A four-person Big 12 subcommittee tasked with exploring the expansion held a video conference Friday and Texas Tech sporting director Kirby Hocutt told ESPN that no one in the Big 12 has yet been in direct contact with any another school on membership.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Nothing is imminent.”
Hocutt is one of four members of the subcommittee along with Baylor Athletic Director Mack Rhoades, Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen, and Kansas Chancellor Douglas A. Girod. The group was formed in July following the historic decision of the co-founders of Big 12, Texas and Oklahoma, to join the SEC.
Hocutt said the remaining eight schools need to consider how they will bolster the conference from a football standpoint and that it is still “quite in the preliminary stages”. He said Texas and Oklahoma will continue to commit to the rest of the conference that will honor their rights agreement during the 2024-25 season.
“I think we need to be careful and think about this decision sequencing and timeline in the coming months,” Hocutt said. “… We know we will continue to be an Autonomy Five conference. We continue to plan to maintain our permanent position in the college football qualifiers, so we need to think about how we will strengthen this conference from a football standpoint.”
The Pac-12’s decision Thursday that it has no plans to continue expansion “at this time” meant an increase in the Big 12’s chances of adding teams and continuing to be a viable conference. The reality remains that the Big 12 will have to add schools from the group of 5 conferences to be whole again after leaving Texas and OU.
Hocutt said he remains “extremely confident” in the Big 12’s ability to stay strong even without the biggest marks in the league.
“I think we can operate and move forward from the position of strength and as a Power Five conference,” he said. “I think we think we have a lot to sell and a lot to build.”