Nothing gets me fired up more than thinking about the mighty Houston Bobcats coming into BSFS once every 4 years!
How about every other?
I can see OU and Texas getting OSU, BU, TT and TCU on board by doing a North/South split. So get ready for a steady diet of Cougs, Bearcats, & Moutaineers
. Silver-lining- if OU and UT are on our same rotation we can have a shot at what Iowa's doing every 2 years!
People keep thinking that you need a North/South split, but I doubt that would be what ends up happening. You need competitive balance.
People also think we'd go back to the model where we do this even steven rotation every two years, but that's not a good method. No other 12 team conference does that, and I doubt we would either.
You can actually creatively schedule and cobble together an attractive schedule. Also, the reduction of a conference game means that you can schedule some more wins and boost the middle of your conference as opposed to making everyone go 7-5 outside of a couple of schools.
My proposed split is:
West: UT, Tech, OU, OSU, KU, KSU (Keeps most established rivalries together, and keeps 4 of original Big 8 together)
East: BU, TCU, Houston, ISU, Cincy WVU (Keeps BU/TCU together, adds Houston for additional Texas potential rivalries, and Cincy/WVU)
Then you do a cross-divisional protected game to try and clean up any rivalries you missed, or if not rivalries, long standing series:
Texas - Baylor (They've played 107 times)
Tech - TCU (There used to be a Saddle Trophy; they should bring that back. Was called the West Texas Championship)
OU - WVU (Relatively new, but it's been heated since WVU joined)
KSU - ISU (Farmageddon)
KU - Cincy (Basketball)
OSU - Houston (OSU may want more Texas exposure)
Then for the final two games, you can rotate, or you can do what the Pac-12 does and make Texas play either TCU or Houston like they make the California schools play each other every year.
We were literally the only conference that did an even rotation. The SEC just has the division games + protected game + whatever they feel like. The Pac has weird rotations, and so does the Big Ten. You don't have to do it that way.
Our schedule would be 4 non-con + Texas/OU/OSU/Tech/KU/ISU/+ games of either BU, TCU, UH, Cincy, or WVU. That's honestly not that different than what we have now. OU would have UT/Tech/KSU/KU/OSU/WVU + BU, TCU, UH, Cincy or ISU. Again, not much of a change.
Texas would have something that looked like OU/OSU/KSU/KU/BU/TCU or UH/WVU or Cincy or ISU. Again, probably better since they'd probably avoid ISU.
People just need to get creative. It can work, and it can work well. This year, if we had the above schedule, you could have an 11-1 OU meeting an 11-1 BU or TCU in Dallas for the Big 12 title game. That would have easily been a play in and extremely entertaining.
And, if we got an extra non-con game back, maybe we could push for some of the rivalry games to get scheduled on an annual basis like the SEC does with UF/FSU, Clemson/USC, Kentucky/Louisville, Georgia/GT,etc. We could push for UT/A&M to play on Thanksgiving again. We could get the Backyard Brawl back. KU and Mizzou can play. There's a lot you can do.