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

In an effort to keep up with the SEC and Big Ten’s effort to become super power conferences, reports indicate the Big 12 is meeting with several prominent college football programs this week.

According to Jason Scheer of WildcatAuthority.com, Big 12 officials are going to meet with current Pac-12 schools Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah at some point this week.

Programs like Arizona and Arizona State, who have both been members of the Pac-12 since 1978, jumping ship would sound somewhat surprising if it was being done out of nowhere. That is obviously not the case right now since the news comes in the aftermath of USC and UCLA announcing a move to the Big Ten starting in 2024 just days ago.

Colorado makes sense for the Big 12 due to the fact the Buffaloes were members of the conference from 1996 until leaving for the Pac-12 in 2010.

As for Utah, like Colorado, doesn’t have any longstanding ties or allegiance to the Pac-12. The Utes joined the conference in 2011, marking the first time the program was a member of a what’s considered a major conference.

While none of these programs have the ability to make up for the impending loss of both Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC for the Big 12, adding these programs with the already locked in additions of UCF, Cincinnati, BYU and Houston could certainly help at least keep the conference viable in the immediate future. That’s always taking into account the ever-changing landscape around college football in terms of conference realignment.