Update:
11 p.m. to reflect the Big 12 voting to add Colorado.
Big 12 expansion meets Coach Prime?
The conference′s presidents and chancellors voted unanimously Wednesday night on a conference call to add Colorado as a new member, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported. Colorado has not formally applied for Big 12 membership, which is expected to happen Thursday along with approval of the move, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network, who was told, “It’s 98 percent.”
The school, whose football team has a new coach this season in former Cowboy Deion Sanders, is currently in the Pac-12. It’s been over a year since USC and UCLA announced they would be leaving the Pac-12 for the Big 10, which set off rumors of the conference expanding to add SMU and San Diego State.
The Pac-12 has been working to secure a new media rights deal to Colorado, as well as Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah, from joining another conference. The Pac-12 didn’t announce a new deal last Friday during its media day.
Texas College Sports
For SMU, joining the Pac-12 would be a return to a Power Five conference, but the move wouldn’t come without risk.
Colorado, which was one of the founding members of the Big 12 before leaving for the Pac-12 in 2011, could help the Big 12 fill the void created when Texas and Oklahoma leave for the SEC in 2024.
The Buffaloes open the upcoming football season against a Big 12 opponent: TCU, in Fort Worth. Sanders, who recently missed Pac-12 media day after undergoing successful foot surgery, said he was looking forward to the matchup.
“I promise you that when we go to TCU I’m running out in front of our team,” Sanders said of his Sept. 2 debut. “I promise you that.”
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