We should invite Louisville this summer, along with FSU, and have plans to move that invitation earlier if rumblings are that other conferences will preempt the Big 12. As it is, the conference seems to only react to other conference realignment moves. Louisville would be a good counter to the idea that Big 12 basketball is KU and a bunch of other schmucks.
FSU has a standing invite from the Big 12.
The reason they haven't taken it yet is because we're about 4th on their wishlist. FSU would like to be in the SEC. If not that, then the Big Ten. If both of those fall through, FSU is willing to try to make it work in the current ACC. If the ACC starts to crumble and the SEC/Big Ten still aren't interested, THEN they will accept the Big 12's invite. Until then, we have to sit here with our thumbs up our asses.
The perception is that the Big 12 leaders are being reactive instead of proactive. The truth is that the Big 12 leaders have no choice. The schools we want to be proactive with are not interested in us as anything other than a fallback choice.
It would have been a smart move to take Louisville when they were available and sit at 11 for a while. That would have prevented the ACC from adding Louisville this past winter when Maryland left and forced them to look at UConn instead. That may not have been the FINAL nail in the coffin for FSU, but it certainly would have been A nail in the coffin.
