When all of this first round of realignment went down, the B12 was looking (NEEDING) a school to replace A&M in order to keep the FOX second Tier contract valid. Therefore, the B12 was REALLY subservant to FOX's wishes. They basically chose who could be added and not invalidate the contract. One of the reasons FOX told the B12 to look elsewhere when BYU was brought up was FOX's claim that THEY MIGHT want to hold the B12 Basketball championship game on a Sunday to alleviate competition from other conference championship games. The B12 was more interested in keeping their sweet TV deal, so they moved on to TCU. By the way.. the B12 conference championship game has ALWAYS been played Saturday night.

THAT SAID... one thing to keep in mind. THIS TIME AROUND, the B12 is asking ESPN/ABC about expansion targets. FOX is locked in. They have no more say. ESPN actually asked to open the B12 Tier 1 rights negociation over a year early. THEY are the people we are running expansion candidates by now. FOX has no say this time. Of course, the B12 doesn't want to burn bridges with FOX and tick them off by not listening to them, but still... ESPN is the voice in the B12's ear this time around.