CINCINNATI – The University of Cincinnati may be losing its biggest supporter in its bid to join the Big 12 Conference.
Infighting between the University of Oklahoma board of regents chairman and the president may change the school's expected vote on expansion from yea to nay, according to a report on CBSSports.com. Max Weitzenhoffer, the regents chairman, told CBS Sports he will try to convince influential president David Boren to ditch expansion.
Boren has been the most strident and powerful voice for expanding the conference and had shown favor to UC, but the seven regents – not Boren - will decide how Oklahoma votes on it, Weitzenhoffer said.
Weitzenhoffer said the Big 12 stands to gain little in expanding to Cincinnati or the schools most commonly mentioned -- Boise State, BYU, Central Florida, Connecticut, Houston, Memphis, and South Florida.
"They have no seating capacities in their stadiums. They really don't build them up. They really don't have any TV. I really don't know what we have to gain by that," Weitzenhoffer said.
"The problem with Cincinnati is ... then they start getting all this money (from the Big 12), then what do we do? We build up somebody we don't want to build up."
Weitzenhoffer said at least one other regents member, Oklahoma City Thunder chairman Clay Bennett, is against expansion. He said they plan to talk to Boren about the topic this week.
"If it goes forward, it may get to the point where we may not be able to stop it," Weitzenhoffer said.
The Big 12 seemed to move ahead in expansion consideration last week. New data showed the Big 12's chances of putting a team in the College Football Playoff in any given year would increase 10 to 15 percent -- approaching 75 percent overall – if it expands by two to 12 teams and plays a league championship game, according to Chicago-based Navigate Research.
Weitzenhoffer, admittedly old school, doesn't like the BCS playoff system and is not swayed.
He said expansion would only make sense if it meant snagging teams from a Power Five conference with bigger stadiums and more to offer the Big 12.
