Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Muck]

.../snip/... Maryland I wouldn't say has done quite as much, but they did just spend $50 million to overhaul their stadium and fired a relatively (for them) successful coach who seemed to have plateaued.../snip/...

That's also how they get into the financial hole that helped push them to the B1G.

 

[JBaney45]

I think ND is likely to do everything it possibly can to avoid joining the B1G. I think that's seriously dumb of them, but.. whatever....

I think it's funny that ND figures out they "have" to join a conference (at some level), decide on the ACC, and .... BOOM... the ACC begins to topple.

I wonder if they do stop at 16. Suppose they add Rutgers, UVA and UNC.... and Gold Teef, Clemson and FreeShoes go Big XII.... ND may come crawling... I don't think the B1G will turn them away...

That is hopefully the twisted plan.

I mean as it stands, shaking apart the ACC seems great on paper, except it doesn't turn into that great of a deal when we are getting schools like Maryland and Rutgers while the Big 12 is adding programs like FSU and Clemson.

Of course Notre Dame's run at the title they are making this year probably works against this plan, the domers will be arrogant enough to believe that maybe they CAN survive while being independent and it wouldn't be that big of a deal if the ACC toppled/they had to back out of the deal.

 

[MUBuck]

Eh, the same can be said about Illinois, and look where that's gotten them.

It's certainly not a sure thing that either team is anything besides a perennial doormat. Even so, expansion into the east coast media market and increased exposure to the B1G brand is what this move is all about.

 

[Mike80]

I think ND is likely to do everything it possibly can to avoid joining the B1G. I think that's seriously dumb of them, but.. whatever....

I think it's funny that ND figures out they "have" to join a conference (at some level), decide on the ACC, and .... BOOM... the ACC begins to topple.

Yep. Schadenfreude.

I wonder if they do stop at 16. Suppose they add Rutgers, UVA and UNC.... and Gold Teef, Clemson and FreeShoes go Big XII.... ND may come crawling... I don't think the B1G will turn them away...

you never know, if they end up going to 18 they could pull in Dook/Vandy and GA Tech since none of them fit into the SEC or Big XII academically.

 

[CincyInterloper]

I think the move could be similar to the Nebraska add. By itself, Nebraska was a solid addition, but it was also a nudge to tip off massive realignment and see if it could shake Texas and/or Notre Dame loose. The net result was that the Big East has been poached so frequently of all football members with a pulse that Notre Dame was in danger of losing its safe harbor where it had parked its basketball and non-revenue sports for years.

Tapping Maryland will do the same thing to the ACC. FSU and Clemson have previously expressed interest in leaving (perhaps for the Big XII) while the SEC could always make a run at two more.

Ga Tech could be in play, but I think that is perhaps a tease like Missouri wound up being. They've tipped their hand and can now be used as leverage by the B1G.

Notre Dame is, and always will be, the grand prize.

Providing a place for ND to park their non-football sports is looking like a bad move for the ACC. It just created an extra incentive for the B1G and any other conference that dreams of landing ND to destablize the ACC.

 

[Poe McKnoe]

If RichRod was still around, we could see those epic battles from the Big East with Randy Edsall that no one really ever wanted to watch.

 

[redguard117]

Let's go out and get UNC and UVA (along with Rutgers/GT) and this will actually be a great move. At the least, it'll make tons of recruits in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic more likely to go BIG, and looking at next year's class, that can only be a good thing.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

So, where does this put Gary Williams among the winning-est coaches in the Big Ten?

Don't ask him!

 

[Hodgepodge]

Apparently Rutgers will be announced this week as well.

As much as I'd like to think that the next move will be to 16, I think that will depend greatly on what FSU does next. Do they see Maryland leaving and see it as yet another reason why the ACC isn't what they want and call the Big XII? If that happens, all hell might break loose in the ACC. Clemson would probably follow them. That removes 2 of the top 4 programs. The ACC could still survive, but they'd be the new Big East. That would make VPI and NC State ripe for the picking by the SEC, who would have a reason to take them since their new BTN-style SEC Network is in its final developmental stages and could use the last two southern states that aren't already in their territory. Notre Dame would bail if that happened, no doubt. That would leave a bunch of schools - UNC chief among them - that would be looking for ways to secure their future.

I know, all this is a bit of a reach, but I don't think any of it is unreasonable. At the very least, I think the B1G will wait to see what happens to the ACC in the next two years before going to 16. They still have time before the new TV contract is up for bidding during 2016. Actually, I think the reason why they took Maryland and apparently Rutgers now is because they wanted to see what happened to the ACC to see what else might become available. Otherwise, I can't think of a good reason to bring those schools in now rather than 2016.

 

[scooter1369]

Who thought we could see a day that the U is begging the Big East to let them back in?

 

[Zurp]

Sounds like the Pitt to Big Ten rumors from some years ago..

Yeah, it sounded the same, but I was way off with the outcome.

Can we get a vbet on whether this is announced by a certain date?

It's a good thing there wasn't a vbet. I'd be vbroke, again.

 

[Dryden]

Gary Parrish ‏@GaryParrishCBS

You know a league is vulnerable when its wiki page has sections titled "Instability" and "Continuing Instability."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_East_Conference#Instability.2C_departures.2C_and_replacements

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

That is hopefully the twisted plan.

I mean as it stands, shaking apart the ACC seems great on paper, except it doesn't turn into that great of a deal when we are getting schools like Maryland and Rutgers while the Big 12 is adding programs like FSU and Clemson.

Of course Notre Dame's run at the title they are making this year probably works against this plan, the domers will be arrogant enough to believe that maybe they CAN survive while being independent and it wouldn't be that big of a deal if the ACC toppled/they had to back out of the deal.

It seems to me you're thinking only about football.

There's little question football is driving this bus. However, I am not sure the Big XII or SEC are thinking "big picture" when they limit the "who are we gonna take" question to "who's reasonably good at football"

 

[lvbuckeye]

Who thought we could see a day that the U is begging the Big East to let them back in?

they should just shut down their football program.

 

[Dryden]

Brett McMurphy‏ @McMurphyESPN

Rutgers will announce move to Big Ten on Tuesday, sources told @ESPN

Rutgers done deal as well?