Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[MissouriFan]

Missouri has Alumni living in all 50 states and D.C. so I decided to look up how many were living in Big Ten territory and this is what I found. I would be curious to see a break down like this for other schools that are being mentioned from outside the Big Ten's current footprint. It would be interesting to see which schools already have stronger ties to the Big Ten area.

Missouri Alumni living in Big Ten States

Illinois - 10,626
Indiana - 1,730
Iowa - 2,157
Michigan - 1,728
Minnesota - 1,764
Ohio - 2,208
Pennsylvania - 1,600
Wisconsin - 1,616

Current students from Big Ten States

Illinois - 1,681
Indiana - 109
Iowa - 166
Michigan - 96
Minnesota - 145
Ohio - 123
Pennsylvania - 95
Wisconsin - 103

 

[mross34]

Really nothing that hasn't been posted here already but ESPN has an article up about expansion:

Thoughts on Missouri and BT expansion - Big Ten Blog - ESPN

And here's the article it was based off of:

As the Big Ten Conference considers expansion, Missouri mulls its options - KansasCity.com

 

[MaliBuckeye]

Rumors swirling about Pittsburgh being announced as early as next week as our twelfth team:

I will stress that this is merely a rumor, but the word on the street (and by street I mean message boards and Twitter) is that Pitt is set to join the Big Ten, and an announcement will be made next week. Supposedly Pitt?s athletes have been informed of the move, which is how the rumor got started in the first place. The date of the announcement is allegedly February 4, which is next Thursday.

To be honest, this idea is the one that made the most sense to me: tBBC

 

[jwinslow]

It does nothing but dilute the Big Ten imo, other than basketball.

It makes recruiting a little harder on OSU & PSU.

It reduces the revenue per school by adding another benefactor without many new viewers.

Rich Rod won't be around long enough for that humorous angle.

 

[buckeyemania11]

another punchline coach

 

[cincibuck]

It does nothing but dilute the Big Ten imo, other than basketball.

It makes recruiting a little harder on OSU & PSU.

It reduces the revenue per school by adding another benefactor without many new viewers.

Rich Rod won't be around long enough for that humorous angle.

I'm not familiar with Pitt as an undergrad school. I seem to recall that the med school and hospital were highly rated and a good r/d school in the sciences -- does Pitt bring Carnegie - Mellon with it?

From an athletic point of view it would make no sense to me, but I can see that Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue and Indiana would support it because it does create more recruiting comp for OSU.

It gives Penn State a traditional game back on their schedule and probably takes Michigan State away as their second yearly match up. Frankly, that helps PSU. They get OSU and an instate cupcake. Michigan gets OSU and an instate matchup they've dominated -- and all the while whining about how tough it is to have to play little brother every year -- and OSU gets stuck being the only program that plays both of the other two perennial powers in the conference.

Something tells me the conference will be split -- PSU, OSU, Pitt, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern as Big Ten East and Michigan, MSU, Wisconsin, Minnie, Iowa, Illinois as Big 10 West -- giving Michigan a virtual lock on one half of the CCG. (yes, I do believe Michigan will be back, either because of, or in spite of, Dick Wad)

 

[Abenaki]

Eh...I'll believe it when the announcement is made. From what I can tell all the chatter is originating from Pitt and WVU "insiders" and getting picked up from there. If it were a done deal for this week I would think there'd be other sources hearing the same thing.

 

[jlb1705]

Rumors swirling about Pittsburgh being announced as early as next week as our twelfth team:



To be honest, this idea is the one that made the most sense to me: tBBC

Looks dubious - very much so in fact. Look at how many qualifiers start off that blog post:

I will stress that this is merely a rumor, but the word on the street (and by street I mean message boards and Twitter)

I count three of them there. This is merely a rumor - so they think you can't really say they were wrong if it turns out they're full of shit. Word on the street - because they don't have a real source. ...And by street I mean message boards and Twitter - not only do they not have a real source - in fact it's worse than that. They're citing ANTI-SOURCES.

Pitt adds NOTHING to the Big Ten. IMO they should be a factor only if the league wanted to expand by three schools rather than one. They don't add anything football-wise. They don't add anything geographically or TV-wise. I know Pitt is not a lousy academic institution, but they are not good enough IMO to make up for the fact that they don't fit the Big Ten profile of land grant flagship institutions. Pitt is the school that UC thinks it is, and IMO that's still not good enough to warrant their inclusion.

 

[OSU_D/]

It does nothing but dilute the Big Ten imo, other than basketball.

It makes recruiting a little harder on OSU & PSU.

It reduces the revenue per school by adding another benefactor without many new viewers.

Rich Rod won't be around long enough for that humorous angle.

Exactly.

Pitt is the 2nd worst "logical" choice, only Cincinnati is worse.

 

[jwinslow]

We don't need a poor man's sparty for the winter months.

Something tells me the conference will be split -- PSU, OSU, Pitt, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern as Big Ten East and Michigan, MSU, Wisconsin, Minnie, Iowa, Illinois as Big 10 West -- giving Michigan a virtual lock on one half of the CCG. (yes, I do believe Michigan will be back, either because of, or in spite of, Dick Wad)

No chance they split up OSU-UM and risk rematches.

03 & 07 would have been particularly upsetting rematches. 06 would have been enjoyable but only because of how rare that great matchup was.

 

[kolOhioState88]

i think pitt is a fine choice. great bball program and a football program on the rise.

 

[osuteke]

It's pretty clear that if they add Pitt then they will add more. So the arguments against adding Pitt are kind of pointless.

 

[jwinslow]

It's pretty clear that if they add Pitt then they will add more.

How is that clear?

 

[Buckrock]

Missou next?

 

[mross34]

i think pitt is a fine choice. great bball program and a football program on the rise.

USF is a program on the rise. They started playing football in 1997, joined D1-A in 2000, started appearing in the top 25 recently, etc. They've been playing football at Pitt since 1890. Maybe they are entering into a relative up period, but I would hardly think what's going on now at Pitt is going to create a sustainable change in their football program. Big 10 shouldn't be adding teams based on how their football program will perform in the next 3-5 years.