They are in a power 5 league, good academics, good football team, great market. They are well positioned should things get bad for the big 12.

If Texas and Oklahoma are truly committed to the long term big 12 survival, I can see the other big 12 schools voting for expansion. If they do not, then why elevate another AAC school who has a good shot to take your landing spot.

Add to this the networks do not want big 12 expansion with the teams they have available to expand with. They will throw a little money at them not to expand and it will be a day.

Additionally, not supporting expansion may make ESPN happy which could be a good thing if things do go south. I.e. You just helped them save almost a billion dollars over the term of that deal. There is no way the teams mentioned which are already ESPN properties add a billion dollars in value to ESPN.