<p>4 teams are receiving offers--Notre Dame, Rutgers, Mizzu, and somewhat of a surpirse--Nebraska. More to come if ND does not join. Probably Pitt, Syracuse and couple more.</p>
<p>Would they add more than one team? How does this work?</p>
<p>It looks like they are trying to pressure ND to join. If ND declines and the Big 10 adds either 2 of the following Syracuse, Pitt or UConn there goes the Big East and ND has scheduling problems for all sports but football.</p>
<p>List of possible schools: Connecticut, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Syracuse, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Article:<a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/05/10/ask-cfn-making-sense-expansion-talk/[/url]”>http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2010/05/10/ask-cfn-making-sense-expansion-talk/</a>
There was a mention of ND</p>
<p>Its great that the expansion is moving a long. It’s also great that the Big Ten is reaching east. The conference likely would do better without Nebraska and Missouri, I question on whether adding those schools would put a shadow over Indiana, Purdue, and specifically Iowa.</p>
<p>barrons- do you think the Big 10 made any attempt to get Maryland? I thought they might have tried to get Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn and Maryland along with Missouri to lock up NY and DC TV markets.</p>
<p>barrons – your thoughts on the Pac10? </p>
<ul>
<li>I realize that the new commish is driving for expansion.</li>
<li>Fox Sports is also pushing for expansion.</li>
</ul>
<p>But, any expansion would not add much in the way of TV markets. Colorado brings Denver, BYU brings SLC. But, they also only want to join if their instate neighbors can come to, Colorado State and Utah. </p>
<p>The Pac10 basketball tourney is a disaster attendance-wise.</p>
<p>It just seems to me that the economics might not be as great for Pac10 expansion, or am I missing something?</p>
<p>Sure hope Rutgers accepts the invitation so Purdue can whoop their butts. God, I hate the school so much…</p>
<p>First off, am I the only person that thinks that the creation of all these super conferences would be putting way too much power in the hands of the conferences and ruin all hopes for a college football playoff?</p>
<p>bluebayou: Pac 10 will make a run at Boise, Utah, Colorado, and BYU. SDSU would be a good option because of location, but they won’t add anything to the prestige of the conference in football. Also, TCU and Fresno State should be considered and Gonzaga could be added for basketball.</p>
<p>ND does not think too kindly of the Big 10 because they spurned us back in the 20s, 30s when we petitioned to join. They felt that adding a catholic school would drag down the academic prestige of the conference. We also get blatantly anti ND biased officiating when we play Big 10 schools (see the Michigan game this year).</p>
<p>ND will only join a conference if it is forced to. If it deals are reached to expand the Pac 10 and Big 10 to 14 or 16 team leagues, ND will join the Big 10 (or whatever it will be called). Also, the Big 10 will need to add an odd number of teams because they already have 11 and they want even divisions. I’m thinking ND, Mizzou, and Rutgers, Syracuse, and Pitt. You can separate the teams into East and West Divisions. The only problem is balancing the number of traditional football powers (ND, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and to a lesser extent Iowa and Wisconsin) in each division. It would be easier if Nebraska joined instead of Syracuse or Rutgers, but I think that Nebraska has too much history in the Big XII/ Big 8 to leave. </p>
<p>This is a pretty interesting idea: <a href=“http://media.nj.com/ledgerarchives/other/colorBIG10.DT.pdf[/url]”>http://media.nj.com/ledgerarchives/other/colorBIG10.DT.pdf</a></p>
<p>^
If the Big Ten was to divide schools geographically most of the strong athletic teams would fall EAST, such as : Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State.</p>
<p>Coolbreeze–What?</p>
<p>According to which sports would those be the strong athletic teams? Penn State has probably had as many ups and downs in terms of football as Iowa. I’m not sure what sports Indiana has been good at in the last five years. Ohio State has a strong Football program and reasonable Basketball program, and Michigan State is the other way around.</p>
<p>If the Big 10 were to add Nebraska, the West-East divide would be reasonably equal. Michigan and Ohio State would be football powers, but that doesn’t necessarily tilt all sports in the Easts favor. Wrestling would definitely have a powerhouse in the West. I don’t know if Basketball would be skewed either way. Hockey would be much stronger in the West. And etc.</p>
<p>You have to separate West and East or North and South and just do it. Its too hard to get a “balance” throughout all sports, especially with all the powers in sports changing throughout the years (AKA, Indiana Basketball 20 years ago vs. today).</p>
<p>The bottom line is jumping to 12 or 14 would be big for the Big Ten. If they can lure in Notre Dame, even if just for Football, that’s going to be a huge moneymaker and attention-bringer to the Big Ten.</p>
<p>“If the Big Ten was to divide schools geographically most of the strong athletic teams would fall EAST, such as : Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State.”</p>
<p>Still bitter I see…</p>
<p>The PAC 10 has some bad deals–bad TV deal, bad bowl deal and revenues reflect that. They should jump on Colorado and Utah.</p>
<p>As of right now, I don’t think anyone cares about the Pac-10…</p>
<p>There is little the Pac 10 can do to improve their TV or bowl deals because of geography. Their fans can’t travel all the way to Florida, and the other conferences don’t enjoy coming to CA unless its the Rose or Holiday bowl. For TV, they just aren’t a good time zone for getting maximum eyeballs. They want to go in with the ACC or Big XII for a tv network, which will at least help with their branding. Right now rights for their games end up on regional Fox and Versus.</p>
<p>It’ll be mildly interesting to see what ND does. I still think they can get away with doing nothing for now, and worst case scenario stick with the non-football Big East schools who could always expand to bring in Xavier and other quality programs to keep a good TV deal for basketball.</p>
<p>The Big XII and Pac 10 are going to fight it out for BYU and Utah, and the Pac 10 needs to get one of them having less options geographically. Problem is Stanford and Cal don’t play well with Mormans.</p>
<p>Why 4 teams? If all join that would be 15 teams…still not an even set-up for conference divisions.</p>
<p>Nebraska seems like a logical choice to me…happy to see they’re getting invited. </p>
<p>
Only Colorado and Utah make the most sense. BYU, Colorado State and/or Air Force would be other top options for the Pac-10. Boise State and SDSU don’t have high enough academic standards…other Pac-10 members would balk.</p>
<p>
Why? Stupid stereotypes.</p>
<p>I guess I’m a traditionalist, but I don’t see the sense of an athletic conference that includes a team from Nebraska playing games against a team from New Jersey. </p>
<p>I think that the Big Ten is squeezing Notre Dame. Not exactly a positive way to begin a relationship if the Irish decide to join. IMO this makes the Big Ten look like a very selfish bully. Resentment will linger for years. </p>
<p>Why doesn’t the Big Ten just add U Pittsburgh and be done with it? That would make the most sense to me and wouldn’t cause such disruption to all of these schools and conferences.</p>
<p>Hawkette, if the Big Ten expands for 2 divisions, a Nebraska/Rutgers game would probably be unlikely because both would probably be in two separate divisions. They’d only meet in the Big Ten Championship Game presented by John Deere tractors.</p>
<p>It’s all about money. Notre Dame needs to consider the Big Ten because I doubt they’ll get as rich of a contract with an NBC renewal as their current one. Besides, the Notre Dame profs would love to be associated with Big Te(leve)n academics…believe it or not!</p>
<p>UCB:</p>
<p>Yeah, I get adding Colorado & Utah, but articles in the LAT Times indicate that they won’t join the P10 unless their instate rival gets invited as well.</p>
<p>And, in addition to the academic argument, Fresno and San Diego make no market sense. Both are in California, so the Oregon’s, Washington’s and 'Zonas would vote no. Plus, those two would not bring in new television markets. Sure, SD is a big area, but they already get the P10 games. SDSU vs. Wazzou is not a ratings booster. (For the record, I don’t buy the academic argument – ASU admits kids with a C+ average, which is no different than Cal States.)</p>
<p>Now…now… no need to hate on John Deere…</p>
<p>I don’t care about 2 divisions because the geographies just make it all such a silly stretch. Plus, isn’t this going to affect all sports, not just football?</p>
<p>Maybe a move to the Big Ten would help ND’s PA scores :rolleyes: , but it would also just make ND like any other school. Right now it’s able to play a national football schedule with regular opponents from Army and Navy to USC and Stanford and everyone in between. Everybody loves having ND on their schedule—it’s an event and usually the biggest game of the year for the opponent. Putting them in a league takes that away specialness and erodes the biggest brand in college sports. I know it’s about the money. Sigh. I guess nothing lasts forever, but I don’t want ND to join the Big Ten or any other conference for football.</p>