Sources: Colorado Nearing Move to Big 12, With Others Potentially to Follow

Colorado would be the first Power 5 team to switch conferences in the latest wave of realignment—and could soon be followed by a number of schools.

The Big 12’s pursuit of Colorado as the school that “starts the domino effect” of expansion in that conference is on the verge of happening, sources told Sports Illustrated Wednesday.

Reclaiming former league member Colorado is the “common denominator in every scenario” the Big 12 has been considering, sources said. On Wednesday, Colorado had a board of regents meeting and then scheduled another one for Thursday afternoon. Big 12 leadership also had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday night. "It happens in the next 24 hours," another source tells SI. "The Colorado meeting is not to talk about anything other than membership."

The public agenda for Colorado’s Thursday meeting: “athletics operations.” The expectation is that the Pac-12 member school will formally move to request admission to the Big 12, where it was a member from 1996-2010. That request would be accepted, sources told SI, and then the Big 12 hunt would be on for at least one more member to bring aboard.

“If Colorado brings the four corners (fellow Pac-12 members Utah, Arizona and Arizona State), that’s the ideal scenario,” one source told SI. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Our schools love the four corners, going from 12 to 16. Can Colorado bring in Arizona or Utah? Arizona more likely than Utah.”

Representatives from those other Pac-12 schools did not return calls for comment Wednesday night.

Deion Sanders and the Buffaloes appear to be on the verge of joining the Big 12 :: Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports

If the rest of the Pac-12 holds together and doesn’t follow Colorado, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark would like to target Big East basketball member and football independent Connecticut. There is belief within the conference that Yormark is far more enamored with the Huskies than other members. “There is some work to do on studying UConn,” a Big 12 source cautions.

But Yormark might have gained further credibility and trust by delivering Colorado. That could empower his pitch to pursue UConn, a basketball gold mine in the northeast but a football underachiever over the last decade.

While Colorado football has been quite bad for a decade, the school is still viewed as a valuable addition. In fact, it is the most attractive addition because it would be the first (and thus far only) new member moving in from another Power Five conference, sources said. That’s viewed as especially important for the league in light of losing tentpole programs Oklahoma and Texas to the Southeastern Conference come 2024.

This season Cincinnati, UCF and Houston arrive from the Group of Five, while BYU comes in after years as a football independent. Colorado offers familiarity, a new TV market in a growing state, good academic credentials and the prestige that comes with plundering a rival P5 conference.

“Our board is enamored by them,” a Big 12 source says. “They would be the first P5 addition to the conference. It’s what they represent.”

For the Pac-12, this is a bitter blow as the league as meandered toward a media-rights deal. As that conference has worked with various potential partners to present a lucrative deal to its members, the Big 12 has been actively plotting the Pac-12’s demise.

Even Yormark’s remarks at Big 12 media days were calculated to disrupt the Pac-12, a source says.

“We weren’t just speaking to the members here,” the source says. “We’re speaking to Colorado. 'You want this? You want to be a partner in this?’“

The rest of the conferences have been watching this raid unfold with great interest and great trepidation. A source in another power conference told SI Wednesday, “We’re happy where we are, but we always have to be ready to react. If the Pac-12 falls apart, we might find ourselves considering moves we don’t really want to make, depending on what other leagues are doing.”