Big 12 realignment, expansion: Pac-12 school additions would alter look of conference

College conference expansion and realignment speculation continues to swirl, with the Big 12 right in the middle of the chatter amid reports that the conference is interested in adding Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado to its member schools.

How could the conference look if it did in fact add the Pac-12's Four Corners schools?

A reader recently sent us a suggestion for the new-look Big 12, which would have 16 teams if it added the Wildcats, Sun Devils, Utes and Buffaloes.

The suggestion proposed breaking up the conference into four pods, with ASU, Arizona, Utah and BYU in one, Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas in another, Baylor, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech in a third, and a final grouping including Central Florida, Cincinnati, Houston and West Virginia.

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The reader, former Houston Chronicle sportswriter Lester Zedd, explained his pod recommendation were the conference to add the four Pac-12 schools.

"With this format, teams within a pod would play three non-conference games each season, play each pod opponent every year (which protects former conference rivalries, historical rivalries and sets up logical geographical rivalries) and then play each of the remaining 12 non-division foes on a rotating basis every two years."

Makes sense to me.

It also might make sense to the Big 12, judging by their reported interest in the Pac-12 schools and the possibility they would give the conference and its media partners for television broadcasts in a later window than the conference currently occupies.

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The "pod" option isn't anything new for the Big 12.

A recent suggestion on social media didn't stop at the Pac-12's Four Corners schools joining the Big 12 to make it a 16-team conference.

It suggested the Big 12 also add Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal to create a 20-team mega-conference.

The only difference in pods with that suggestion would be putting the Ducks, Huskies, Cardinal and Bears in a fifth and final pod for the Big 12.

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That proposal could also be very intriguing to fans and potential media partners of the conference.

But it probably wouldn't go over well with fans of the current Pac-12 and Big 12 setups, and especially to fans of Oregon State and Washington State, who would suddenly find themselves all alone in the "Pac-2."

Could the Big 12 look very different in the near future?

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Big 12 expansion realignment: Pac-12 additions would alter conference