Bob Bowlsby's Save the Future of the Big 12 Campaign and Today's Statement

STILLWATER – Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby is having to issue a lot of statements these days and while issuing statements is a conference commissioner’s job or part of it, the message in the statements usually is telling in how good a job the commissioner is doing. Here’s the latest from Irving, Texas and the Big 12 headquarters.

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No time with the media, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been on a solo mission.

“Following two days of consultation with the athletics directors of the continuing members of the Big 12 Conference, commissioner Bob Bowlsby stated, “The eight ADs remain committed to furthering the Big 12 as one of the nation’s premier athletic conferences and look forward to working with our presidents and chancellors to strengthen the league. Future exploration by the group will continue to center on options that best position the long-term strength of the Conference.”

You want to know what Bowlsby is conveying here, don’t you? Well, our sources have told us that while a committee was convened of athletic directors Kirby Hocutt at Texas Tech and Mack Rhoades at Baylor along with University of Kansas chancellor Douglas Girod and Iowa State president Dr. Wendy Wintersteen, Bowlsby has jumped the gun and kept his travel agent busy. As previously reported by a number of sources including The Athletic, the Big 12 had a huge backlog of information on schools interested in joining the conference from the league’s foray into looking for new members back in 2016. At that time, the conference, primarily at the insistence of Texas and Oklahoma chose not to add schools. Now because of Texas and Oklahoma it is necessary to add schools for the future.

Pokes Report has learned from various sources including those at the schools involved that Bob Bowlsby has visited Provo, Utah and BYU, Orlando, Fla. and the University of Central Florida, Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati, and most recently stopped in Houston and the University of Houston. No surprise that Bowlsby has kicked up his efforts. He has no idea how long his window will be, but the movement of the alliance of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, and Pac-12 has stymied any further expansion of other power conferences for now. The Pac-12 announcing last Thursday that they would table expansion for now. You know he does have a current in-houce consultant in former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck.

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Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff is on pause for now with expansion.

Pokes Report learned from sources on the West Coast and closely tied to the Pac-12 that the conference commissioner George Kliavkoff favored bringing in a couple of Big 12 schools, schools that could ramp up the intensity of football in the Pac-12. The push back from current Pac-12 members, as we reported last week led by USC, was resolute and started with travel concerns, then went to academic criticism and finally landed on the real cause that they flat didn’t want Oklahoma State and that other school coming in and threatening the top of the conference in football.

We found that interesting, and we’ve been told that Kliavkoff is determined to shake up football and push it toward greater intensity, commitment, and ultimately performance.

Meanwhile, Bowlsby is on his tour and will meet with his eight remaining presidents either Thursday or Friday morning. We initially believed it to be Thursday, but another source today said it could be Friday. Either way, Bowlsby means business to crank up a future framework for the Big 12 to move on from whatever the timetable is that Texas and Oklahoma move to the SEC. Meanwhile, all eight remaining schools are committed to one aspect of this process and that is keeping Texas and Oklahoma playing in the league, paying the proper exit fee, and if they leave before the grant of rights and the current television contract is up, then making sure they collect the television revenue from both schools.

The itinerary of expansion is unknown and likely new schools would be brought in at a later date. There are lots of contingencies involved. The biggest for the Big 12 is how long Texas and Oklahoma were to remain. Bringing in new schools with the approval of the eight remaining schools would not lighten the terms of departure for Texas and Oklahoma.

Quick Look at BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, and Houston

Brigham Young University - Provo, Utah                                                                              Enrollment: 33,517; Head Football Coach: Kalani Sitake; Stadium: LaVell Edwards Stadium (63,725);  Record in the 2010s: 77-53 (44th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 714,000 (46th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $93.3-million (60th)

University of Central Florida – Orlando, Florida                                                                    Enrollment: 66,183; Head Football Coach: Gus Malzahn; Stadium: Bounce House (44,206); Record in the 2010s: 88-42 (16th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 566,000 (58th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $68.2-million (65th)

University of Cincinnati – Cincinnati, Ohio                                                                            Enrollment: 46,798; Head Football Coach: Luke Fickell; Stadium: Nippert Stadium (40,000); Record in the 2010s: 79-49 (37th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 430,000 (64th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $30.2-million (77th)

University of Houston – Houston, Texas                                                                              Enrollment: 35,000; Head Football Coach: Dana Holgorsen; Stadium: TDECU Stadium (40,000) Record in the 2010s: 80-48 (37th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 689,000 (50th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $41.4-million (72nd)

For comparison:

University of Texas – Austin, Texas                                                                                               Record in the 2010s: 71-57 (57th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 2.27-million (13th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $1.105-billion (1st)

University of Oklahoma – Norman, Okla.                                                                                   Record in the 2010s: 109-25 (4th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 2.9-million (8th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $885-million (7th)

Oklahoma State University – Stillwater, Okla.                                                                           Record in the 2010s: 93-37 (13th); Avg. TV Viewers per game Last Five Years: 1.64-million (19th); Wall Street Est. Value of Football Program: $271-million (30th)