Flyover Country

Aman Kidwai of Rivals.com and SB Nation joins the podcast to help us understand why UConn to the Big 12 has more traction than many realize outside the league. It's a multi-faceted question with plenty of layers.

Brandon Helwig of UCFSports.com joins the podcast to recap UCF's history, how the Knights' bottomed out in one year, where the program goes next, where it stands in the state of Florida and lots more.

Is Oklahoma eyeing a future exit from the Big 12? Or have recent moves (and paychecks, and Baker Mayfield reinstatements) cooled the emotions of the last year? Where is all this coming from, anyway? John Hoover of The Franchise in Tulsa and The Oklahoman's Ryan Aber join the podcast to chat about that and more.

Houston is well within the Big 12's footprint, but would the Cougars dilute the league or enhance its presence in Houston? How much do recent upgrades in facilities and coaching play into UH's odds? Joseph Duarte of the Houston Chronicle joins the show to break down all that and more.

How did Baylor get to this point? What about the complicated, often disappointing response from the administration and community in the wake of the scandal? And where does Baylor go from here with more firings and a possible hiring on the horizon? Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde, who was in Waco earlier this week, joins the podcast to talk about the issues surrounding the campus.

The Memphis Commercial-Appeal's Geoff Calkins joins the podcast to explore Memphis' path into the Big 12 and what a Tigers' membership might look like. Why and how does FedEx wield so much power? What are the odds the football program takes a dive and/or the basketball program returns to greatness? All that and more on this episode.

Mo Egger of ESPN 1530 in Cincinnati joins Flyover Country to talk about UC's hopes of joining the Big 12, and what that would mean for both sides. Can they make the jump on the field? And is an inner-city school a fit with land-grant universities? Learn more about the Bearcats, including an ice cream you need to have and a chili you ought to avoid.

​Is BYU too big for its britches in the meeting room? What would/could the Big 12 do with BYUTV and the Cougars' exclusive TV deal with ESPN? What about not playing on Sundays? And why did BYU go independent anyway and regret it so quickly? What is BYU doing to talk the Big 12 into letting it in? We tackle all that and more with Kurt Kragthorpe and Jay Drew of the Salt Lake Tribune on this episode examining the possibility of a marriage between BYU and the Big 12.

On the first episode of a 10-episode, expansion-centric series, David explores the sticky logistics of Big 12 expansion with FOXSports.com's Stewart Mandel.

On this week's episode, David takes questions from the Mailbag heading into bowl season, and gets some help from Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples to preview the Big 12's bowl season. Finally, he unveils his picks for the league's bowl slate.