The Big 12 will reportedly stay at 10 teams this year.
Neither Big 12 conference expansion nor a conference television network will be approved this summer, according to a report from Chip Brown of Scout.com.
The conference’s presidents meet in Dallas this week.
Brown reports that a big reason for staying at 10 is that the league cannot reach a consensus on any non-Power Five conference candidates to add. The report also said primary TV partners for the Big 12 – ESPN and FOX Sports – aren’t eager to start a conference network now.
Per Brown, the presidents may discuss a football championship game. In January, the NCAA approved a rule allowing conferences with fewer than 12 teams to hold a championship game.
The Big 12 does not have divisions, meaning the top two teams in the conference would play in the title game. It is the only Power Five conference in which every team plays each other in the regular season, meaning a title game would always be a rematch of a regular-season game.
Brown reports that a title game would generate between $20 million and $30 million in TV revenue, which amounts to $2 million to $3 million per school.