Staples: UCF 'most attractive' Big 12 candidate

Which schools should the Big 12 add?

Andy Staples, senior college football writer at Sports Illustrated, believes UCF should get the first call. During his appearance on the SI College Football Podcast with Lindsay Schnell and Zac Ellis, Staples explained why the Knights should be an immediate grab for the Big 12.

"If they were really looking towards the future because I don't know if they know if they're going to be together in 2026, I think Central Florida would probably be the most attractive candidate if you're looking towards the future," Staples said. "It has a huge undergraduate population. In 20 years they're going to have a big alumni base. They've done a good job from going from commuter school to being more of a self-contained campus that people want to go to. It's not just, 'I'm in Orlando and I need to go to college so I'll go to UCF.' They have a nice on-campus stadium which can be expanded if needed.

"I think they're actually going to do pretty well with Scott Frost coming in. They fell off the map at the end of the George O'Leary era, but were pretty good before that. You take the recruiting ground they have and put them in a big conference and they could turn pretty competitive pretty quickly."

Staples believes Houston has similar upside.

"I think Houston could do the same (as UCF)," he said. "You saw what Tom Herman has done. You saw what Kevin Sumlin and Art Briles did. That's a program that recently has been very, very good. They have a new stadium. The question is can you activate that fanbase? Can that fanbase get bigger? I get the sense people who go to Houston grow up as Texas and Aggie fans, just like UCF people have grown up as UF and FSU fans, but I sense that's changing with people embracing the school they're at. But that's going to take some time."

Cincinnati and South Florida also have the built-in resources to eventually be competitive at the Big 12 level, Staples said. UConn has an uphill battle to be nationally relevant in football, but Staples says Big 12 presidents may like the "prestige" that comes with a program accustomed to winning national championships in men's and women's basketball.

Staples' colleague at SI, Pete Thamel, wrote a comprehensive piece on Thursday which breaks down the issues facing the Big 12 as they explore expansion.

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