I'm not sure if Texas (and it's pretty much their conference afterall) would want to add another in-state school to the Big 12, especially one that has the ability to be pretty decent, for two reasons: They don't want to battle Houston for recruits (hey, come play at Houston, we're in the Big 12 too just like the other guys in this state). Second, adding Houston doesn't expand the TV footprint for the Big 12. I understand the first, but the second is inconsequential until/unless they scrap the Longhorn Network for an all-encompassing Big VII network I don't mean footprint to mean "eyes on the screen" viewership relating to a network's bottom line. I guess this has more to do with the conference as a whole than to Texas specifically, but by expanding the footprint I meant that more people are able to see the teams in the Big 12. For example, if Boise State joined the Big 12, you'd have a whole new state that is paying attention to the conference. Add BYU and you'd have another state paying attention. Thus, potential recruits in those states are more in tune with what the Big 12 is about and so teams can go in there and have a better time getting visits or whatever. There has been a surge in the past few years of kids from SE Texas going to SEC schools and most think that has to do with TAMU joining the SEC.