CFB insider lists potential barriers to Big 12 adding Oregon State & Washington State in latest conference realignments
The Big 12 expansion has been one of the biggest talking points throughout the year in college football. The conference has already been able to add the Colorado Buffaloes, Utah Utes, Arizona Wildcats and Arizona State Sun Devils during the college football offseason beginning in 2024. Now with the Pac-12 down to two teams officially, they could continue to strike.
College football insider Greg Swaim posted about the potential barriers that could be in place for adding Oregon State and Washington State as well.
"Hey #Big12, it's not too late to add the #Beavers and #Wazz. The biggest hindrance is the money, as TV partners wouldn't pay for the additions and neither of those two schools can afford to buy themselves in like #Stanford, #UDub and #SMU did for the #ACC."
Stanford, California and SMU joined the Atlantic Coast Conference and have decided to forego conference money for a handful of years each to join the ACC.
What schools should the Big 12 target next?
The Pac-12 is down to a pair of schools: Washington State Cougars and Oregon State Beavers. But these two schools could follow the trio of teams that joined the ACC as we mentioned earlier.
The Big 12 expansion should continue to at least be in an exploratory mode where they are scoping the landscape of college football for available teams. The Big 12 has expanded throughout the entire continental United States so location is not an issue for them. If not exploring the possibility of adding Oregon State and Washington State for a minuscule distribution share to begin with, there still are some interesting options.
Big 12 expansion has been a focus for Commissioner Brett Yormark. He has looked into expanding outside of the country as well with Big 12 Mexico.
Two teams that would be interested in getting the temperature on would be North Carolina and Duke. They are two of the most iconic college basketball institutions and Yormark has shown to want to build a rounded conference instead of focusing on solely football. Adding the history of both programs would further contribute to a successful Big 12 expansion.