Clemson & Florida State Flirting with the Big 12?

The Big 12 Conference may not be done adding just yet.

Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

The makeup of the Big 12 Conference has changed drastically over the last couple of years with longtime members Oklahoma and Texas bolting for the SEC and the league taking in Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, UCF, and Utah.

Just when you think conference realignment conversations may take a summer off, rumors begin to float around and this latest report would cement the Big 12 as a top three league. Commissioner Brett Yormark already believes that to be the case, but this makes it a sure thing. According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, there is a belief that the Big 12 has had talks with Clemson and Florida State.

"Well, you look at Florida State and Clemson's options," Dellenger said in an interview with John Kurtz. "The first option would probably be to get into the Big Ten or SEC, the second option would be in some way to reform the ACC with a smaller number of teams where you would get a financial advantage because you wouldn't split the TV distribution with 18, maybe you would split it with ten, so they could reform in a smaller group. Option three is to probably join another league, there's only one other power conference league and that's the Big 12. You look at those options and again, they probably prefer number one, but I don't know that that's going to happen because the SEC has schools in those states already in Florida and South Carolina. The Big Ten, I don't know how interested they are in coming south, I mean, those things might happen.

"I think there is at least early conversation between the Big 12 and those schools about the possibility. I don't know that it's anything serious yet because they do have to get out of the ACC whether that's through a settlement or court ruling so we could be months if not years away from something. But that does seem to be one of the possibilities, is the Big 12."

It feels inevitable at this point that the ACC is the next power conference to collapse. The Big 12 was in a similar situation a few summers back, but they had options. The PAC 12 didn't have any last year and the ACC certainly doesn't. The Big 12 survived after losing its two biggest brands. Is the ACC strong enough to do the same? I don't think so. If Clemson and Florida State do in fact leave, others will be looking to bounce right behind them. They're already at a disadvantage from a revenue standpoint and losing those two brands, at least for football, would make them the equivalent of the now non-existent Big East.

Brett Yormark is as aggressive as they come and if he sees an avenue to create value for the league, he's going to pursue it.

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