photo by: Associated Press

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby is seen on the big screen in an empty Sprint Center as he talks to the media after canceling the remaining NCAA college basketball games in the Big 12 Conference tournament due to concerns about the coronavirus Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

The very thing that looked like it could save the Big 12 Conference a couple of weeks ago might now be the thing that winds up doing it in.

Such is life on the wrong side of the realignment lunch room.

If you’re not sitting with the popular kids today, you very much run the risk of getting overlooked when college football passes out its tastiest treats.

We’re not there yet. But a Friday report from The Athletic indicated that we might be close.

And this comes just days removed from Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby meeting with new Pac-12 boss George Kliavkoff about a possible partnership between those two conferences.

Evidently, things didn’t get very far.

According to the Athletic’s recent article, the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC are now conducting “high-level discussions” about some kind of alliance that would further strengthen all three entities.

The basis for the alliance, according to the report, is scheduling. Think of it as the best football programs in each conference pairing up on a semi-regular basis to provide an even more appealing product for their television partners.

Such a move would drive up the price tag on broadcasting the games, and driving up the price tag means keeping up with the SEC in this new era of college athletics.

That alone is not the death knell for the Big 12. But, according to the Athletic’s sources, that’s not all there is to the discussions either.

Another factor in these three power conferences exploring the idea of teaming up is the idea that they then would work together — and more importantly vote together — on any major college athletics issues such as College Football Playoff expansion and governing changes at the NCAA level.

According to the article, the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC do not need anyone in the Big 12 for that.

“While these plans are still in the works, it appears the Big 12 will not be included in the alliance,” the article reads.

The reason is simple. Coming together in an alliance would give the aligned trio 41 votes they could count on. That’s more than twice as many as the 16 votes the powerhouse SEC will bring to the table, and, therefore, adding any more would be unnecessary.

That’s especially true if the three conferences do not believe that any of the remaining eight schools in the Big 12 bring enough value to help increase the TV contracts.

So, what does the Big 12 do now?

There are a couple of options. But none of them are particularly pretty as of today. With the way these things go, though, there’s no telling what might surface tomorrow, a week from now or a month from now.

Both The Athletic’s report and a similar report from ESPN.com indicated that nothing is imminent with the alliance. But then, what is these days?

We know OU and Texas are headed to the SEC, but even that move is not exactly imminent and could — could — take four years to play out.

That may be the Big 12’s first and best option.

Buy time, milk every penny you can out of the existing contract that still includes the Sooners and Longhorns and see how much (or if) things change in your favor during that time.

It’s not likely, but at least the financial hit would be delayed and you’d have time to get creative with your next move.

The other option is to expand quickly — with the best American Athletic Conference schools (Cincinnati, Houston, Central Florida) and potentially others like BYU — and fight like mad to maintain Power 5 status.

The TV deal will decrease significantly, and you’ll sit a distant fifth behind those other power conferences in terms of television revenue. But, if it works, you’ll still get those Autonomy 5 advantages (so long as the NCAA still exists) and will avoid becoming extinct.

If it doesn’t, we could be looking at the reverse scenario playing out, with the AAC scooping up the Big 12’s leftovers and expanding its reach.

Either way this goes, it appears as if several schools in both of those conferences could get left out of the picture.

It’s hard to envision that being Kansas, but all of this alliance talk makes it a much more real possibility than it was even just a few days ago.

So, what do you do if you’re Kansas? Easy. Sell, and sell hard, the best of what you have to offer.

Whether that’s basketball, Bill Self, the money you have spent on football (and the promise of spending more), Lance Leipold or your AAU status and academic high points, it’s time for the full-court press.

Even that might not be enough in the end, but, at least at this point, sitting around hoping that things work out for the Big 12 seems like a much riskier path.