From the KC Times . . . another AD's perspective on the addition of 4 teams to the Big 12: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article254150223.html
This strikes me as realistic and measured commentary.
Earlier, Goff lauded the additions of BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and UCF to the conference, saying “I really think there was no question about who the right four were” based on those programs’ football teams, markets and fan bases.
“It’s clearly a good day for the Big 12, in terms of having alignment and taking a position of strength,” Goff said. “In other words, just to oversimplify, it wasn’t an option for the Big 12 to sit idle, and to not act and to not solidify itself as much as you can in this uncertain environment. That’s what today does, is it signals strength. It signals clarity about a future path.”
Goff also gave credit to Bowlsby.
“It was a really, relatively obvious four (teams), and it was a really, relatively obvious strategy. But the thing is, it still had to be executed,” Goff said. “And the commissioner deserves a ton of credit for having that strength, having that clarity, being able to bring together presidents and chancellors so there wasn’t going to be any misalignment or any question about the path forward.”
As for Pollard's comments, here's a quote from an article on 247Sports.com: https://247sports.com/college/iowa-...ard-comments-on-Pete-Thamel-report-170435720/
"What really excites me is, I think that you could make a really strong argument that in football, from top to bottom, will be more competitive,” Pollard said. “And one team will be staying unnamed, currently a member of the Big 12, has only won two football championships in their whole time in the Big 12. So not the record that they seem to think they have. But some of those [reported additions to the Big 12] have really storied football tradition and some of them have been really good over the last several years. And then if you flip it over and look at basketball, you go 'Oh my gosh.' Basketball probably got three times harder. So I think that's really exciting for Iowa State."
It seems odd that he'd single out Texas (without naming them) for not having as much recent success as they "think they have" and ignoring Texas' historical standing in the college football arena (let alone the massive $$$ associated with their following) while simultaneously touting "storied football traditions" for some of the new additions to the Big 12. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but on the "storied football traditions" scale, I feel confident writing that Oklahoma and Texas have much more "storied football tradition" than BYU, Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida.
All that written, I have a hard time finding blame with an AD who is trying to promote the new composition of a conference in which his school is a member.
Those two championships he mentioned are two more than Clown College has in my lifetime.