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Cincinnati e-mails show school administrators mulling options in Big 12, ACC

Cincinnati

For the moment, the Cincinnati Bearcats remain in a holding pattern as they watch more member schools defect from the Big East, a conference that it has called home since 2005.

But as pieces shift, most recently Louisville to the ACC and Rutgers to the Big Ten, it doesn’t mean that school administrators aren’t looking for other options, as recent e-mail exchanges published by the Cincinnati Enquirer confirm.

“Big 10 and ACC moves ... could cause Big 12 perhaps to rethink staying at 10 schools,” Athletic Director Whit Babcock wrote in a Nov. 18 e-mail to President Santa Ono. “We need to focus on both ACC (primarily) but also Big 12.”

That e-mail came before Louisville’s departure, though, according to the report, the ACC remains the frontrunner for an eventual Cincinnati move.

The Big 12 reportedly has “no position” at the moment on realignment, having explored the idea of adding Louisville before the Cardinals moved to the ACC.

With uncertainty in its current conference and the possibilities of other conferences unsure, Babcock was reassuring in another e-mail published by the Enquirer.

“This is going to be a wild ride,” Babcock wrote to Ono. “Can be bumpy and all-consuming. We will navigate it together.”

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_