Getty Image / Mitchell Layton
College sports fans are going to see some big changes over the next few years.
Oklahoma and Texas are heading to the SEC.
UCLA and USC are moving to the Big 10.
BYU, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati are joining the Big 12 as the conference attempts to replace two of their biggest programs.
It looks like that might not be the end of the changes coming to college sports.
According to The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel and Max Olson, the Big 12 is looking to lure 4 more teams from another Power 5 conference.
Those 4 teams are the Pac-12’s Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
NEWS: The Big 12 has been in recent contact with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, renewing optimism that convincing them to join is possible, sources tell @slmandel and @max_olson.https://t.co/k6DLdpWGHd
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 3, 2023
While the focus of these realignment talks is usually on football, landing these 4 teams would have a much bigger impact on the basketball side of things.
The Big 12 has been the best conference in college basketball this year and there hasn’t really been a close second.
If you throw these teams into that mix, you’d be adding a team that regularly finds themselves in the top 10 with Arizona, a team that is currently right on the bubble in Arizona State, and a Colorado team that is frequently in the tournament mix.
On the football side of things, they’d be getting the team that has won the last 2 Pac-12 titles and a Colorado program that has recently become much more appealing by hiring Deion Sanders.
Adding these teams alongside the 4 that they have already secured would make the Big 12 an absolutely massive conference.
It won’t be easy for the Big 12 to replace Texas and Oklahoma, but bringing in these 4 programs could be just what they need to do it.