KEY BISCAYNE — No one could deny the Texas-sized elephant in the room, even if American Athletic Conference representatives said Big 12 expansion talks weren't an official topic of discussion during their first day of spring meetings Wednesday.
Even still, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco did his best to keep expansion chatter outside the Ritz Carlton meeting rooms and steer league administrators' focus to sustaining the young league's position as the unofficial sixth power conference.
But he admitted it was necessary to temporarily break from the script to address expansion talks as at least 35 media outlets flocked to Dallas to cover the Big 12 membership soap opera.