Big 12 Basketball: Examining 9 potential candidates for expansion
By Joey Loose
Colorado State
When considering expansion candidates, look no further than some of the potent mid-major teams from the Mountain West. We’ve already considered Boise State, mostly due to their prowess in football, but Colorado State would make sense for other reasons.
Adding the Rams would get the Big 12 footprint back into Colorado, having lost the Buffaloes during the most recent rounds of realignment. They would also be picking up a basketball program that has really started to shine under new coach Niko Medved and could be headed towards big things in 2022.
One immediate downside is that Colorado State hasn’t been faring well in football in recent years. They’ve only been ranked once in the last 17 years and haven’t been in a bowl game since 2017. Competing in the Big 12 in football would be a challenge, though second-year coach Steve Addazio could turn things around long before they left the Mountain West.
All things considered, Colorado State is a solid choice, but might need to be paired with one or more of the other west coast teams to beef up the Big 12’s membership. Basketball could eventually settle into the conference (certainly in a better place than TCU), but football will certainly struggle with just about everyone but Kansas; if the Jayhawks even stick around.