the SEC, the conference has already brought in replacement programs of Cincinnati, Houston, BYU, and Central Florida, which all begin Big 12 play this coming season.

Arizona is viewed as the leading candidate to make the Big 12 the “Big 14”. There is uncertainty surrounding the Pac-12’s media rights deal with ESPN and Fox, which expires on July 1, 2024, which is leading other Pac-12 schools to consider all options. Arizona and other member schools are reportedly waiting to see what happens with a potential new media deal before making the decision to leave the conference or not.