Never understood why NIU can't get a look. Great on field success. Huge TV market.
I see this sentiment just enough that I wanted to log in to reply. This is the equivalent of adding UNI to the Big 12, which is clearly not on the same level. Heck, if Wikipedia is to be believed, their endowment is only $70 million. There are high schools with much larger endowments.
NIU was formed as the "normal school" of Illinois, historically meant to train teachers. These schools were usually tertiary additions to the large state and agricultural universities. Just look at some of these equivalents:
Iowa: U of Northern Iowa
Illinois: Northern Illinois U
Michigan: Eastern Michigan U
Indiana: Indiana State U
Minnesota: Winona State U
Wisconsin: U of Wisconsin-Platteville
Missouri: Truman State U
These are the schools historically on the same level as NIU. Hardly a killer addition to the Big 12.
As for the other reports, would not be surprised if it is UConn and Cincinnati, but IMO Big 12 is being shortsighted again. Working on some thoughts...