Houston coach Tom Herman thought his team was going to be a member of the Big 12.

Herman was asked what he thought about Houston’s fit in the no-longer swirling winds of Big 12 expansion while on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Friday. Houston was seen as a prime contender for the conference if it expanded to 12 or 14 teams.

But the Big 12 said earlier this fall it wouldn’t be expanding at all.

“Did I think so? Yeah, I did, to be quite honest with you,” Herman said when asked if he thought Houston was going to be the Big 12’s newest member. “I didn’t concern myself at all with things that I can’t control, but when you sit back and you’ve got a spare few seconds you think about the opportunities for the Big 12. We’re the best candidate for conference expansion in the entire country. Regardless of it’s the Big 12. We’re a tier one academic institution, we’re in the fourth-largest market in the country and we’re playing really good football right now and making unbelievable upgrades to our facilities and our program.

“I really thought that if the Big 12 did expand, then we were a no-brainer.”

Houston has publicly said it will do whatever it can to keep Herman, who is seen as a top candidate for bigger jobs. A move to the Big 12 could have upped Houston’s status on the college football landscape. And given the program a whole lot more revenue.

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The Cougars moved to 9-2 with a win over Louisville on Thursday night. The win likely knocked the Cardinals out of the College Football Playoff discussion and reminded everyone else about the potency of Herman’s team. The Cougars opened the season with a win vs. Oklahoma.

Herman said the Louisville game was the first time he’d had every member of his two-deep healthy since the Oklahoma game.

“When we’re fresh and we’re healthy I think we can play with anyone in the country,” Herman said. “This was the first time, believe it or not — this was the first time that every single player that played int he Oklahoma game was cleared medically to play a game. We had gone 10-straight weeks without basically all of our starters and our key backups cleared to play.”

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Tom Herman’s team is 9-2 after beating Louisville. (Getty) More

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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