DMN: What is driving the Big 12 expansion talks and what’s keeping them from advancing
SportsDay college writer Chuck Carlton joined The Paul Finebaum Show recently to talk about Big 12 expansion. Here are some of the highlights:
On the Big 12 expansion talks:
Carlton:Â I think it’s a more serious sort of situation and I think it’s driven by a couple of factors. One being I think this conference has been kind of haunted by the near-death experiences it had in 2010 and ’11 during realignment. And I think that point was driven in again in 2014, the first College Football Playoff. You have five power conferences, four make the first playoff. Big 12 has their noses pressed against the window looking in at everybody else. Baylor, TCU don’t make it. Ohio State does. And I think that has left this conference a little bit unsettled and worried about where it stands right now.
I think the other thing driving this in a huge way, you look at the amount of revenue being generated by the Big 10 and the SEC, in part because of their conference TV networks. The Big 12 is in a situation, along with the Pac-12 and the ACC, where it’s not a Big 5 anymore or a Power 5. It’s a Power 2 and three other conferences that play at a high level. The Big 12 can’t catch the Big Ten and the SEC in revenue no matter what they do. But maybe they can narrow the gap on some ominous trend lines that you see for the next 10 years or so. That’s why all these things are intertwined. A conference title game in football, a conference TV network and expansion. …
Read the rest at http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/cowboys/2016/05/11/carlton-driving-big-12-expansion-talks-keeping-advancing