Auburn football: 5 Group of 5 Big 12 replacements after OU and UT leave for SEC

Today was a major day for every team in the SEC–with founding member Auburn football obviously included–given the Big 12’s official split with Texas and Oklahoma.

Since last week, all signs have pointed towards the Red River Showdown rivals joining the SEC, but today, the first domino fell for the transition to begin to take shape.

So, how exactly does the Big 12 recover? Losing the two banner franchises doesn’t bode well for the conference’s long-term health. OU has been the only Big 12 team capable of breaking through to the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014.

Without them and the #1 revenue-earner in all of college football, what is the way forward? Well, that answer could go two different directions.

The first would be disbanding and allowing other conferences to pick the bones of what’s left. This option effectively kills the Power Five structure as we know it. It’s possible the AAC or Mountain West can rise up in the Big 12’s absence, but it’s just as possible college football centralizes to three big 20+ team conferences.

That would undoubtedly upset college football purists, though. The other direction they could head in is picking up two replacements teams–or four if they wanted to honor the “12” in Big 12–to replace the Sooners and Longhorns.

Let’s take a look at 5 Group of Five programs that could make sense as potential replacements:

Auburn football HC Bryan Harsin’s alma mater brings blue turf to the Big 12

Boise State has established a long-standing reputation of being a big fish in a smaller pond than their national notoriety would have you believe they’re swimming in.

Only three seasons (not including a COVID-19 shortened 2020) since the turn of the century have seen BSU finish with less than 10 wins. Given how much interest their brand has started to attract nationally since the 2007 Fiesta Bowl win over (coincidentally) Oklahoma, it’d make sense to see the Big 12 embrace the blue turf by bringing on the Broncos.