The Big 12 Conference has 10 schools. It should probably go back to having 12 teams. If it does that, the NCAA will let it bring back its football conference championship game.

And if it had had one of those in 2014, its champion would've had probably 12 wins, definitely a non-pretend league title, and maybe a berth in the College Football Playoff. We would all be speaking Texan and wearing Baylor or TCU colors right now.

Schools that offer major TV markets and consistently competitive teams are valuable. The obvious best potential paths for Big 12 expansion remain adding Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, or UCF; maybe throwing in an associated neighbor near any of those; booting Kansas for Wichita State; and not considering your school.

But this is neither the time nor the place for the best potential candidates.

Tuvalu Maritime Training Institute

Tuvalu is a small island nation in the South Pacific that is not a large American TV market, despite being home to the .tv Internet domain.

But it does sea merchant stuff, which will remind Big 12 fans of Mike Leach! It's at least as remote as Texas Tech, so it's a cultural fit! And it oversees about 150 students at a time, just like Nick Saban!

However, it has never sent a team to the College Football Playoff.

Peripatos

Gustav Adolph Spangenberg

Founded in like 335 BCE by Aristotle, who might have been the smartest person ever if he'd only known more about American TV markets and the College Football Playoff.

Per Wikipedia, "Peripatetic gatherings were probably conducted less formally than the term 'school' suggests," so kind of like UNC.

Aristotle left Athens about 13 years after starting school, nowhere near as long as Mike Bobo lasted.

For-Profit Online University

Starfleet Medical Academy

Via

Con: Probably founded more than 100 years from now.

Pro: National championship racquetball program.

Con: College Football Playoff? TV market?

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary