Cincinnati may not have to wait much longer to find out if it's going to get an official invitation from the Big 12.
According to Oklahoma president David Boren, the conference could vote over the summer to add the Bearcats or any other team(s) to the conference. Cincinnati recently confirmed interest in the conference and emails and documents obtained by the Cincinnati Enquirer showed that the school's president has been lobbying for Big 12 membership since 2014.
“We're in a fact-finding mode, we're in a data-gathering mode,” Boren said. “In other words, what will it mean to the stability of the conference? What will it mean financially to the conference?
“We've sort of said to ourselves, come this summer, we're going to have to finally make a decision about what we do. We cannot indefinitely postpone decisions. That's what I had gotten frustrated about. I thought we were spinning our wheels.”
We're unsure if Boren's comments about expansion are an unofficial violation of the conference's one-voice rule. The Big 12's presidents recently decided that commissioner Bob Bowlsby would be the only person to talk about expansion.
The previous paragraph was in half-jest, by the way. Boren has long been candid about the Big 12's expansion possibilities and it's appreciated. And he was one of the people included in Cincy president Santa Ono's released emails, so it's natural that he be available for public comment.
He also made the point that the conference should go ahead and act while everyone is on good terms. When the Big 12 added TCU and West Virginia, the conference was scrambling and many schools were looking at possible realignment ideas to protect their best interests. Those two schools replaced Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas A&M.
“It's a good time to act," Boren said. "Let's don't wait until we have a crisis or we're about to lose a member or two. We're stable right now, we like each other. Most people in the Big 12 want to stay in the Big 12. It's the right time to make progress.”
Will the Big 12 be acting this summer? We'll find out soon enough. The conference may feel the time is right after two years of the College Football Playoff little to no evidence that the CFP is biased against it.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
