Disagree - a little.
UCF likely makes the most sense given that the conference has a footprint issue with their upcoming television renegotiation.
I am guessing they take four schools.
UCF, Cincy and BYU would seem to make the most sense, but BYU comes with some issues that they might not want to deal with. Houston might have some political issues…I don’t think the Texas schools want anything to do with them.
So maybe UCF and Cincy are heavy favorites. BYU and Houston are the second rung. USF might be a dark horse if they decide to make a play for Florida by taking both UCF and USF.
I'm with you on the BYU thing: in theory a good option, in practice a real PINA.
Cincy makes sense. They give WVU a travel partner while providing recent basketball and football success.
I'm not aware of much with Houston politically, so perhaps you're correct there.
The two directional Florida schools seem like they have been, time and again, schools that will offer great upside and access to Florida's rich recruiting
while being in big markets. Yet I don't think they've really panned out that way, and UCF rises and falls with coaches in a way similar to most flash in the pans. They don't bring ratings, they don't seem to help the recruiting, and they'd be off on an island. It overlaps a lot with Houston, in this, except Houston is in the footprint and has longer success in key sports as well as histories with the remaining SWC B12 members.
Maybe they strike into a different direction, though, and pull a surprise candidate near them. Or maybe they go with UCF. That just seems uninspired, uninteresting, and unhelpful in the near
and long term.