Report: Big 12 to Meet With Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah

STILLWATER – Could we have another new-look Big 12 soon? According to reports from out west, the Big 12 is set to meet with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah about possibly joining the conference.

While this move wouldn’t make the Big 12 the strongest conference in the country, it would certainly put it on more solid ground numbers-wise following the UCLA/USC to the Big Ten bombshell that dropped last week.

As for making the most sense for Oklahoma State, the jury’s still out on that one.

Let’s take a look at these four teams as they make sense geographically based on the remaining Pac-12 schools, but that’s about it, other than Utah.

The Utes joined the Pac-12 in 2011 and have sense gone 86-50, 53-42 in Pac-12 play, with three nine-win seasons, two 10-win seasons and one 11-win season, compared to just two losing seasons (both came in the first three seasons). They’ve steadily gotten better since joining the Pac-12 and is arguably the toughest out week in and week out in the Pac-12, big brands included.

In that same span, Arizona went 57-74 overall, 33-62 in Pac-12 play, with just one 10-win season and six losing seasons.

Arizona State has been a bit better as the Sun Devils went 77-57 overall, 47-38 in Pac-12 play, with two 10-win seasons and just two losing seasons. However, they could be getting in some hot water with NCAA violations in the coming years.

Colorado has been the worst of the four schools having gone 47-83 overall since joining the Pac-12 in 2011, including 26-67 in Pac-12 play. The Buffs have had just two winning seasons, including the 4-2 COVID-shortened season. They did go 10-4 in 2016, which was capped off with a 38-8 loss to Oklahoma State in the Alamo Bowl.

Should this move go through, the Big 12 would be up to 16 schools with the subtraction of OU and Texas and the addition of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF. And it would certainly further strengthen the Big 12 when it came to the Olympic sports.

Pokes Report also learned the possible moves of Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten aren’t as certain as we were all led to believe over the weekend. There’s now a report from CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd of the Big 12 reaching out to the four schools, as well as Oregon and Washington. So, just about every possibility is on the table.

However, we all know the expansion talk taking place is based on football programs wanting to leave and play in higher revenue conferences, such as the Big Ten and SEC.

So, when we look at the value added by adding the four schools mentioned above, other than geography, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, especially when it comes to what's best for Oklahoma State football and the future of the athletic department.