The Big 12 is frantically trying to expand in a tumultous era of conference realignment, with commissioner Brett Yormark attempting to shift the conference's brand in a future without Texas and Oklahoma. This meant thinking outside the box to court two basketball powers with little-to-no football presence in UConn and Gonzaga. Now, the Big 12's even venturing into other countries.

Thursday morning the conference announced the formation of Big 12 Mexico, which will have men's and women's basketball, women's soccer and baseball teams all playing select games across the border. Kansas and Houston will tip off the new arrangment when their men's and women's programs each play a game at Arena CDMX in Mexico City in December 2024. While there aren't yet set games for the other sports, the conference said women's soccer and baseball teams will compete in exhibition games against club teams from Mexico.

On the football side, the Big 12 is seeking to establish a bowl game in Monterrey beginning in 2026, which would be the first college football bowl game played in the country. This arrangment is not near as concrete as the others sports' international games, however, because college football leadership decided to keep the current 41 bowl game slate in April 2023 and have made it clear they aren't keen to add more bowl games and thus allow more 5–7 teams to become bowl eligible. 

In order to expand the Big 12's already sizable footprint in Mexico due to its member schools proximity, FOX Sports and ESPN will leverage their Deportes channels in 2023 to seed Big 12 content throughout Mexico and surrounding Spanish-speaking communities. The conference is also looking to add Spanish radio broadcasts for the football and basketball championships starting in 2023-24.

This is a developing story.