From today's Jake Trotter story:
>>Two weeks ago in the Dallas area, the Big 12 held meetings with the 11 candidates that made the conference's first round of cuts, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.com. Those meetings began with SMU on Tuesday and ended with South Florida on Friday evening; Air Force, BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Connecticut, Houston, Rice and Tulane had their turns in between.
Each session, with commissioner Bob Bowlsby and a small group of Big 12 officials, lasted roughly two hours, and the expansion candidates were limited to bringing up to five representatives, who also had to be employed by the schools in some capacity. The majority brought their president, athletic director, board chair and general counsel, though USF, for example, was able to include Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, who is a faculty member of the USF Muma College of Business.
At the conclusion of each meeting, however, the expansion candidates were given little indication of the Big 12's next step or even if there will be an actual expansion vote on Oct. 17. So far, it's essentially been radio silence.<<