So did the Big Ten, that sounded out Texas before considering Penn State twenty years ago.
UTA was VERY interested in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, Texas politicians were not. The state regents told the Longhorns that they must remain in the same athletic conference as arch-rival TS A&M. When the UTA administration passed this information on to the Big Ten, the BT presidents quickly made it known that they were NOT willing to take TX A&M in a package deal. That ended the matter, and the BT turned its attention to Penn State instead.
There is no assurance that the BT in fact will end up giving serious emphasis to expansion anytime soon. The BT office staff in Chicago periodically (about every five years) does a prelminary review of the likely situation of the BT in the immediate future and beyond, including research funding prospects, potential of expansions, combined capital expenditures, etc. In November this initial review recommended that further study should be given to possible expansion alternatives, with the possibility of a positive recommendation that the BT presidents put exapnsion on their annual agenda for 2010 or 2011. A lot of hurdles before the BT every gets around to considering a specific candidate for admission to the BT consortium.
There is no question that the priorities in determining such a candidate will be its potential contributions to the research goals of the BT universities individually and collectively. Do NOT expect athletic competition to be a factor considered by the BT presidents much if at all.
There are really only two universities that are likely to get consideration: Pitt and Rutgers. And of those two, the overwhelming favorite is Rutgers.