Why does the Big-12 have to add anyone? They have had multiple opportunities and came out of each consideration adding no one. At the time that WVU was added, it would have been a very easy step to just add WVU and UL; only a tiny step further gets them Cincinnati or Houston and a conference of 12. But that did not happen. A few years later, they went back to the search and looked over everyone and decided no one had what they wanted.

Even a third time they looked over the applicants and at that time BYU and Houston were pretty high on the list, guess what? No one got in.

It may make sense on a message board but obviously does not to the Big-12 to add anyone at this time.

Their payout is closer to the SEC and the Big-Ten than it is to the ACC and the Pac-12. Scheduling is a lot easier with the 9 other conferences members for each school, including WVU, which states continually, once you are in the air, you are in the air, what is another 90 minutes?

This deal lets ESPN enter the Tier 3 situation with the Big-12. Here to date it has been member-by-member and even with this T3 deal, much of those tier 3 rights will remain. This deal is only for a part of that pie. The problem for the Big-12 as I see it, is few people will have access to ESPN+, heck many still do not have ESPN3 or even ESPNU.

But, the big thing from this is the date; this runs through 2024, when the Tier 1 rights expire. If it ends up being a needful situation to add members, the Big-12 will, but each time the option comes up, there does not seem to be any sense or urgency, nor does ESPN seem to be backing away from the current set up.