3 pod scenarios from a BYU site, I think. These don’t excite me, at all! I would hate to lose all of our annual in state rivalries.
Pods with the Intent to Change
The following pods are what will most likely take place if the Big 12 has clear plans to continue to expand at some point in the future.- West Pod: BYU, Kansas, Kansas St, Texas Tech
- This pod is a holder pod. It seems likely that in the future the Big 12 will expand again and they will likely look West to teams like SDSU, Colorado St, UNLV (NIL), Boise State or existing Pac 12 schools if that Pac 12 collapses. When that happens, BYU would almost certainly join those teams and the three remaining teams would pick up either the last team or Iowa St.
- East Pod: West Virginia, UCF, Cincinnati, Iowa St
- This pod is sort of a puzzled pod of teams out East. If the Big 12 were to expand to 16 and pick up one team out East (USF or Memphis) along with the three teams out west – I really don’t see the Big 12 adding more than one school out east – then Iowa St would move to the pod with the Kansas schools and TTU and the new school would join this pod.
- Central Pod- TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma St, Houston
- At the moment this pod looks absolutely stacked, but that will change. Baylor historically has not been a great school. TCU is heading a new direction with Patterson gone and Houston will have growing pains as they enter the Big 12. Of all pods, this is the one that will likely not change if the conference expanded.
16 Team Pods
As mentioned on the last page, if the Big 12 were to expand to 16 teams, here are the most likely pod, again with a brief explanation.- Western Pod: BYU, new team, new team, new team
- While the Big 12 likely wouldn’t want four new teams all in one pod, geographically it may just have to be that way. There is no way that SDSU or Boise St would be in the same pod as Houston while BYU stays. However, at the same time, this would immediatly be a decent pod as whoever the Big 12 would be adding, they would be teams who would likely be around .500 in year one.
- Great Plains Pod: Kansas, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Iowa St
- This is essentially the old west pod with the addition of Iowa St and losing BYU. Geographically this makes sense and would create natural travel partners with ISU and the Kansas schools. The odd one left out is Texas Tech, but the Red Raiders are already isolated geographically so finding a nice fit would be difficult unless a team like New Mexico or North Texas (which won’t happen) joins the conference.
- Central Pod: Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma St, Houston
- Same pod.
- Eastern Pod: UCF, Cincinnati, West Virginia, new team
- Similar to the Great Plains pod, this is essentially the same pod with the exception of ISU leaving and a new team joining. Yes, this pod has a new feel similar to the western pod, but WVU adds some experience to make this pod seem healthier than the western.
Sticking with 12 Teams
There is also the chance that the Big 12 decides to stay put at 12 teams. These pods of course could change eventually, but the intent would be to stay with these pods and make the best of them until further notice.The focus of these pods would be to focus on rivalries, geographic location and trying to keep any pod from appearing to be too weak/loaded, although the latter category is minimal since teams all have their ups and downs (yes even you Kansas).
- Pod 1: BYU, Baylor, TCU and Houston
- BYU and TCU already have a natural rivalry. Baylor and Houston seem like they could also build a nice rivalry. While geographically this pod isn’t the best, having the three SE Texas schools all together is a plus and realistically there could be a scenario where BYU just stays in Texas for a week if back to back road games take place. Something of note, this pod would have the two teams, BYU and TCU, who have won national championships.
- Pod 2: Kansas, Kansas St, Oklahoma St, Texas Tech
- This pods feels like the heart of the Big 12 with a group full of teams who have been in this conference for decades. This pod would likely carry the Big 12 brand for the first few years after Texas and Oklahoma leave.
- Pod 3: Iowa St, UCF, Cincinnati and West Virginia
- This is the one pod that may be tough get rivalries going in. Geographically, none of these schools are anywhere near each other. The issue however is that unless you put Iowa St with Kansas, none of these schools could be close to any other anyway. This pod would be the wildcard pod where a team could come out of nowhere and win the conference.
