The expansion decision for the Big 12 left many scratching their heads, wondering when or if the conference would want to add teams in the near future. Plenty of candidates have reared their heads, believing that they were worthy of being added. When prospective universities were given the call stating that expansion wasn’t happened, they weren’t too pleased.
Bob Bowlsby, the commissioner of the Big 12, described what the experience was like to call back athletic directors that were waiting on pins and needles hoping to get good news.
This is what he had to say to ESPN before the West Virginia-TCU game:
“I didn’t have anybody tell me that they thought it had been a waste of time. They thought they were treated respectfully, and that was certainly my aspiration. I wanted to keep them informed. I wanted to feel like they had the opportunity to put their best foot forward.”
Can you imagine if they reacted in any other way? It isn’t as if they were going to beg and plead to be in the conference. The process ran it’s course and Bowlsby & co. made the call.
As the Big 12 continues to lag behind other conferences, it makes for a very tough spot. Where do they go from here?
“We’re going to do everything we can to keep pace,” Bowlsby said, “but I’m not sure anybody’s drawn a direct correlation between how much you spend and how much success you have. We’re going to try to use our resources as thoughtfully as we can, and we have a lot of good coaches and a lot of good athletes. We just need to play at the highest levels. And we have.”
The conference is going to remain stagnant in the short term, the question becomes whether or not this will bite them down the road.
[ESPN]
