Auburn football: 5 Group of 5 Big 12 replacements after OU and UT leave for SEC
The Big 12 takes a pair of Texas teams away from the AAC
Both SMU and the University of Houston play in the American Conference, regularly traveling to the east coast for their away games. As someone who has done the drive from East Central Alabama to Central Texas, I can say that sort of travel shouldn’t be necessary for regularly scheduled conference games.
Sure, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and even Missouri travel pretty crazy distances for conference play, but those SEC dollars make it worth every penny. There isn’t (nearly) as much of a return for the Mustangs and Cougars to be making trips to Tampa and Orlando, and the pandemic showed the logistical issues involved.
Simply put, both Lone Star programs would probably be better off playing for a bigger conference with rivals that aren’t in a different time zone. What makes the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry so great is that fans both teams are forced to see each other all the time.
You’re more likely to see a New York license plate in Tampa and Orlando than one from Texas. Culturally, the Big 12 makes far more sense for both Houston and SMU, and nabbing both would bring two major markets (Dallas and Houston) to a conference in dire need of eyeballs and revenue.