And so it's on. The Big 12 is ready to -- once again -- become a 12-team league. Or perhaps even a 14-team league.

It took years and countless meetings and lots of expensive research for conference leaders to reach the conclusion that it was time to add teams this week. But really what it took was news of an ACC network, leaving the Big 12 as the only "power five" conference without its own network thanks mostly to the presence of the Longhorn Network.

That can be resolved down the road, I believe, simply by overpaying Texas for the first few years of a new network deal to make up for lost revenue. Regardless, the important matter is that the call to Commissioner Bob Bowlsby has been issued.

Find us the best possible candidates. Sooner rather than later.

The important thing is that the new schools bring the most powerful brands with strong fan bases. But Bowlsby also said he's looking for schools that "will grow as we grow."

And that leads me back to Central Florida as a prime candidate. Not nearly as sexy or as accomplished as some of the other candidates, it's an enormous school that would get the Big 12 into Florida, which can't be bad, either from a recruiting standpoint or in attracting viewers.

The school has an enrollment upward of 60,000, and the Knights can play a little football, as Baylor found out in the Fiesta Bowl after the 2013 season.

I had mentioned previously bringing South Florida along with UCF as sort of a travel partner. I'm not against that, but it may not be feasible or really in the best interest of spreading the Big 12 brand.

There's room for one more Texas team if you're going to construct a seven-team division of Texas and Oklahoma teams. I still like the idea of adding Houston over SMU because the Cougars are much further down the road to football prosperity than the Mustangs ever will be as long as SMU's administration doesn't soften its stance on academics.

Something about bringing Memphis and Cincinnati together makes sense -- they have been rivals in more than one conference historically -- and makes West Virginia seem slightly more attached to the league. The geography remains odd, but at least Bob Huggins coaching against Cincinnati in basketball could be entertaining for the first few years.

If the reasons to consider Brigham Young outweigh the negatives, including an unwillingness to allow competition on Sundays, then perhaps adding the Cougars (maybe even as a "football only" school) would have some merit. I don't really like that idea. I think conference members should be all in or out.

So give me Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis and Central Florida and let's move into the future. If you want to offer up reasons for one or two substitutions, I'm willing to listen. But really you should be passing these thoughts along to Bowlsby.

The man has lots of work to do, and time, literally, is money.

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw