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Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

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Which Teams Should the Big Ten Add? (please limit to four selections)

  • Boston College

    Votes: 32 10.2%

  • Cincinnati

    Votes: 19 6.1%

  • Connecticut

    Votes: 6 1.9%

  • Duke

    Votes: 21 6.7%

  • Georgia Tech

    Votes: 55 17.6%

  • Kansas

    Votes: 46 14.7%

  • Maryland

    Votes: 67 21.4%

  • Missouri

    Votes: 90 28.8%

  • North Carolina

    Votes: 39 12.5%

  • Notre Dame

    Votes: 209 66.8%

  • Oklahoma

    Votes: 78 24.9%

  • Pittsburgh

    Votes: 45 14.4%

  • Rutgers

    Votes: 40 12.8%

  • Syracuse

    Votes: 18 5.8%

  • Texas

    Votes: 121 38.7%

  • Vanderbilt

    Votes: 15 4.8%

  • Virginia

    Votes: 47 15.0%

  • Virginia Tech

    Votes: 62 19.8%

  • Stay at 12 teams and don't expand

    Votes: 27 8.6%

  • Add some other school(s) not listed

    Votes: 25 8.0%
  • Total voters
    313
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Omaha World-Herald

VERY interesting article from a well-conected Nebraska reporter:

Big Ten football fans, see if the following slate of conference games would interest you:

Oklahoma vs. Wisconsin; Nebraska vs. Texas A&M; Iowa vs. Iowa State; Minnesota vs. Kansas.

Unfortunately, it’s not happening. But there was a time when grouping those eight schools into one division of a 16-team Big Ten was discussed at high administrative levels by members of both leagues.
Click to expand...

Was this a concrete proposal for realignment? No.

But it was much, much more than cocktail-napkin speculation.

A Big 12 athletic director, who spoke to The World-Herald on condition of anonymity, said he contacted Big Ten athletic directors and presidents with whom he was familiar in June 2010.

The topic: Was the Big Ten, which had 11 members at the time, interested in adding five Big 12 schools?

The feedback from Big Ten school officials was positive, both sources said. The sticking point was devising a revenue-sharing plan to satisfy all. It would have taken at least three to four years for that many incoming schools to hit the financial payoffs sought for moving.
Click to expand...

It would be nice to know what self-proclaimed Big 12 kingpin Texas thinks of all this.

But the Longhorns are busy trying to put out their own fires, most of which Athletic Director Steve Patterson has ignited in less than two years on the job.

UT’s new president, Greg Fenves, according to reports in Dallas and Austin newspapers, has told Patterson that he needs to change his personal dealings with donors and become more personable.

* * *

Patterson mostly got praise for his coaching choices of Charlie Strong in football and Shaka Smart in basketball. But a wise man from Austin with deep ties to Texas athletics distilled the current situation for me in two sentences:

“Charlie Strong is a nice man who is a little overmatched. Steve Patterson is not a very nice man, and he is way overmatched.’’

* * *

Patterson’s behavior carries the distinct stench of how Dave Brandon operated as athletic director at Michigan for four years before resigning under fire last October. Brandon is back where profits and operating efficiency are celebrated over everything else — private business as the CEO of Toys R Us. (Insert own joke here).
Click to expand...

So, Nebraska fans, now you’re caught up on what’s happening in the Big 12. Not much has changed, eh?

If the predictions come true that the clock is ticking on the Big 12 sticking together, remember what we previously reported from two sources at Nebraska — the Big Ten has done its “homework’’ to evaluate Oklahoma and Kansas as potential members.
Click to expand...
 
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Saw31 said:
I'm not convinced the B1G will expand again in the near future, but if they do, it better be for something more important than to just add two more teams. It better be to put a stake through the heart of another conference. To me, the writing is on the wall and the playoffs will be full blown NFL style playoffs. I hate that, but that's where we're heading in my imo. Kill the Big XII-II or the ACC. It'd be nice to kill Duke basketball with a football, if we can. Just sayin'. LOL
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At first I read this as "let's bring Duke into the Big Ten." And I'm thinking, "Just what we need - a rich, white boy school running a sports plantation. We could do that with Notre Dame." Then I re-read. LOL
 
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The Texas boards are always awash with this topic (given last year and constantly on the brink of implosion) and they're claiming rumors that GTech is reaching out.
Get in it Delany! Of the remaining ACC schools, I like them and UVA best.

VA - has the academics, expands footprint naturally, delivers new markets
GTech - has the academics, but would be on an island. Adding Atlanta is very intriguing ... and given how we've recruited GA lately... yes please. Not thrilled with playing an option school every year.

Duke - closer to the mark, but as Cinci already noted above.
Pitt - only if it's a trade where we lose Ped State. Don't need 2 schools in PA.
UNC - would've been a homerun, but a decade of academic scandal... hmmm...
VTech - a little underwhelming academically and athletically. Superfluous if Virginia is choice #1
BC - doesn't fit Big profile at all. If we're not adding ND, another catholic school doesn't make much sense.
Syracuse - Academics not up to big standards. Don't need, already have Rutgers
FSU, Clemson, Miami - just no. Tail wagging the dog.
Wake Forest, NCState - hahahahaha as if
 
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Regardless of whether the sources are true or not, very interesting thinking on expanding further into Big XII territory without taking Texas. Makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't be a possibility, seeing as though Texas, with their overinflated self worth and failing TV network, has now gone into the same category of possibility of joining the B1G as N_tre _ame and a jar full of dicks.

"Doing homework" on a school is hardly as sure a thing as a welcome mat. In the past, it's understandably been a flat out NO for Oklahoma from the powers that be due to academics, and Kansas makes little sense outside of AAU and basketball. However, Delaney doing his due diligence on schools is way within his wheelhouse, covering all his bases for any given scenario and staying two thoughts in front of everyone else.

I still think it's going to be a flat out NO for Okie due to academics (and rightfully so), but interesting fodder nonetheless on the athletics side for the western division and basketball to add both schools.
 
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BuckTwenty said:
"Doing homework" on a school is hardly as sure a thing as a welcome mat.
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Agreed. But consider the source, a Nebraska insider who is writing to Nebraska fans who would love to renew the rivalry with Oklahoma. "Doing homework" has to be code for "is seriously considering".

Personally, I would love to add Oklahoma, and it makes sense on a lot of levels. Football, obviously - as a stand alone entity, as a rival for Nebraska, and as another power in the B1G West.

Also television markets - Oklahoma City (#45 television market and ability to support an NBA team) and Tusla (#61) would be givens, but adding Oklahoma would also be an entry point for the huge Dallas market (#5).

Also tradition, as Oklahoma is much more "midwest" than Texas or Notre Dame or any of the east coach schools under consideration.

EDIT: And one other thing, stealing Oklahoma from the Big 12 would help make that abomination of a conference disappear, and I'm all for that.

I realize that academics are an issue, but I'm not as concerned about academics as people like @ORD_Buckeye. And Oklahoma at least seems interested in improving their academics standing, unlike schools like Auburn and Florida State, who would jettison academics altogether if it would help them win a few football games.
 
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I think it makes sense to expand west to balance the expansion east for the purposes of a pod system.

Keep the original Big Ten in the middle with two five team pods while adding a new five team pod on the east and another on the west.
 
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I agree with LBJ that OU under Boren seems at least interested in improving the academics, but I wonder how strongly that sentiment runs beyond him and the faculty. When he leaves, is it back to usual for OU. Throw in that OU has been one of the cheatingest programs in NCAA history under multiple coaches, and I think they slide right back into the FSU mold. I don't like the idea of making additions based on what The Corn needs. What are they going to do? Run back to Texas? The Corn will develop their own rivalries over time if they compete for the West title consistently. If they don't, it's irrelevant in any event.

As for overall culture, that's a split. The Great Lakes metro areas (possibly excepting Indy) are more culturally in tune with the NE, but the small towns and farm counties are definitely more similar to the Southwest.

I do like the idea of adding Toronto and McGill as affiliate hockey members as well as bringing them into the CIC.
 
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Hmmmmmmm, I miss the old Big Ten, but times is times and change was needed. I wasn't crazy about adding Nebraska, but it did preserve the Mid-West mold. What I think the Children of Corn are experiencing is the same thing Penn State went through - "Oh boy, we're going to kick some Big Ten ass, we'll be in the Rose Bowl just about every other year unless we're in the CCG."

Now that it's obvious they aren't going to dominate they're home sick and let's face it, Iowa is no substitute for Okie on their schedule.

As a fan, I miss the Nebraska - Oklahoma game, but as a historian I realize that it was only for about 20 years that it meant so much nationally and even then from a TV ratings POV it had to be moved around Michigan - Ohio State and Texas - aTm to get the viewership wanted.

Texas? We already have Michigan and Notre Dame is right next door. That's about as much arrogance as any one conference can hold
 
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ORD_Buckeye said:
I agree with LBJ that OU under Boren seems at least interested in improving the academics, but I wonder how strongly that sentiment runs beyond him and the faculty. When he leaves, is it back to usual for OU. Throw in that OU has been one of the cheatingest programs in NCAA history under multiple coaches, and I think they slide right back into the FSU mold. I don't like the idea of making additions based on what The Corn needs. What are they going to do? Run back to Texas? The Corn will develop their own rivalries over time if they compete for the West title consistently. If they don't, it's irrelevant in any event.

As for overall culture, that's a split. The Great Lakes metro areas (possibly excepting Indy) are more culturally in tune with the NE, but the small towns and farm counties are definitely more similar to the Southwest.

I do like the idea of adding Toronto and McGill as affiliate hockey members as well as bringing them into the CIC.
Click to expand...

On the last part, did John Hopkins ever join CIC? Love adding those 3 even as partial members. The precedent is there w/Chicago imo (though obviously they started as a full athletic member)

Regarding UN - OU rivalry... no reason that can't be done OOC.
I threw a bone for that on shaggy, but that's not a real incentive for the conference. You have 3 OOC games to make that happen if it's important to both schools.
 
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starBUCKS said:
Dick Weiss‏@HoopsWeiss
Fox sports mulling idea of Kansas OU leaving big 12 for Big to give that conference 16 teams. Just another rumor? @BlueStarMedia1
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Well, it would give Indiana a shot at winning a conference game. It might add sales appeal for basketball, but frankly who wants OU with their history of violations and weak academics outside of oil research?

The conference is also entering into diminishing returns territory. Would OU and Kansas add enough value to maintain the same per school revenue level? Also wonder about little brothers - can either school depart without dragging the kid brother along?
 
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