It was good...Carson is a much better host to listen to compared to the dead fish/Debbie Downer that is normally there.
Here's some highlights from their interview yesterday with Mandel:
Some quick highlights from interview:
Texas is obviously against Expansion...they already have LHN so no need for them to want to expand. Texas will always print $$$...as expansion would mostly be a benefit to all other Big 12 schools not named Texas. UT is not worried about any chance some Big 12 teams getting gobbled up by other conferences (reason why some school want expansion as they feel if they expand to 12 or 14 teams...and if they lost 2 teams...conf could still survive...as they would be at the top of everyone's list).
OU President David Boren is pro expansion...as is WVU.
Said earlier report that 7 out of 10 Presidents were pro/ready for expansion is not the case...still a lot of information to gather/dissect.
Its all about money...as the extra 10%-15% chance of getting a team into the Final Four is well down the list...as it will all come down to guaranteed annual $$$ with hopefully a new Conf TV Network.
Cincinnati he feels has the best chance for the 1st expansion slot...mentions 7 hours away from Morgantown, WV is a plus.
Memphis, BYU, UCF (mentioned great on-campus facilities), UCONN, etc...are all fighting for a potential spot...said he doesn't know how Big 12 Presidents will come to a final decision...as if there were 2 clear cut favorites/choices, they would have been invited by now.
Mandel says he is higher on UCF than probably those from Big 12 Presidents...had UCF #2 behind Cincinnati...When asked what negatives he might hear about UCF (similar to what the OU Beat Writer said yesterday), was the location being stuck out in FLA...but Mandel views that as a positive to get the conf into FLA.
Mandel when asked if Big 12 Commish Bowlsby gave any hint to any team was no...only thing Mandel noted is when Bowlsby said if they don't do something...they will fall further behind (i.e. way behind Big Ten and SEC in revenue).
Carson (co-host) asked how important Television is in regards to reason for expansion...Mandel said it was very high...as initial expansion rumblings occurred when Big 12 missed out on the Final Four...but now its really TV $$$ related.
Mandel thinks the Big 12 will come to a decision by the end of summer...says if he were to guess...53% chance of expansion...as some are happy with 10 but the $$ might be shown to be greater if they expand by 2 or even 4 teams.
NOTE: Big 12 Presidents will be meeting May 31-June 3 and will be given a lot of analytic data to review for proposed TV networks/markets/schools, etc..
