Big 12 Basketball: Pros and cons of recent serious expansion candidates

San Diego State

Both UCLA and USC departing the Pac-12 for the Big Ten opened up a big hole in southern California and it’s likely that the Pac-12 will try to fill that void with San Diego State. However, if the Big 12 also comes calling, the better option is very clear, especially if the Big 12 raids that league for several of the other schools.

This isn’t just about geography: San Diego State is a really good basketball program. In case anyone’s forgotten, they just played in the national championship game. Steve Fisher built this program basically from the ground up over the last quarter century and Brian Dutcher has continued that trajectory in recent years. The football program has also had a decent run in recent years and would fit decently in the league.

Would San Diego State compete in a power conference? There are many questions to their addition in this type of upgraded Big 12, but that run to the title game certainly answers a few potential questions. Adding a Big 12 team in southern California would certainly be a major win for the conference, and there’s a lot of positives for the Aztecs at every side. The biggest question is how San Diego State would compete with the competition suddenly ramped up in every sport.