Greg McElroy believes latest Big 12 additions are a step in the right direction for quality of football

The Big 12 has gotten a whole lot bigger lately. After parting ways with Texas and Oklahoma, the conference added BYU, Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston to their roster, who will all be competing in the conference this upcoming season. But as it currently stands, in 2024 Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah will also be joining the conference from the Pac-12.

Analyst Greg McElroy reacted to the Big 12’s recent moves, breaking down their new additions starting with the back-to-back defending Pac-12 champion Utah Utes.

“What does it do to the strength and the depth of the Big 12? Because that’s a question I continue to ask myself,” McElroy said. “You already add one of the best programs in America in Utah. You’re gonna say, one of the best programs in America? They’ve never been to the playoff. But steady Eddie man, you know what you’re gonna get when you add the Utah Utes.”

Utah’s consistency is hard to deny, as head coach Kyle Whittingham is entering his 19th season as the team’s head coach with only two of those seasons ending in losing records.

Arizona State hasn’t been quite as consistent as the Utes lately, but McElroy believes they are still a valuable addition to the Big 12 as well.

“What does it do for the rest of the football product? Does it water it down a little bit?” McElroy asked. “I don’t think so. I mean really you look at recent history, maybe not as good, but Arizona State’s had some big years. Arizona State back 10 years ago was a big-time power in college football, they were doing a lot of really good things under Todd Graham.”

McElroy thinks that Arizona State and the remaining Big 12 additions from the Pac-12 are trending in the right direction despite their most recent seasons. Arizona, Arizona State, and Colorado combined for just six wins last season, but some new leadership and a new conference could be just what those programs need to inject them with some new life.

“But yeah, it’s fallen off maybe just a little bit but hopefully with the addition of Kenny Dillingham, hopefully with what Jedd Fisch continues to do at Arizona, it does appear like maybe the arrow is pointing up for each of those two programs. We already know what Deion Sanders is hopefully going to do at Colorado, the arrow seems to be pointing up already.”

So I think it’s gonna be very interesting to see how this impacts the quality of the play from top to bottom in the Big 12, I think it’s a step in the right direction,” McElroy concluded.