Big 12 Expansion Bracket: West Region 2nd Round

Yesterday UCF and East Carolina ran away with the vote getting over 50% in the East region's opening round. East Carolina beat 3 seed USF for the first upset of the bracket. The East second round voting will start Tuesday with Cincinnati vs UCF and Memphis vs East Carolina. Today the second round of the West region kicks off with Colorado St vs Houston and Boise State vs BYU. The second round matchups will last two days, so the poll for today's matchups will end Tuesday night at 11:59 PM.

(1) Houston vs (4) Colorado State

University of Houston

Enrollment: 42,704

Endowment: $716.4 Million

TV Market: Houston Metro area, 6.6 million population

Lately Houston has been making some noise when it comes to Big 12 expansion. Both Texas and Texas Tech have come out and said they support Houston being added. Houston has a nice enrollment number and a very nice endowment for a public university. Cougar athletics would also open the Houston market up for the Big 12, the market is currently dominated by the SEC. The Cougar football program has also had some great seasons here lately. With all that said though, does the Big 12 want another Texas school? Would the addition dilute recruiting efforts?

Colorado State

Enrollment: 32,236

Endowment: $284.4 Million

TV Market: Greater Denver area, 2.8 million population

Colorado St beat SMU in their first round matchup and now faces one of the heavy favorites (according to national media), can they pull off the upset? The Rams have had some productive seasons recently and they're looking to turn that on field success into big bucks. It would be an interesting addition because it extends the Big 12's reach to the Rocky Mountains and gets the conference more exposure. With that said, I still don't believe they're one of the top contenders if the conference only adds two schools.

(2) BYU vs (3) Boise State

Brigham Young University

Enrollment: 29,672

Endowment: $1.47 Billion

TV Market: Provo-Orem area, 527,000 population

BYU like Houston, has been talked about a lot as the expansion topic heats up. The Cougars have had some moderate success as of late but as I've mentioned before, this is about more than just football. BYU has enrollment numbers of a public school but the advantage when it comes to endowment since they are a private school. One thing that is a little off putting about BYU though is that they'd likely be joining as a football-only school. If we add schools, I want to add them for all sports.

Boise State

Enrollment: 22,259

Endowment: $89.57 Million

TV Market: Boise-Nampa area, 665,000 population

Boise State knocked off Tulane in the first round and now find themselves up against another private school. The Broncos seem to play quality football year in and year out but being located in a small area of Idaho seems to put them at a disadvantage any time expansion talks start to pick up. I think Boise St would be a very intriguing pick if we're only talking about athletics.