The Big 12 could be aggressively making moves to become a true "Power 3" counterpart to the Big Ten and SEC by poaching FSU and Clemson, as well as four other schools from the ACC, according to longtime college football radio host Greg Swaim.
"As we've said for a year, FSU and Clemson will not get a B1G offer, due to neither being AAU accredited," Swaim prefaced before saying, "But from Vegas the talk is the SEC has now turned the pair down. With new sponsorship the B12 probably won't pay quite what the other two do, but with those two they'll pay double what the ACC does.
"And it won't end there. The talk is the B12 will take six from the ACC."
The Big 12's foray into private equity could lead to a massive financial windfall for the conference that'd help facilitate the ACC's biggest brands, which besides FSU and Clemson could include Miami, Louisville, UNC, and Duke, making way to a conference on the rise.
Big 12 could have more recent champions than the Big Ten
Adding FSU and Clemson is so pivotal because in doing so, the Big 12 would immediately lay claim to more champions than the Big Ten since the 2010 season. Once on the brink of becoming irrelevant, the Big 12 would've made one of the more stunning transformations over the span of a few years.
The Big Ten is likely to respond by adding a team from Texas by the year 2026. We know it won't be TCU. Texas A&M and Rice are the only AAU-accredited schools, and the B1G is likely only to consider the Aggies of the two due to revenue and recent on-field success.
While the B1G has been doing big things in the past two years on and off the field, the Big 12 looks like it has a response waiting if all goes according to plan.