Big 12 presidents and chancellors voted unanimously Wednesday night to accept Colorado as a new member, clearing the way for the school to leave the Pac-12 and rejoin the conference, a person with knowledge of the meeting told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the Big 12 was not making its expansion plans public with Colorado still needing to go through a formal process on its campus and officially apply for membership. ESPN first reported the vote.
The university’s board of regents has a special meeting scheduled for Thursday with athletics operations on the agenda.
Another person familiar with the Big 12’s expansion aspirations told AP the school and league have been in contact for more than a month about a potential departure from the Pac-12; the person said it was unclear if CU had come to a decision, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Big 12 was not publicly discussing details of potential expansion plans.
The person familiar with the Big 12’s discussions said the conference would ideally like to expand to 16 schools with Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado all coming over from the Pac-12 to create a Western wing of the league.
Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff spoke confidently at football media days last week that the 10 remaining conference members were committed to stay together.
The Pac-12 officially declined comment. Text messages to Kliavkoff and Colorado athletic director Rick George were not immediately returned.
Colorado was an original member of the Big 12 in 1996, and joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The Buffaloes’ football team has had only one winning record over a full season since joining the Pac-12, and went 1-11 last year — leading to the hiring of former NFL star Deion Sanders.
