<p>Friends of friends seem to think that Big Ten expansion might happen again, sooner rather than later given A&M flirting with SEC. Discussions may be in process already.</p>
<p>Texas, ND, A&M, a fourth TBD.</p>
<p>thoughts?</p>
<p>From Maine to Washington
We are the Legends
We are the Leaders
We are the Big Twenty
We are the Big Thirty
We are the Big Forty
Come to join our Party
We won’t be picky
Sooner or later, we will
Take over the Country!</p>
<p>Bowling Green!</p>
<p>But seriously, they would take Notre Dame in a heartbeat, but Notre Dame isn’t ready to stop believing that it can win national championships as an independent, so that won’t happen soon. A&M and Texas would be good fits academically, but what remains of the Big 12 has a really lucrative TV deal right now, and Texas has their own network on top of that, so I don’t see either of them going to the Big Ten in the near future, either.</p>
<p>My list of realistic near-future Big Ten candidates would be Pitt and Rutgers as fairly likely, and Connecticut and Iowa State as possible but not very likely.</p>
<p>That take over is well under way:</p>
<p>"“Large state institutions like the University of Wisconsin—Madison, the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, and Ohio State University ranked highly as well, as each awarded at least 10 degrees to CEOs on Fortune’s list. Wisconsin stood out among its state school peers, granting 17 degrees to the CEOs, which put the school fourth overall”</p>
<p>Barrons, what dos that have to do with sports??? In this thread, it really is about the athletic conference.</p>
<p>I still don’t think they should have expanded beyond ten. It is only sports, barrons- no need to try to cheerlead the academics here. It is flattering that other schools want a part of the conference. It takes away from the regional rivalries to expand. Some long time traditions get threatened when there are too many schools to play each other every year. Some talk how getting an east coast state can boost the presence of schools there and increase applications- don’t need that. A conference loses something when it becomes national instead of in your own backyard. Thanks for fight song, xiggi.</p>
<p>Mizz:</p>
<p>It is in response to the xiggi post. I initially thought the same thing. One really needs to reference the post they are responding to in most cases to avoid having your posts seem to be random/odd/etc.</p>
<p>I don’t think another expansion is imminent. The Big Ten will take a few years to absorb the recent addition of Nebraska, splitting football into two divisions, and adding a conference championship game before they make another move. Those are huge changes. </p>
<p>Besides, who would they add? Notre Dame shows no interest in joining. Texas just launched its own TV network and the Big Ten would never let them keep a potentially lucrative exclusive side deal like that, competing with the Big Ten Network. (The Big 12 was too weak or too Texas-dominated to stop it). But Texas would never surrender it, so that’s probably a deal-breaker. Texas A&M probably wouldn’t jump without Texas; that rivalry is too important to them. Pitt doesn’t add much to what Penn State already delivers in television markets and conference exposure for athletic recruiting purposes in Pennsylvania. I still think Rutgers is a pretty good match and the Big Ten would love to crack the NY/NJ TV markets. Word also has it that Penn State would love to add a New Jersey rival in part for recruiting purposes, in part because they’ve got a ton of alums in NY/NJ, and in part so they’re not such an Eastern outlier. But they’re opposed to allowing Pitt to horn in on their Pennsylvania Big Ten franchise. If you add Rutgers you need to add someone else, though, to keep the football divisions balanced, so I don’t think it will happen soon because there’s not a likely second.</p>
<p>Uh-oh, looks like Texas A&M has something up its sleeve:</p>
<p>[Orangebloods.com</a> - D-Day appears imminent for 10-member Big 12](<a href=“http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1250840]Orangebloods.com”>http://texas.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1250840)</p>
<p>“Take over the Country”
“That take over is well under way”</p>
<p>It helps to have a little history here to get some of the insider stuff.
Just like the term TTT in another thread. Some know exactly where that came from and when. But it’s too much to explain it all to the latecomers and does not really matter except as history.</p>
<p>Yeah, okay, whatever. Back to college sports.</p>
<p>Some things expand, others contract. I remember the Pac 8 which became the Pac 10 and will now be the Pac 12. On the other hand, there were the Big 8 accounting firms that went down to the Big 6 and now are the Big 4 (?).</p>
<p>Another relevant article in the news today:</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State Players All Worried They’re Going To Be The One Who Accidentally Kills Joe Paterno | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/articles/penn-state-players-all-worried-theyre-going-to-be,21120/]Penn”>Penn State Players All Worried They're Going To Be The One Who Accidentally Kills Joe Paterno)</p>
<p>I read the Onion article earlier today. Truth is, they may actually be worried about hurting the man.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True, but then Arthur Anderson never won the Cotton Bowl. I’m not sure they ever even played in the Cotton Bowl.</p>
<p>In today’s economy you either grow and dominate or become a small niche player. To get the big TV money (and resultant brand name and exposure=success) you need a dominant product and bigger is better as they need to fill many hours of time and prefer names people know.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Of course, it is obvious that I had the numbers of CEOs who earned a MBA degree at Harvard (Legends) or Wharton (Leaders) in mind when I wrote my post. </p>
<br>
<br>
<p>;)</p>
<p>I’ve always dismissed the talk of a possible invitation to Rutgers to join the Big Ten. Penn State essentially has “owned” the New Jersey high school football recruiting territory forever. Any highly regarded recruit from NJ probably ignores letters from Rutgers when Penn State has already come knocking on his door. The Big Ten doesn’t need Rutgers for recruiting or even for the metro NY/NJ television market. Also, there’s a reason why Notre Dame plays at Meadowlands Stadium in NJ every year. Gives local ND fans and all those great players from the NJ catholic school football powers an opportunity to see their favorite college team.</p>
<p>The whole idea of conferences is to have a limited number of teams who play each other on a regular basis. Otherwise there is no point in a “conference”. Increase the size by too many teams and you then split the conference into subconferences- or two conferences. Hard to build rivalries without reasons- such as it’s the neigboring state, of course we’re better than they are… </p>
<p>Nice poem, xiggi, even before I knew the business connection.</p>
<p>LakeWashington-Any highly regarded recruit from NJ probably ignores letters from Rutgers when Penn State </p>
<p>That clearly is no longer the case. Recruiting of the best/highest ranked players in NJ is no longer a one way street, Rutgers competes for the top players coming out of NJ now. They still need to produce better results but it is no longer a given that they can not get their share of the better players.</p>