Is San Diego State Mystery School Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark Is Referencing?
Big 12 looking to go West?
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Pacific time zone for the Big 12?
The college football season is underway and that usually means that the off-the-field nonsense like College Football Playoff changes or expansion is put on the back burner.
Well, we already have news about the playoff expanding to 12 teams heading into Week 1.
Now, the latest is conference expansion coming from Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark when discussing the addition of Cincinnatti joining the league next year.
He was asked via The Athletic if expansion was on the table, and the answer was a vague yes.
“Well, I don’t want to get into the specifics, and I appreciate the question. But obviously going out west is where I would like to go, entering that fourth time zone. A program that has national recognition. One that competes at the highest level in basketball and football, stands for the right things, is a good cultural fit. Because our alignment right now and the like-mindedness of all of our member institutions is fantastic. It’s never been better. So I don’t want to compromise that, and that’s critically important that there is the right cultural fit when you think about coming in and being part of what we’re building here.”
Saying the fourth time zone can mean one of two things and maybe he is being tricky by saying fourth time zone and not the Pacific time zone.
This leaves the door open to Arizona and Arizona State because half of the year they are in the Pacific time zone from March to November. That gives an extra hour for half of the football season.
However, for a true fourth-time zone the answer is probably San Diego State. Specifically, Yormark mentioned a nationally recognized football and basketball program.
Aztecs fit that mold with a bowl game every year since 2010 — minus the COVID-19 year — including five of those years with double-digit wins.
The basketball team is always a Mountain West contender and winning titles, plus nine NCAA Tournaments since 2010 (really 10 since the Aztecs would have made a bid in 2020 and possibly a No. 2 seed).
This would give the Big 12 a California market and those later windows for TV to go along with BYU which is in the Mountain time zone. The Big 12 would now have four time zones with teams in Florida, West Virginia, Texas, Utah, and now California for a full day of TV coverage.
Aztecs have their new stadium — despite lacking shade — that is quite nice and attractive.
Their on-the-field performance in major sports is well above average, but the main points are the time zone and recruiting area in San Diego.
