Big Ten looks to expand to 12 teams

[Lumi]

Big Ten looks to expand to 12 teams

The Big Ten will look to expand its conference within the next year and a half.

Following a Big Ten council meeting on Dec. 6, the league requested that Commissioner Jim Delany begin to actively pursue a 12th member for the conference. Penn State was added to the Big Ten in 1989 and was the last program placed into the oldest Division I conference.

"The COP/C (Council of Presidents/Chancellors) believes that the timing is right for the conference to once again conduct a thorough evaluation of options for conference structure and expansion," the COP/C disclosed in a written statement.

The Big Ten name is already a misnomer with 11 teams making up the conference. The Big East and Pac-10 are the only two football BCS conferences with 10 or less incumbents.

An expansion would allow for the conference to split into two divisions and create a championship football game. The Big Ten has been mocked in the past for not always creating a matchup between the two best teams in the conference when the SEC and Big 12 play a championship game every year.

Barry Alvarez, who coached at Wisconsin for 16 seasons and now serves as the school?s Director of Athletics, insisted that the Big Ten needs another member.

"Everybody feels [expansion] is the direction to go, coaches and administrators," Alvarez said.

Alvarez also said the expansion will not be limited to schools in the Midwest, but is more likely to select a candidate in that region of the country.

The Big Ten has not faired well in recent bowl games. Joe Paterno mentioned this could be due to the long layoff for teams between the end of the regular season and the bowl season ? another problem that would be remedied by expanding the conference and ultimately the schedule.

A total of seven teams will represent the Big Ten in bowl games this season. The matchups are: Miami vs. Wisconsin (+3); Michigan State vs. Texas Tech (-8); Minnesota vs. Iowa State (+2.5); Penn State vs. LSU (+2.5); Northwestern vs. Auburn (-7.5); Ohio State vs. Oregon (-3.5); Iowa vs. Georgia Tech (-4).

The Big Ten is 8-11 in BCS bowl games since the sytem's inception 12 years ago.

 

[Skipper]

I think the Big 10 and the PAC 10 almost have to do this if they want to get their best teams in front of the BCS line. That championship game is huge for the SEC, although the Big 12 has not proven to be as big.

The biggest point that I agree with is Joe Pa and the fact that they end their seasons so damn early. They are looking at nearly two months off before the bowl games.

Who's the chosen team? Let the debating begin! Will they stoop to the MAC or steal a Big East team? ND? Nah that couldn't happen

Could it:shrug:

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

Could it:shrug:

Nope - The Big 10 says they're not going to ask ND.

 

[Lumi]

ND would never go to a Conf and give up the golden NBC goose.

Pac 10 wise.... Hmmm, location wise SD State and BYU ? UNLV... NO WAY WOULD THEY ALLOW BOISE ST IN :mj07: Freneck St. ? :shrug:

Back to the Big 10, Ohio St plays for the State Championship every year so why not Kent St, and for Joe Pa we can put Temple in the Big 10 plus

 

[Skipper]

As long as ND keeps playing USC, Michigan, and other fairly tough teams, I am OK with them not being in a conference.

Big 10 - I say bring over Mizzou or Iowa St from the Big 12 and let the Big 12 add TCU or Houston. I just don't see any of the Big East teams moving?

PAC 10 - Boise, UNLV, Nevada, or Utah would all work well no?

 

[Lumi]

all good choices skipper

 

[CWood97]

IMO they will try and go east with this, with the fallback plan being Mizzou, who would certainly ditch the B12.

 

[Skipper]

CWood - I don't think there is any way that a traditional Big East basketball school would go that way do you? Like Syracuse, UConn, Pitt etc?

 

[layinwood]

IMO they will try and go east with this, with the fallback plan being Mizzou, who would certainly ditch the B12.

I can only hope they would take Mizzou, adding TCU would be big for the Big 12 and losing Mizzou would do no harm. They could move OU or Ok St to the North to strengthen it and keep OU and UT for the championship game.

But, I personally don't see why Mizzou would make the switch.

 

[jr11]

IMO Rutgers is their most likely choice and would open them up to a big NJ/NY media market....

Pitt would be nice, but as long as Joe PA is there he probably wouldn't allow it, and they get good coverage in Pittsburgh anyways from Penn St faithful.

Not sure on Mizzou, and already part of a big time conference.

 

[fletcher]

just like when i broke the big east teams going to acc, from people I know in the big east coaches and staff, big ten has chance if they try and go that way for 1 team only and that is syracuse but that is not going to happen either, they will never leave big east due to hoops, pitt never goingto even think about it, and rutgers like where they are and get good media coverage in nj and ny fron sny and mesn. They will not be able to offer things the acc could for bc, miami and va.tech. Big east is a strong conf since acc raid it has big money way more then it ever has and keeps growing, also ND which is big east in all sports except fb, has to come all in or lose out in 2012 , that was put in writting back in 2006 when they signed the big nbc tv pack.

this has been talked about at least 4 times since 1996 with big 10 and it will stay as talk.

 

[BUCSnotYUCKS]

Cincinnati makes the most sense, IMO.

 

[fletcher]

cinn does not come close to the standards that big 10 wants in the class room.

 

[BUCSnotYUCKS]

cinn does not come close to the standards that big 10 wants in the class room.

this is true, but lets not act like this has much to do with academics...when has it ever :mj07:

 

[jhawksoon]

As long as ND keeps playing USC, Michigan, and other fairly tough teams, I am OK with them not being in a conference.

Big 10 - I say bring over Mizzou or Iowa St from the Big 12 and let the Big 12 add TCU or Houston. I just don't see any of the Big East teams moving?

PAC 10 - Boise, UNLV, Nevada, or Utah would all work well no?

What makes you think Iowa St. or Missouri would leave the Big XII to go to the Big Eleven. At the very most that is a move sideways.

 

[fletcher]

It really does when it comes to the big 10 as universities that they might take in, not the sports programs, but the universites system as a whole in how they are looked at standard wise. Syracuse again fits that . If they were to try a big east school more then other big east schools followed by rutgers which won't go due to fb say so, pitt due to fb and hoops and wvu they don't want because like pitt would take down a few upper teams year in and out in fb and hoops.

 

[BUCSnotYUCKS]

I think their first matter of business should be to change the fucking conference from BIG 10 to BIG 11.

 

[Skipper]

What makes you think Iowa St. or Missouri would leave the Big XII to go to the Big Eleven. At the very most that is a move sideways.

Dude chill out - I didn't say they would, I said it would make the most sense geographically. Things change, conferences shake up, that is the nature of the business side of this.

It wasn't long ago when Arkansas and Texas were in the same league, so don't think this sort of thing couldn't happen.

 

[fletcher]

could call it the most boaring fb conf .:mj07: :mj07:

 

[DIRTY Diapers]

Like Colin Cowherd said in his radio show today Rutgers is the best choice. It is a big school (over 52,000 students, very big 10ish) and is rated academically in the top 100. The Big 10 makes a ton of research money from the CIC and would look for other academic programs that would contribute to that, such as, Pitt and Rutgers to contribute to that. Also, Rutgers would bring in the NY/NJ market would be a plus to the B10 network. ND is more focused on it's undergraduate program than graduate schools, that's why it's an unlikely fit. It really doesn't bring anything into research funding, one of the things the B10 is looking at.

Cincy has no friggin' chance whatsoever.