Conference Realignment

The Denver Post’s Sean Keeler writes that if Colorado has the opportunity to get out of the Pac-12, they should take the offer and run:

Get out, CU.

If the Big Ten won’t return your calls, and the Big 12 does, along with a lifeline, you’d be crazy not to take it.

Two weeks after USC and UCLA announced they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, sticking daggers in the backs of old pals and kicking a century of history to the curb for television cash, the Pac-12 has vowed to roll up its sleeves and fight on.

At least, until somebody waves better money in front of the noses of the Universities of Oregon and Washington, respectively, two good football brands who feel rightly snubbed.

You don’t want to go back to Ames? Or Stillwater? We get it. Granola and brisket don’t always mix.

But the Pac-12 you signed up for is gone. It’s over, financially and competitively.

To put it another way, if push came to shove, in six years, would you rather be in a league with San Diego State, Boise State an

There’s a lot more there, but Keeler is definitely not riding the fence in this situation.

The Wichita Eagle’s Kellis Robinett writes about three ways the Big 12 can position itself as the third best conference:

Just because the Big 12 passed on an opportunity to partner with the Pac-12 doesn’t mean it has given up on poaching its Pac-12 schools of choice. But it will have to make fiscal sense, with the new teams bringing in new value. “We could maybe be the hunter this year,” K-State athletics director Gene Taylor said last week. “We all feel that way. With a new commissioner, we are just trying to figure out the best way to go about it.”

Football

Rivals’ Nick Harris gives a big picture view of the current Big 12 recruiting status, with Texas, Oklahoma, and Baylor currently hot, with Kansas State, Texas Tech and TCU to watch out for:

2. Texas Tech: The Red Raiders stormed out of the gates in the 2023 cycle, and despite other teams in the conference catching fire as well, Joey McGuire’s first class is still very strong considering his product has yet to touch the field. Now comes the challenge of adding a face of the class or two to further cement McGuire’s vision in Lubbock, which I think he and his staff are more than capable of doing.