Big 10 to consider adding 12th school

Louisville might be a good fit for everything but football.
It's only a 40,000 seat stadium and until the last couple of years, they rarely sold out.

 

I'm not a Big-10 or Big-12 alum, so this is an outsider talking...but does it really matter what they call the conference?

 

A handful of Missouri people try to believe that their school is Big 10 caliber.

Funny story about that: When my brother was in college and considering transferring (he didn't), he applied to Missouri (girlfriend decision), Michigan and Indiana. Guess which school was the only one to accept him? Yep, Missouri.

 

Um, no. At least not when it comes to football.

 

If it happens I think it'll be Rutgers. They get the New York TV market that way.

I could see the breakdown looking llke this:

East
Michigan
Michigan State
Penn State
Ohio State
Indiana
Rutgers

West
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue

 

Rutgers? Well, why not, we've got Marquette and Louisville in the Big East. Geographical consistency no longer seems to matter with this stuff.

 

How about Big Nearly 13?

 

Well if Pitt doesn't fit, then why change?

ND is the only school in the Big 10's geographic area that fits the athletic/academic profile. And neither side wants the other right now, apparently.

Add a ninth league game, now that you have 12 football games, like the Pac-10 did. It won't be a complete round-robin, like the Pac-10, but having only one miss instead of two is pretty darn close.

The Big Ten (nor the Pac-10) doesn't need a championship game. If you win the league and are undefeated, you play for the national title. If not, you win the league and go to the Rose Bowl, the best bowl there is.

And fuggabunchofJoPa. Why this Johnny-come-lately (to the league) has so much say is unbelievable, considering that Penn State isn't a national player in any other sport.

 

How about the Great Midwest...revive the name used prior to the 1995 merger with the Metro?

 

Actually ND is not a fit academically with the other Big 10 schools. That's been one of the sticking points in the past.

 

Or how about The Predominantly Slow Plodding Corn Fed White Guys Who Routinely Get Their Ass Handed to Them by the ACC, SEC and Pac 10, Michigan and Ohio State Not Withstanding Conference?

 

Rutgers in the Big Ten would be hilarious. They're going to come down off that cloud they're on with their football program over the past two years (39-76, according to ESPN) and then they'll have nothing but their own Iowa State.

For that matter, take them. It will get the school's smug bandwagon fans to think they're big-time before they get rammed and discarded in every sport. Too bad they had to cut 13 sports, though. It will be like Providence all over again.