GRAPEVINE -- Three months after the Big 12 presidents unanimously authorized Commissioner Bob Bowlsby to contact expansion candidates, the process ended Monday with another unanimous vote.

The Big 12 won't be adding any new members for the foreseeable future.

The conference looks exactly like it did July 19 -- still with 10 schools and still with a dysfunctional national image.

Upwards of 20 schools expressed interest. Eleven -- Houston, BYU, Cincinnati, SMU, Central Florida, South Florida, UConn, Colorado State, Air Force, Rice and Tulane -- went through the final interview process.

At the end, there was no rose, no ceremony and no dream admission to a "power five' conference waiting.

"It was perhaps a little more of a sweepstakes than we might have thought it was gonna be at the very beginning," Bowlsby said. "But it was a very good process."

Bowlsby and Oklahoma President David Boren, the chairman of the Big 12's board of directors, said no vote or even discussion of individual candidates occurred during the nearly six hours spent on the subject.

Industry sources said expansion opposition by Boren and offers by TV partners ESPN and Fox to sweeten the current contract cooled the expansion concept.

The Big 12 positioned the decision as a celebration of the current conference.

"I think that this was really not a decision not to expand, but this was an endorsement and a reinvestment in the strength of the 10 that we have," Bowlsby said.

Boren was the person who had jump-started the Big 12's exploration of expansion and a TV network and the return of a football title game by calling the conference "psychologically disadvantaged" in June 2015.

On Monday, he portrayed the conference presidents as committed to each other and to the conference. The Big 12 had lost four original members -- Texas A&M, Nebraska, Missouri and Colorado in 2010 and '11. It had been snubbed in the first College Football Playoff in 2014, for the lack of a title game, the infamous "13th data point." Its playoff hopes aren't great now.

Boren even quoted a bit of down-home philosophy, saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We feel a lot of confidence that we have in the conference. That contributed to our decision not to further expand at this point."

Boren played a key role. After pushing the Big 12 to explore expansion and being seen as an advocate, Boren suddenly sent very mixed signals on expansion Sept. 14.

The change reset thinking through the conference, sources indicated. And Texas President Greg Fenves had been pretty much ambivalent on expansion, not an advocate outside of public support of Houston's bid.

"Ten is the right number," Fenves said in a statement. "This is the right way to ensure a strong conference going forward."

ESPN and Fox had opposed expansion because of the pro rata clause in the TV contract. For each additional school added, the Big 12 would have gotten a payment of about $25 million annually. Presuming new members would have been given far less than full shares, the current members could have made an additional $3 million to $4 million in the first year.

"We don't think expansion in the Big 12 is a good idea for the conference," Fox Sports President Eric Shanks told Sports Business Journal. "We think it will be dilutive to the product in the short term. In the long term, it's probably harmful to the future of the conference."

Expect the networks to now sweeten the Big 12's payout for its football title game in exchange for not expanding.

"There are components of the contract that we also talk about in the context of those changes, and we're going to continue to talk about those," Bowlsby said.

Don't expect Big 12 schools to extend the current grant of rights past 2024-25, when Texas and Oklahoma are expected to explore their options. Oklahoma's fan base has expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the Big 12.

"No one's looking to walk away from this conference," Boren said. "Any feelings to the contrary is just mistaken. They don't understand the strong commitment that we all have to it."

Among those upset by the Big 12 decision was Tilman Fettita, the chairman of Houston's board of regents.

"We know the University of Houston is qualified from an academic and athletic standpoint," Fertitta told Houston's Fox 26. "You'd almost [want] expansion and us not being included than to have no expansion at all, just because it would have told you something. I'm just shocked we went through this process and nothing happened."

Twitter: @ChuckCarltonDMN

Big 12 notes

Championship game: With the Big 12 now remaining at 10 members, the conference will begin the process of planning for the 2017 football season and the return of a championship game.

It will also have to choose a site for the title game, with Arlington among the four cities in the hunt. AT&T Stadium hosted the last two Big 12 championship games in 2009 and 2010. A decision on the site for 2017 could be announced by Nov. 1, Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday.

Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said ADs are weighing subjects like whether to have two divisions in addition to the round-robin schedule. Another possibility might be having the top two teams play each other regardless, Castiglione said.

Baylor presentation: Baylor officials made a half-hour presentation to the Big 12 board of directors Monday following an investigation into the school's handling of sexual assaults.

Bowlsby declined to give specific details about what occurred, including any discussion about the resignation of Baylor Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford.

"They responded to questions and it was good," Bowlsby said.