<p>It makes sense that Pitt would want to join the Big 10 to raise its academic profile while renewing a rivalry with Penn State. The Big 10 will benefit from improved basketball revenue & increased TV demand & coverage due to the Pitt/Penn State rivalry. Pittsburgh is an interesting & beautiful city–much nicer than South Bend! Notre Dame is likely to lose football recruits from Pennsylvania if this rumor is accurate. In fact, why would any football or basketball player sign with Notre Dame now since Notre Dame will have fewer Big 10 games & athletes will spend significantly more time travelling?</p>
<p>All this has already been covered in other threads.</p>
<p>As for the Pitt to the B10 rumor, it pretty much has been debunked (didn’t make much sense anyway - Pitt doesn’t bring a new revenue stream to the conf. and it was way too early for any such decision to have been made).</p>
<p>As for UT, while the odds are likely that it won’t happen, the threat of the B10 raiding Mizzou may very well push UT to be proactive.</p>
<p>If Mizzou leaves the B12, the B12 loses one of its largest TV market and the B12 will fall further behind the B10 and SEC with regard to the TV revenue race (the B10 has more TV revenue than the B12, Pac10, ACC and BE combined).</p>
<p>Well, apparently we’re bunking it again! If your debunking source is verifiable, credible & reliable then we’ll consider the debunking process again. Until then it’s Pitt which is relocating to South Bend, Indiana.</p>
<p>How about University of Chicago returning to the Big Ten?</p>
<p>The University of Chicago IS in the big ten. Academically at least.</p>
<p>Even if it’s pitt, it’s not happening this week. They’re not going to announce anything for another couple months, minimum.</p>
<p>Im a pretty big Big 10 fan, so I know exactly what you guys are all talking about, so i just thought I would add my 2 cents.</p>
<p>The point of the big 10 adding another team is to make and even (12) number of teams so there is some sort of playoff/tournament race which allows them to continue play just like the SEC and Big 12. Now I know some Big 12 teams are in the discussion (texas; not happening) but wouldnt taking a team out of the big 12 just be putting them in the same situation as the big 10 is in now. The big east has many more teams (16) which allows for the even spread, however im not sure how their tournament/playoff system works. But it seems more reasonable for a big east team to come in than a big 12 (to me at least).</p>
<p>If I had to guess one team from the Big East and one team from the Big 12, I would have to say Rutgers (I just dont see what pitt has to offer besides maybe a possible rivalry between Penn State) and Mizzou. However, like someone mentioned, with adding an east team you break up the rivalry with Purdue and Indiana which is probably the 2nd biggest rivalry in the big ten.</p>
<p>You know Notre Dame plays Big East in everything but football which would make it even harder for the big ten to get them to leave. Rutgers seems very likely to me, the Big East sucks and it would make sence for the Big Ten.</p>
<p>I meant and eastern team as in direction not as big east, sorry for that</p>
<p>I thought it was going to be either Mizzou or Iowa State…</p>
<p>It will be Notre Dame or Texas. Maybe Pitt. No one else is worth it/ has adequate academic standings.</p>
<p>It will not be Texas.</p>
<p>Now it seems the Pac-10 expansion debate is back. Except that this time it seems to have some teeth to it, with possibly support from the presidents. The Pac-10 desperately needs better TV contracts, and that’s more likely with both expansion and a dedicated network (like the big-10 network)</p>
<p>Of course with the pac-10, the problem is the other way around - there don’t seem to be many obvious candidates to covet (like Notre Dame, Mizzou). Texas fits the conference profile nicely, but that’s even less likely than Texas to the Big-10. But there are simply not that many candidate FBS programs at all in the area.</p>
<p>All FBS schools in the pac-10 region:</p>
<p>Colorado: Denver media market. Would have to leave Big-12.
Air Force: An intriguing possibility I’ve not heard mentioned yet. Not likely.
Boise State: Trendy pick. But not a big media market, and not up to academics and non-football sports.
Utah: Strong contender, probably the safest choice.
BYU: Would fit with Utah if joined together. Other considerations.
Hawaii: Another intriguing possibility. Not a big TV draw.</p>
<p>Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Wyoming, UTEP, Idaho, Utah State, San Jose State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State: unlikely.</p>
<p>Lots of big stuff happening with the conferences in recent days, starting with [Colorado</a> accepts invitation to join Pac-10 - Yahoo! Sports](<a href=“http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=AvrwXXBfe2RN9dxJMo7_egKth9EF?slug=ap-pac-10expansion]Colorado”>http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=AvrwXXBfe2RN9dxJMo7_egKth9EF?slug=ap-pac-10expansion)</p>
<p>What do you think? Will the Big 12 be completely dismantled? What teams will join the Big 10, what teams will join the Pac-10?</p>
<p>Nebraska is in the B10, and the Pac10 is absorbing all of the left over B12 teams.</p>
<p>Kansas, K-State, Baylor, and Iowa State are getting left out.</p>
<p>The B10 is probably going to either take Missouri, Maryland, Rutger, Syracuse and depending on who all goes - ND. If the B10 takes two or more Big East teams, the conference will collapse which will force ND to joing the B10 because they have no league for basketball and other sports. Plus, since this is going to reshape the BCS, ND will be left out of a national championship bid if the don’t joing after the BE is destroyed.</p>
<p>Then, it’s all up to the SEC and whether or not they want to expand. If they want to go to 16, they will grab 4 ACC teams. Most likely Clemson, GT, FSU, Miami. This will put the ACC to 8 teams (possibly 7 if B10 takes MD). The ACC will then most likely merge with the left overs of the Big East, then adding additional schools from either CUSA, or Navy/Army. The conference USA teams could be ECU, UCF, or Memphis.</p>
<p>The Big12 rejects will probably merge with the MWC, and also grab the remaining BCS bid, most likely making it 5, 16 Mega-conferences.</p>
<p>However, the Pac10 (Pac 16) announced that they will be pursuing 2 BCS bids, which will most likely want the Big10 (Big16) to do the same.</p>
<p>It’s a mess. If a conference ends up with two BCS bids, there will be chaos. Or if current BCS teams get left out, more chaos There will be lawsuits, Congressional hearings - probably an anti-trust investigation from the Justice Department.</p>
<p>If it’s only 4 mega-conferences, lots of teams (good programs, competitive schools) are going to get left out.</p>
<p>Eventually, this will set the stage for a playoff, but the schools have a contract with the BCS until 2014 or 2015 I believe. So this is going to be an issue for awhile.</p>
<p>Hopefully, they find away to keep all the current BCS schools included, promote a few schools that have shown a comittment to football (mostly MWC schools, a couple CUSA, and Boise St.) and make it work for everyone.</p>
<p>I hope they go with an 8 team playoff after this. Since each conference will likely have a conference championship, any at-large bids ruin the value of the championship game. All 6 BCS conferences would advance a team to the playoffs and the top 2 teams from the rest of the conferences (including ND if they don’t join the Big 10) would get the other 2 spots.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how the “Big Ten” can expand.</p>
<p>I really think that the Southern part of the Big XII would be better served by joining the SEC than the Pac 10. It’s a better fit geographically and culturally. Keep in mind that it wouldn’t just be the football teams joining the Pac 10, entire athletic departments will. It might be alright travel-cost wise to get to Washington or Oregon, but what about, say, women’s soccer? It would be much easier if they joined the SEC, and scoot Arkansas and LSU to their division and make that the new West division, and the rest of the schools would make up the east division.</p>
<p>I really think that the Southern part of the Big XII would be better served by joining the SEC than the Pac 10. It’s a better fit geographically and culturally. Keep in mind that it wouldn’t just be the football teams joining the Pac 10, entire athletic departments will. It might be alright travel-cost wise to get to Washington or Oregon, but what about, say, women’s soccer? It would be much easier if they joined the SEC, and scoot Arkansas and LSU to their division and make that the new West division, and the rest of the schools would make up the east division. ~ ABR</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s about dolla dolla bills yall.</p>
<p>When the Pac10 expands to 16, they are gonna have a conference that will demand it’s own network and bring in HUGE bucks. For example, the Big10 will be able pay each school $22 Million, compared at around $9 million they are now making in the B12 - it’s a no brainer from a schools stand point.</p>
<p>The Pac10 will be able to make that same kind of money once they get their deal, which I believe is up for renewal in the close future.</p>
<p>Right now, the SEC has no reason to want to expand, other than having to because every other conference will be at 16, and they need to stay competitive. The SEC just resigned their TV contract with ESPN last year, which is a 14 year dill that will gie each school $8 Million dollars, something like that - maybe a little more. However, the ESPN contract is structured differently than the B10 Network, which pays each school a set amount of money regardless of how many schools would be in the conference. The SEC TV contract pays each school a flat amount, basically divides it up for each school. This is a set amount for 15 years, so if the SEC brings in more schools, they lose more money. It gives everyone a smaller piece of the pie, unlike the B10 that has it’s own network and can increase profits based on market share.</p>
<p>So expansion will actually cost the SEC money.</p>
<p>Right now the Pac10 is position to strike a new deal, and will bring in big money to the new schools, much like the Big10.</p>
<p>I agree it makes no sense geographically, and it’s going to really affect non-money making sports like soccer and swimming. However, the new revenue will make up for the new cost.</p>
<h2>I don’t understand how the “Big Ten” can expand. ~ Jane</h2>
<p>What is it you don’t understand? Expansion isn’t new, take a look at the ACC in 2003.</p>
<p>It really makes sense for the Big10 to expand to at least 12 teams to get their own conference championship game. But with their Big10 network, they make more money if they acquire more market share. Which is why they are looking at Rutgers and Maryland, which bring in the NYC/NY market and the MD/DC market.</p>