Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Piney]

Interesting thought. Are we taking a hands off approach towards Texas in cooperation with the Pac 10. They want to expand also, but have far fewer viable options in their area. Boise is Wright State with a football team. UNLV? The UC schools will never allow a Cal State school in. BYU would never make it past the presidents and faculties. Utah is an decent target, and Nevada might be acceptable.

OTOH, Texas and Colorado have been mentioned as Pac 10 expansion targets in the past. Given the long standing relationship betwen the two conferences and past history of coordinating their positions on the BCS, bowl games, basketball tournaments, could we, in the spirit of that partnership, be holding back and letting the Pac 10 have the first crack at Texas.

I think the hands off approach towards Texas at the moment might be more to the fact that they are playing for a National Title. You don't want to rock their boat leading up to their big game. Doing so might burn the bridge that might be there. So I would not be surprised if the voices saying Texas to the Big 10 grow louder AFTER the title game.

But the Pac-10 does have some choices besides Colorado & Texas. BYU or Utah could be a choice along with Colorado. Heck, I saw a PAC10 board mention Texas A&M, which would make sense if Texas goes to the Big10

 

[cincibuck]

Man, is this wrong, wrong, wrong. Rutgers, especially, would bring us the NYC media market, which is huge.

For those who claim that NYC is a "pro town," let me ask you this: what alternative do they have? Would you be a big college grid fan if the biggest play were Big Least football? If suddenly Rutgers is playing Big Boy football against Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, the interest level will rise exponentially. Syracuse would have a similar, if somewhat less significant, effect.

One other thing: from a consensus standpoint, I don't think the Big Ten particularly wants Notre Dame.

Not disagreeing with you exactly, but I think that from the BTN point of view the main thing that ND brings to the table is the Boston, Philly, AND NY market along with a chuck of retired East Coast geezers now living in Florida. By playing BC and Navy or Army at the Meadowlands they keep the NY/East Coast market linked to them.

Why not take a page from the ND book and schedule Rutgers for a home and home with the stipulation that home for them be in the Meadowlands?

 

[Piney]

why are people so against this. A conference championship game will help this conference so much. Have it same day as sec big 12 championship in Lucas Oil stadium. Would be sweet. Just have a team with a good history like Syracuse or Pittsburgh.

I'm against this because first off it lessens the Ohio St v Michigan game. Also it hurts the chances of getting multiple BCS bids, in addition just another landmine for Ohio State to the National Title. Right now we have it easy, and a Conference Title Game could give an opponent that we beat earlier in the year get a 2nd shot.

That's why we don't want to settle for a potential lesser 12th team. Go big or go home... Notre Dame or Texas. (I can live with Nebraska too)

It would be nice if our Texas friends would stop by and offer their opinions of Texas possibly joining the Big Ten.

I was hoping the same thing. Maybe after the title game we will be seeing them. But just from the message boards I have seen, not alot of their fans would be in favor of it.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

why are people so against this. A conference championship game will help this conference so much. Have it same day as sec big 12 championship in Lucas Oil stadium. Would be sweet. Just have a team with a good history like Syracuse or Pittsburgh.

My favorite college football team has won their conference title 5 times in a row now. I'm not really in favor of changing anything about that team or that conference.

 

[cincibuck]

The Big Ten is a large, land-grand, midwest college conference. Texas and Notre Dame do not fit that mold. Only Missouri does, and they have solid athletics.

I say "No" to expansion, but if they are hell-bent then Missouri is the only program being mentioned that fits the mold.

Forgetting Northwestern and Chicago, which are not land grant colleges?

 

[CalvinistBuck]

Speaking of Missouri, it was one of her native sons (Mark Twain) who once observed that the large migration of mid-westerners to California had "increased the average IQ of both states".

It makes me cringe to think that some might paraphrase this statement if we raid the Big 12 for a middling team and claim, accurately or not, that the move of Missouri (or fill-in-the-blank) to the Big 10 had improved both conferences.

Good use of the Twain quote. I think few (realistic) expansion proposals actually benefit the B10.

Many of us are anti-expansion, but that decision has apparently been made.

The official statement from the B10 essentially says that they are officially discussing the issue. Is there credible evidence that expansion is a done deal?

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

It would be nice if our Texas friends would stop by and offer their opinions of Texas possibly joining the Big Ten.

There's a good thread on HornFans about the possibility, but it mostly speculates Mizzou to the Big10, which would precipitate a collapse of the BigXII, which would then cause UT and CU to move to the Pac10... There is some sentiment that the Texas fans would like to thumb their noses at the Big8 schools and go to either the B10 or Pac10.

If you're not familiar, HornFans is Texas' version of BP, imo.

 

[JDMBuckeye]

I just want college football playoffs, and i dont foresee taking a team from b12 making that any easier. I think adding ND is great, but played... I think adding a big east team helps the cause, but hope that the BE handles it well

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

FCollins - Pastrami > ham, everyone knows that, so I don't think it's debatable.

You lack a basic understanding of what constitutes quality cold cuts.

 

[Steve19]

Here's how you get Notre Dame to pay some attention. Stop playing them. TSUN, Sparty, and Purdue need to drop them from the schedule and all Big Ten teams need to keep them off their schedule.

The Big Ten lets Notre Dame play three or four games a year against the league teams. If they want nothing to do with the Big Ten because it's not in their interest, show them where their interests really lie.

 

[Buckeyefrankmp]

In fact, why not add 3 teams...Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma. The conference would stretch from the border with Canada to the border with Mexico.

The 14 team expansion has been brought up by the Tribune (How about Big 14? -- chicagotribune.com). If the Big Ten brings in three teams it should be Nebraska, Missouri and Rutgers. The point has also been made that the more teams you add, the more teams will share the money. So the expansion better be bringing in money to cover the new teams or each school will lose out of the revenue sharing.

Speaking of Canada, why not add the Canadian market with the University of Toronto. The NCAA has let Simon Fraser Univ in on a probationary period. There is the International Bowl now in Toronto. Come on people. This makes perfect sense.

 

[cincibuck]

There's a good thread on HornFans about the possibility, but it mostly speculates Mizzou to the Big10, which would precipitate a collapse of the BigXII, which would then cause UT and CU to move to the Pac10... There is some sentiment that the Texas fans would like to thumb their noses at the Big8 schools and go to either the B10 or Pac10.

If you're not familiar, HornFans is Texas' version of BP, imo.

Hmmmm, they could split the Pac 10 into North/South Divisions. It would finally give USC a run for their money, but the divisions would be terribly unbalanced, but hell, it already is. Pac South: Texas, ASU, Ariz. USC, UCLA, Colorado. Pac North: Wash, Wazoo, Ore, Ore St. Cal, Stanford. The travel could be helped by allowing non-revenue sports to stay in their division and use the conference championships to settle matters.

 

[Oh8ch]

The official statement from the B10 essentially says that they are officially discussing the issue. Is there credible evidence that expansion is a done deal?

No credible evidence. But I don't believe they make this announcement if they anticipate saying "oh, never mind" down the road. The pressure is there and growing.

I am just hoping that the pressure is not so great that they will expand even in the absence of the right candidate.

 

[Steve19]

Speaking of Canada, why not add the Canadian market with the University of Toronto. The NCAA has let Simon Fraser Univ in on a probationary period. There is the International Bowl now in Toronto. Come on people. This makes perfect sense.

And, they know how to chase beaver...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWYt3TccF20]YouTube - Molson TV Ad Beaver[/ame]

 

[MaxBuck]

There's no reason to follow Rutgers football because they are terrible.

Rutgers is not "terrible." Over the past 4 years their record is 35-16, and they have three straight bowl wins. Not that I particularly want Rutgers in the conference; I don't.