I just don't see Texas joining a northern midwest confrence. And what about their huge rivalries with Oklahoma and Texas A&M?
I would think Missouri, Iowa st and Nebraska would be better candidates for the Big 10
Definitely not Iowa State. Travel proximity doesn't mean much these days. It's all about whether the institution adds revenue and the biggest driver of that is television.
Nebraska may be additive because of them being a traditional powerhouse and you may get some national interest, but the tv sets you add from them for the Big 10 network are not significant. Still not a great partner.
Kansas is probably better than Nebraska, but Missouri gives you most of the Kansas City market anyway since most of the city's population and industry is on the Missouri side of the river.
Frankly, I think that the Big 10 would consider going to 14 if it meant they got UT, TAMU and Mizzou. That would pretty much break the Big 12. CU would leave for the Pac-12 along with Utah from the MWC. But I think Texas ultimately says "no" and it probably shakes out as follows:
New Big 10 (12):
Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa & Missouri
New Pac 12:
Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Utah & Colorado
New Big 12:
Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Houston & TCU
New MWC:
Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, BYU, UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming, Fresno State, Nevada & Boise State (could go to 12 with 2 more WAC schools)
The big wildcards are if the Big 10 and/or Pac 10 decide to go to 14 instead of 12. Big 10 could add Texas/Texas A&M to the mix in that scenario or Texas/Oklahoma or decide to expand east. The Pac, I would assume, would take New Mexico and UNLV to give it the Albuquerque and Las Vegas markets to completely wrap up every western media market that matters. There was also the "pie in the sky" Pac dream previously posted on this site that would have the conference dropping Washington State and then adding CU, UT, TAMU, Utah & OU to go to a 14 team western superconference.