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Time to root for the Buckeyes

The Playoff Selection Committee has said that they plan to give preference to conference champions who win a conference championship game. Imagine if Baylor and TCU both win the rest of their games and Ohio State leapfrogs them into the playoffs. You can imagine there will be a mad scramble in the Big 12 to hold a conference championship game. As it stands, a conference can only do that with 12 members.

Assuming they choose to expand, let's look at their best potential targets:

- Cincinnati - adds a geographical rival for West Virginia, adds a TV market, recruiting in an important state, and a football team that has done well (not great, but well) over the past decade.

- Memphis - not too out of place geographically, adds a decent TV market, but doesn't do much for recruiting or adding to the quality of the football schedule (decent at basketball, but that won't drive the conversation)

- SMU - fits geographically, but doesn't add any value to the conference

- Houston - ditto

- S. Florida - does not fit geographically, but adds a major TV market and major recruiting area. Football team has been terrible for all but one year.

- UCF - does not fit geographically, but adds a major TV market and major recruiting area. Football team ain't bad.

- San Diego State - does not fit geographically, but adds a major TV market and major recruiting area. Football team ain't bad.

- Fresno State - the football team isn't bad and has had plenty of good moments historically. However, I only see this happening if San Diego State gets invited since Fresno's TV market is not amazing and the recruiting would not truly get Big 12 teams into LA or other major areas.

- BYU - BYU was probably the best football team in the BCS era to not make a BCS bowl, but I'll just say good at sports because they bring more than just football. TV would be great and even has it's own channel. Recruiting would not be improved. Does not fit geographically.

- BSU - Easily the best option for improving the quality of football. Carries a national TV brand, but no mentionable DMA for TV. Recruiting for other schools would in no way be improved and certainly does not fit geographically.

The Big 12 has 10 teams. So that means they'd need to at least add 2 teams to have a conference championship game. If they only needed to add one team, I'd bet on Cincinnati. But since there is no other single team that fits the bill, they have to look at a set of two teams. In my mind it would be BSU & BYU or UCF & S.Fla.

BYU can't get into the PAC-12 because they are a religious school and won't play on Sunday. Baylor and TCU are also religious schools, so if the Big 12 can look past the playing on Sunday thing I don't think they'd care. Regardless, I'm not saying BSU & BYU would be a lock, but I think they could much more smoothly transition to the big stage of The Big 12 than UCF and especially more so than S.Fla.

In the end, they can bring in the state of Florida with the 4th and 5th most popular teams in that state, or they can go with two teams that both carry national brands. Or maybe they go up to 14 teams and take all 4, who knows? But the only way they so much as have that discussion is if the Selection Committee burns them for not having a championship game. Go Buckeyes!

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