[Saul Good]

The Big 12 needs to figure something out, or its going to die. The product is actually really good, but nobody seems to know/care.

This should be the biggest weekend of the year for the conference with the one marquee game of the year (Oklahoma vs Texas) and the first conference game between two top ten teams since realignment hit. (Oklahoma State played aTm in September of 2011.)

The problem is that Texas is awful, and the top 10 teams are tiny, private, parochial schools with few alumni and virtually no "t-shirt fans". That could potentially be overcome, but the conference doesn't have a network deal to use as a hype machine. Mississippi State v Auburn, Ole Miss v aTm, Oregon v UCLA, Georgia v Mizzou, and USC v Arizona are all getting more publicity than Texas v Oklahoma or TCU v Baylor.

There are simply too many factors going against the league for it to survive long term.

Zero big markets outside of Texas (and the public Texas schools stink)
No conference network
No conference championship game
Teams leaving via realignment hurts perception

Texas will get better, but it's going to take a few years. The conference network situation isn't going to change as long as TLN exists. What the league can control is the number of members. If they were to add (for example) Cincinnati and Memphis, they would gain new markets in metro areas and states currently larger than anything outside of Texas, solid recruiting grounds, and the perception of a growing conference rather than a shrinking one. It would also strengthen the basketball side and give WVU a couple of travel partners.

The only reason not to do it would be money, but maximizing revenue at the expense of long-term sustainability is looking at things backwards.