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In December, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on family.There are a handful of things that can bring my hometown to a standstill, and football is one.Iron smoke pits welded in the Louisiana countryside. The persisting scent of hickory. And humidity so thick most would forget its fall.Im from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home of the LSU Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars. My family, all alumni of Southern University and A&M College, has sat in the same seats at every game since the 1980s, homemade popcorn balls and boiled peanuts in one hand and a blue-and-gold shaker in the other.My dad would bring his portable television, the size of three remotes, so that one ear was always plugged into whatever other game was going on at the same time. Occasionally, he would lean over and make sure I was following the game, pointing out how a pass was incomplete, and giving a few remarks to the guy in front us about how Texas Southern has nothin on us. He has still not upgraded his portable device.As a family, wed pack up our van and hit the trail behind lines of Winnebagos traveling up and down I-10 and I-55 to away games as far as Florida. I would run into most of my high school friends whose parents and grandparents had also made the trek to see their beloved Jags.Cars were packed to the gills with gumbo, stewed meats, day-and-a-half marinated chicken and ribs, jambalaya, potato salad and red beans. Some even ventured to bring their best BBQ pits, joined to the hitch on the back of their truck, the fire already lit. The tailgating lasted for two days and continued after the game was over.We second-lined off the field no matter if we won or lost, our shakers and leftover napkins standing in for parasols and handkerchiefs. We waved them above our heads and paraded from every corner, the sound of horns our entrance and our exit. The game was as much about food and celebration as it was football.Together, wed witness an entire season pass, from preseason scrimmages to a week of homecoming festivities, and finally, the event that would define it all -- the Bayou Classic.Last Thanksgiving, we took my husband to his first Classic. The Superdome protruded from the narrow skyline like a gray UFO. Our family had expanded over the years to include grandchildren and husbands, and we all walked in a bit of a messy clump, allowing the children to walk themselves, no strollers. Along the way, we hugged and greeted old friends and familiar faces, because everyone comes out for the Classic. I had not been inside the Dome in years. It was newer, brighter and remodeled. From our seats, I could see fans in colorful shirts -- Southerns blue and gold, and Gramblings black and red.I cant believe you grew up with all this, my husband yelled over the crowd. He had not grown up with the privilege of being raised by watching all black colleges compete in football.Southern lost that year, but we came back strong the next.This Thanksgiving, we packed the stadium, both teams having had a successful season -- both Southern and Grambling were 8-0. The Classic had sold out again. We would fill all 70,000 seats.My husband was now in law school at Southern, and running into his own friends and mentors as we entered the Dome. He had even invested in paraphernalia, the jaguar on his Columbia blue and gold shirt clinging to his chest like a Superman emblem.Lets go, Jaguars, lets go! he stood up beside my mom and sister to chant. By halftime, hed perched my nephew onto his shoulders, both of them eager to see the band we lovingly call The Human Jukebox. Although we lost again this year, a crowd disappointment for us and a victory for them, we second-lined anyway. We spilled out into Champions Square, both teams poking fun at each other while exiting the gates, because, at the end of the day, it is always love.The next day, over beers and leftover gumbo, I heard my husband wax emphatically to one of my cousins about how dope it was to see nothing but black professionals, students and alums doing well. I knew then that the essence of home had become something bigger to him, and that my upbringing had taught me more than I could have ever imagined.The soul of the game was in all of us, wrapped in a spirit that had endured lifetimes, our school a mark of very sacred ground.Candice E. Perkins is is a freelance writer living in New Orleans. She is an alum of the Voices of Our Nation Writing Workshop (VONA) and a graduate of the University of Southern Californias Master of Professional Writing program (MPW). 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IRVING, Texas -- The Big 12 Conference announced Tuesday that it has authorized commissioner Bob Bowlsby to begin exploring expansion candidates.The Big 12 board of directors met in Irving and deliberated on the merits of expansion, hearing presentations from two paid consultants on the issue.Bowlsby is expected to begin contacting schools to gauge their interest in the Big 12 in the coming days.?Its a forward step, a positive step, said Oklahoma president and board chair David Boren, who has been the most outspoken expansion proponent. Not yet a decision ... but it shows momentum on the board to consider [expansion] as a possibility.Boren said expansion by both two schools and four schools will be on the table.?Bowlsby told ESPN that its conceivable the conference would be ready to vote on specific expansion candidates before the boards regularly scheduled meeting in October.The Big 12 has been a 10-team conference since 2012, after Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M and Missouri left during the last major wave of realignment and TCU and West Virginia joined.The conference has been batting around the iddea of adding more members for more than a year and begins its search with plenty of suitors.dddddddddddd. The Big 12 has been getting pitches behind the scenes for months from American Athletic Conference schools such as Cincinnati, UConn, Memphis, Houston and Central Florida. BYU, a football independent, has made it known it wants into a Power 5 conference. Colorado State has also reached out to Big 12 leaders.Weve been contacted by a number of institutions, and I would imagine after this news breaks well be contacted again, Bowlsby said.Big 12 leaders have acknowledged that none of the available schools is a natural fit. None is guaranteed to deliver both highly competitive teams -- especially football teams -- as well as large new markets to increase the value of future media deals.We are looking for members that will grow over time as we grow, Bowlsby said. That bring stability. That have a high top end.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.? ' ' '