Only thing I found cough cough reputable was Finebaum did a piece saying that the Big 12 would crumble and OU would to go the SEC and Texas to the PAC 12. Didn't read the whole thing. He could be right. The Big 12 is okay for the short term but they can't sustain and there are no viable options to add other than BYU. They should have gotten Louisville when they had the chance but they balked and now will pay the price eventually. They have a pretty good TV deal in place at the moment and they are making a lot of money but I don't see it lasting without a Conf Championship game. When will all this happen? Who knows, I'm guessing a few years maybe.
BYU presents a problem for any conference in sports other than football because the won't play on Sunday. Besides, Provo is a really small TV market. If the Big 12 expands look for them to take Cincinnati and maybe Central Florida. Bigger TV markets. They won't add Houston or SMU because they already have those markets with Texas and TCU. Colorado State is in Fort Collins, another small TV market. The SEC would add Oklahoma if the Okies wanted to join but I think 14 teams is already too big. A 12 team conference is perfect whether they play 8 or 9 conference games especially if they do away with permanent out of division rivalries. LSU still hasn't played Missouri yet and won't for a few more years. I see the Big 12 breaking up at some point. There are no really attractive teams in large media markets left for them to add. I could see the PAC 12 adding Texas and Oklahoma and that would leave everybody else scrambling. The Big 10 would take Kansas because of their basketball but I don't think the SEC or the ACC would add Baylor, Texas Tech, K State or Iowa State.
...this almost happened a couple of years ago,.. Texas reportedly stalled the deal, they insisted on keeping their tv network and refused to share revenue equally with the rest of the conference. Oklahoma would be welcomed as a good fit for the PAC. BYU works for me, but they were black balled (USC, UCLA, Stanford) because of their religious status. Colorado State is a natural fit, but brings nothing of value to the PAC.
This is the latest I've read. Everything i've read so far sounds like just speculation from sportswriters with too much time on their hands. http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/07/live_at_9_with_roy_s_johnson_i_4.html
While OU is a "storied program" I'm not sure if the OKC market is big enough for the SEC to consider them worthwhile. It's all about the money now. aTm is smack in the middle of Houston, DFW, San Antonio, Austin and including East Texas from Beaumont to Tyler there are about 20 million TV viewers. Missouri is in between St Louis and Kansas City and while not as big as the Texas market it's a lot bigger market than OKC. If the SEC expands I think they will be looking at North Carolina and their TV market.
It widens the travel footprint even more. The SEC is already too big. Oklahoma can take Mizzou and A&M and make a new conference for all I care. Maybe Texas has been humbled enough to rejoin a conference without demanding special rules for itself.
12 teams is the perfect size. Every team can play every non divisional team within a reasonable amount of time. When the Big 12 still had Nebraska, Colorado, A&M and Missouri each team played their 5 divisional foes every year and 3 cross divisional foes home and home for 2 years and then rotated the other 3 cross divisional foes for the next 2 years. Oklahoma and Nebraska even gave up their long standing rivalry. If they can do that why can't Alabama and Tennessee give up theirs?
About twice a decade, I agree with you. The big markets and big SEC money with Missouri and A&M is good, I can live with them, but no expansion any further.
