The Big 12 is allegedly getting closer to making a decision on whether to expand beyond 10 teams. If it does, former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer just made the bluntest case possible for keeping Houston out of the club.
Barry Switzer makes the extremely blunt case against letting Houston into the Big 12
It’s not nice, but it’s not necessarily wrong.
Photo by Brett Deering/Getty Images
Switzer thinks Houston joining the Big 12 would “make it tougher on Oklahoma, without a doubt,” and went into some depth on why he doesn’t think OU should want the Cougars in the conference.
“Me, if I had a chance to vote on it, hell no. I think it was a mistake to let TCU in, and they proved it was a mistake,” Switzer said on an Austin American-Statesman podcast published on Thursday.
TCU’s in its fifth year in the Big 12 and already has two double-digit-win seasons and one win against Oklahoma.
Switzer envisions Houston, in the Big 12, making a similar ascent.
“Only 85 players, and you’ve got 340 million people in the United States and the talent that’s coming out of high schools now,” Switzer said. “Everybody gets good. Don’t give them credibility. I’ve always said if I could get the top 30 players that came out of Houston every year, I’d play for the national championship every year.”
You can listen to the full podcast here, with Switzer’s commentary on Houston starting at the 9:50 mark of the recording.
While some of the league’s heavy hitters have tried to tamp down expectations that the league will expand at all, Houston’s emerged as a favorite in the event the league does get bigger.
One reported scenario had Texas and Oklahoma working together, with Texas helping deliver eight school votes for BYU if the Sooners could do the same for Houston.
But Switzer’s fears about Houston aren’t unique. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has the same worry about Houston becoming a serious recruiting threat.
Were Houston to join the league, teams like Oklahoma and Texas might see some losses at the top of their rosters. But the biggest harm could come to the Big 12’s middling teams, who already don’t have an easy time luring blue-chip talent.
Switzer isn’t a decision-maker anymore. But if enough people feel like he does, it could keep UH out.
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