Big Ten expansion

From Pat Forde's twitter:

"Likely suspects: Pitt, Missouri, Syracuse, Rutgers, Nebraska ... Iowa State has been mentioned but brings nothing to the table."

 

Michigan? Are they still in the league?

 

There is no way in hell the Big 10 is inviting Iowa State.

Makes no sense to expand by adding a school that is located within a state already in your footprint unless that school brings something to the table. The Big 10 pretty much has the valuable Des Moines-Ames TV market already sewed up.

I don't think Missouri would leave the Big 12 either so it will probably be Pitt, Rutgers or Syracuse.

The other thing to consider is that the new school must be on an academic/research par with the 12 schools that are part of the Big 10 academic consortium (current 11 schools & U of Chicago).

 

First two I thought of were Mizzou
and Rutgers. I pray God it's not
Syracuse. Nebraska would NEVER
leave the Big XII.

 

Iowa State adds nothing in TV markets -- Iowa already blankets the state.

Ditto Pittsburgh or Cincinnati (each would be vetoed by PSU and OSU, respectively).

The logical possibilities are Syracuse and Rutgers. Maryland or BC as wild-card possibilities.

Notre Dame ain't coming, ever.

I don't think any candidate school will be identified today, it's just a hot-air announcement. "We hereby announce the formation of a committee, to consider this potential decision, upon which action may or may not be taken at some time in the future."

 

I'm thinking R.C. Johnson is rooting like hell for a Big East school to be poached by the Big 10.

 

I can see what Pitt would get out of it: they are located near most of the B10 schools, they get an in-state rivalry with Penn State in all sports and the B10 is generally more prestigious than the Big East.

But what would Mizzou get?

 

Precisely. B10 poaches Pitt, BEast poaches Memphis and CUSA can poach Indiana State.

 

More money & exposure than they get as a member of the Big 12.

 

Fear the Tree

 

Suppossedly Missouri people are mad because Tiger fans are so horrible no bowl committee wants them they keep getting passed over for bowls, and that's a reason for them to jump to the Big Ten. But does Mizzou really add too much to the Big Ten? The Kansas City tv market and a few decent programs, but none that are really championship caliber.

If the Big 12 did lose a school maybe they could bring in TCU or Utah and go to East/West divisions. Arkansas is a long shot.

 

Pitt would be my choice, too.

And if travel is a consideration, what they could do is model the Pac-10's efficient scheduling system for basketball and nonrevenue sports. All of its schools are paired, so each road trip can combine two teams: You travel to SoCal and face USC/UCLA; you travel to Arizona to face UA/ASU, and so on. Stanford/Cal, UW/WSU and UO/OSU are the other pairs.

The Big Ten could -- and should -- do something similar:

UM/MSU
Pitt/PSU
OSU/IU
Purdue/NU
ILL/Iowa -- kind of the odd men out, but oh well
WIS/MIN -- also not terribly close, but not much you can do