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Big 12 Media Days: The Conference Will Reportedly Explore Expansion

Looks like the Big 12 has decided to be proactive, for once.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

On this afternoon's media conference call, the Big 12 shocked the CFB world once again by announcing, more or less, its intent to expand the conference's membership to 12 or possibly 14 teams.  This came just a few minutes after reports started trickling out that expansion wouldn't happen, because nothing the Big 12 ever does is easy and/or makes sense.

There are a TON of tweets coming out fast on this, but I'll try to pick out a few of the best:

Worth pointing out, as many on Twitter are, that this is not yet set in stone.  The Conference has apparently emphasized that it will explore options toward expansion that, as Wolken says, will essentially pit potential schools against each other in bidding.  The vote to move forward was reportedly unanimous, but that vote is not the same as a vote to definitely expand.  If you think, for example, that Texas will definitely block any attempt to expand at a later time, that option is still out there.  Still, the possibility of expansion is significantly more real now than it was even a few days ago.

So the question now moves to which schools are most likely to be considered or want to be considered.  There are a few obvious suspects: Houston, BYU, Cincy, Memphis, and both of the non-P5 Florida schools, to name a few.  Who might be chosen and how many will eventually get the call is anyone's guess.  Obviously, Baylor has a bit of a vested interest in who those schools might eventually be, especially if you want Tom Herman to be our next coach.  The lure of Baylor becomes decidedly less powerful if Houston joins the Big 12, after all.

We'll keep you posted on this as more information becomes available.