Big 12 Looking to Poach Memphis Tigers and Cincinnati Bearcats

Some times you just need to have a little patience and that has been the case with conference realignment lately. It was reported back in early October that the Big 12 had settled on expansion and Memphis had joined the conversation as possible teams to join the Power 5 league.

The hiccups that were holding Cincinnati back from getting picked up have been addressed since then with the announcement that UC Bearcats basketball facilities are getting a major multimillion dollar overhaul in addition to a newly renovated Nippert Stadium.

For a long time, many (including myself) had speculated that the Big 12 would look to UCF or possibly the combination of UCF and USF for a wide Florida footprint to help recruiting and overall exposure. But it looks like the conference wants to help out West Virginia with some regional partners.

It appears that it might be a done deal with the official announcement coming some time around the end of March Madness, according to ESPN Radio in Nashville and this story from ESPN 92.9.

The trigger likely got pulled on this deal when Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby was faced with the problem of having Co-Champions since his league is the only Power Conference without a conference championship game.

We'll keep an eye on this one as it develops. Unfortunately this took closer to eight weeks than four as we had originally reported. -Patience.