Adam Rittenberg at ESPN provides some additional
insight into whether to expand the Big Ten. His key points are:
- make sure that the 12th team has an established rivalry in the league
- Notre Dame remains the ideal fit; Missouri next; then Cincinnati and West Virginia
- adding a MAC team is not a good fit academically
- natural rivalries must be preserved if Michigan, OSU and PSU were in the same division
I think this is largely right, although I'm not in favor of adding Cincinnati or West Virginia due to academics. Yes, their athletic programs have truly blossomed in recent years, but I just don't think the academic reputation of these institutions is strong enough to warrant inclusion into the Big Ten. I'm curious whether Notre Dame's TV contract has anything to say about joining the Big Ten, and how that would play out in time with Delany's Big Ten Network. Would Delany be comfortable in the interim having blacked out games every time ND plays a conference opponent? ND is doing quite well financially under the status quo and I'm not sure they could do better in the Big Ten anytime soon. That leaves us with Missouri (rivals w/ Illinois) and Iowa State (rivals w/ Iowa) as the only serious contenders in my opinion. Iowa State just doesn't cut it program-wise (9 wins in last 4 years), although they are supposedly upgrading their facilities. Folks down in Iowa say that Iowa State is just as strong academically, but why should the Big Ten settle for a Big Twelve bottom feeder? If this were the case, I agree w/ Delany that this would actually weaken the competitiveness of the conference.
That leaves Missouri, which has had a very successful program the last four years. Academically, I think it's more than decent, and certainly stronger than some of the other contenders. Would Missouri bolt for the Big Ten given its recent success and the rise of Big 12 competitors Texas Tech and Oklahoma State, not to mention the traditional powers of Texas and Oklahoma? Unlikely in my opinion. Our time may have passed for getting Missouri to come aboard. So that may leave us waiting for Notre Dame's contract to expire.
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3 comments:
Not looking forward to an expansion -Big Ten-bad enough there are 11 teams
I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. I would, however, love to see it happen. The added exposure would re-assert the big ten as a power conference.
I am not fond of a divisional set-up. It often happens that there's a competitive mismatch between the divisions. For instance, in the Big 12 last year, the 3 best teams were in the same division. The winner of the south was chosen by a tie-breaker, which then played the 4th-best team in a so-called "championship game." Some championship.
That is exactly the situation you'd have in the Big 10 if Michigan, OSU and PSU were in the same division. Given the huge structural advantages in these programs, the eastern division would be much stronger than the west almost every year. It's hard to come up with an alignment that makes geographic sense that avoids this problem.
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