Big 12 expansion isn’t exactly up to current football head coaches. University presidents will make the calls, with input from their athletic departments and boards of regents and secret societies and booster militias and whatever else they have going on.
BYU and Houston top a poll of Big 12 head coaches on expansion targets
We might have two (and four) frontrunners now, even though coaches only have so much power here.
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But it’s still interesting to see what the football coaches are thinking. ESPN found that out for us:
BYU & Houston (5 votes each) top @ESPN poll of Big 12 coaches on expansion. Next: Cincinnati, Memphis (4 votes each); CSU, UCF (1 vote each)
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) July 20, 2016
BYU is looking like the favorite in all this, to be honest. We ranked a bunch of stuff the Big 12 might be looking at, and the Cougars lept off the page as the only clear standout.
UH makes a lot of sense for some reasons, but its geography could be a gift and a curse. Low travel is good, but being another competitor for Texas recruits could be a hindrance. It also makes sense that football coaches would highly value Houston, which just ranked as the country’s best mid-major and won the Peach Bowl.
Cincinnati and Memphis both have a lot of buzz in the media and elsewhere as potential targets.
Not mentioned: UConn, which would bring a lot to the table, but bring it from far away and without much of a football history. Football coaches don’t spend much time thinking about ties to television market metro areas.
The conference is talking about either adding two or four teams, so ... are those the four favorites right there?
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