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Message: [QUOTE="jostar1, post: 1711989, member: 1737"] USA TODAY Sports ‏@USATODAYsports · 1h1 hour ago Why the Big 12 is expanding in one way, but probably not the other. [URL="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/06/03/why-big-12-expanding-one-way-but-not-other/85379550/?hootPostID=87bb6a839043d883da4b1fbb72dedfff"]Why the Big 12 is expanding in one way but not the other[/URL] From the story: Expansion is highly unlikely. That’s not official, of course. As expected, they punted any final decision about adding teams until later. They’ll have an answer probably this summer, or almost certainly this year – but hey, who really knows, because it’s the never-ending story. And Oklahoma president David Boren, the current chairman of the league’s board of directors, dropped just enough vague phrases for fans of schools to parse and remain hopeful about the possibilities. Boren said the league’s presidents asked consulting firms Navigate Research and Bevilacqua Helfant Ventures (BHV) to do more research. “We are certainly continuing to consider possible expansion and what that might do,” he said, “in terms of how it might impact the conference, both positively and negatively. We’re looking at the whole picture.” But Boren also said this: “The data for the championship game was absolutely compelling. The data for expansion is going to require some further thought. There’s no doubt that expansion gives some marginal (financial) gain, but how much marginal gain? We have to refine that a little further financially.” If you’re parsing, pay very close attention to this next part: “It does give some marginal gain,” Boren continued, “but you have to weight that against reputational impacts. In other words, our fans want to see our teams play against great teams. They don’t want to see them play mediocre teams. We have to determine what that’s going to do to the longtime reputation of the brands at each of the schools and what quality of opponents we’re having.” [/QUOTE]

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