Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Buckeye Maniac]

Remember that Army & Navy were still (waning) powers in 1959.

I have no idea what was up with the inclusion of Penn .

Natural rival for Penn State

 

[ScriptOhio]

TCU to join the Big 12

As reported earlier Thursday by CBSSports.com's Brett McMurphy, TCU will be joining the Big 12 conference.

The Big 12 made the announcement official on Thursday morning, saying that it has "authorized negotiations with TCU to become the conference's tenth member." The Big 12 also announced that Missouri did not participate in the vote on the advice of legal counsel.

Entire article: http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/32537029

Interesting that Missouri stayed out of it. They must really want out of the Big XII in a bad way.

This is great, a $5M exit fee to a conference that you never played in :

The source told ESPNDallas.com that TCU would have to pay the $5 million exit fee from the Big East but could join the Big 12 in time for the 2012-13 athletic year. A source with knowledge of the Big East's situation said the league is prepared to see TCU leave before it ever plays a game.

Entire article: http://espn.go.com/dallas/ncf/story...cu-horned-frogs-meeting-discuss-big-12-invite

 

[Muck]

Would be funny if the Big East threatened to hold them to the two year exit clause like they are with Pitt & 'Cuze.

 

[Buckeyefrankmp]

Would be funny if the Big East threatened to hold them to the two year exit clause like they are with Pitt & 'Cuze.

I don't think the conference is going to be around for that long.

 

[Mac]

B1G 10 should pick up ND and either Cincy or Mizzou.

I think itd be cool to have Cincy as a 1st game rival every year. And we can beat the piss out of them right out of the gates

 

[PlanetFrnd]

Or finally give the city to Kentucky and be done with it...

 

[Muck]

B1G 10 should pick up ND and either Cincy or Mizzou.

I think itd be cool to have Cincy as a 1st game rival every year. And we can beat the piss out of them right out of the gates

Cincy isn't B1G material in any way, shape or form.

 

[Buckeyefrankmp]

B1G 10 should pick up ND and either Cincy or Mizzou.

Wrong on so many levels.

People. Please. If you are looking for universities that the B1G could add go to the following link. If the university you want to be added to the B1G is not Notre Dame and not on this page do not add it to the conversation.

http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476

 

[Gatorubet]

Mizzou need to go to the East. That way, the perennial cross-division rivalries stay the same. Anything else and it is a cluster.

I mean, that would be so sad to lose LSU as a yearly cross division game.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

McMurphy does a good job covering college football...

http://brett-mcmurphy.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/29532522/32541449

Notre Dame's football independence now at risk

When news broke Thursday that TCU was joining the Big 12 Conference instead of the Big East, it was just another domino in the latest craze sweeping across America: Conference realignment!

Another piece that might be teetering: Notre Dame.

For the Big East, losing TCU is another sucker punch to the groin or -- as Illinois? Jonathan Brown prefers -- a knee to the groin.

Sure technically the Big East never really had TCU since the Horned Frogs weren?t officially joining the league until July 1, 2012, but the loss of what could have been is even more devastating for the Big East.

In the matter of weeks, the Big East has lost Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and now TCU to the Big 12. And if Missouri leaves for the SEC, sources have told CBSSports.com the Big 12 will likely add three more schools to get to 12 members. At the top of that list, sources said, is Louisville, along with a combination of BYU, West Virginia, Cincinnati or Tulane.

Losing Louisville and West Virginia or Cincinnati would likely be a fatal blow to the Big East's football BCS status. As damaging as these defections are to the Big East, it could have an even greater impact on the behemoth of college football.

Even before man invented fire, the Fighting Irish?s football program has been an independent. And Notre Dame plans on staying an independent until the galaxy explodes -- or until the Big East implodes -- whichever happens first.

So while the Big East?s pulse continues to weaken, Notre Dame could be forced to join a conference. The Fighting Irish have enjoyed the benefit of remaining a football independent, while their non-football sports competed in the Big East. Those days could be numbered.

"Certainly the factors that have contributed to the larger conference realignment continue to exist," Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick told the Associated Press on Wednesday, a day before the news about TCU leaving to the Big 12. "And we?re doing the same thing we?ve done throughout, monitoring them closely, and hoping that the Big East stays a vibrant and successful partner for us."

But if there?s no Big East, then Notre Dame becomes the Holy Grail of college football. The Big 12, the Big Ten, the ACC and the SEC would add the Fighting Irish yesterday. Heck, even the Pac-12?s Larry Scott would find a way to bring the Irish on board if he could...

 

[Woody1968]

I don't know, the Big East is toast as a football conference, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's done as a basketball conference and a viable place for ND to park it's non-revenue sports. I think it will take more than this to put the Irish in play. I know that the BE schedules so that some of its teams can fit the Irish into their OOC schedules, but until ND is unable to find any viable opponents in the mid to late season, I don't think they are going to sweat it.

 

[dragurd]

Good to see notre dame still has it's inflated sense of self worth.

 

[BrowardBuck]

Not a lawyer, but how can the Big East enforce a $5mil exit fee given that TCU has NOT officially joined the conference. Just because there was an agreement in principal to do so doesn't make it official until the date they were officially set to become a conference member. If I were TCU, I'd tell the Big East to go jump off a cliff. Let 'em try to enforce that exit fee.

BB

 

[Muck]

Not a lawyer, but how can the Big East enforce a $5mil exit fee given that TCU has NOT officially joined the conference. Just because there was an agreement in principal to do so doesn't make it official until the date they were officially set to become a conference member. If I were TCU, I'd tell the Big East to go jump off a cliff. Let 'em try to enforce that exit fee.

BB

Just depends on what the contracts that were signed say.

 

[kn1f3party]

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/10/07/100711-sports-wolken-tcu-big-12-1-3/

MOVERS & SHAKERS
TCU becomes latest weak sister to bring about seismic college changes
The strangest part of conference realignment, the most mystifying thing about this latest plunge into mistrust, greed and utter chaos, is the willingness of college sports? most powerful brand names to be run over by the weak and insignificant.

Since Nebraska moved to the Big Ten last year, not a single football program of longstanding national relevance has changed conferences, and look how much has changed, how much more is on the verge of destruction.

Twice the Pac-10 roared about creating a superconference, about bringing Texas and Oklahoma out West, and all it got were Colorado and Utah. The ACC decided to wage a preemptive strike for its survival, and it ended up with two schools far more likely to win a national title in basketball than a BCS bowl game most years.

Even the SEC, a conference whose value rests more in its exclusivity than the strength of its media markets, has taken on a second-tier program (Texas A&M) and might add a school in Missouri that last won a conference championship in 1969.

And finally yesterday, it was a private school in Texas ? a school that has switched conferences five times and struggled to sell out its 44,000-seat stadium during some of the best years in program history ? making a move that solidified one league for the next half-decade and threw the future of another into serious doubt.

...

But it also underscores the great paradox of conference realignment. What started as an opportunity to consolidate power among the elite BCS conferences has instead been driven by the underclass. Two years ago, Utah and TCU didn?t have a seat at the table; now they?re making tens of millions off the BCS and determining the future of entire conferences.

Interesting perspective.