September 18th, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^
So.... I guess that rumor about UT and ND being a joint deal is now looking grim? I guess my top 2 are now ND and Mizzou.
September 18th, 2011 at 9:38 PM ^
Says Texas is talking to the ACC, and the ACC will let them keep their Longhorn Network.
September 18th, 2011 at 9:56 PM ^
Texas in the *Atlantic* coast conference is just bizarre, geographically.
Also Coach K said in a thing on ESPN.com that the ACC is commited to maintaining their geographic boundaries on the east coast/eastern time zone. (He specifically mentioned the time zone.) This makes Texas to the ACC unlikely.
September 19th, 2011 at 12:04 AM ^
Your NC State neighbor is behind the times. The ACC would've been foolish to not at least talk to Texas, but even more foolish to actually bring them aboard. Besides, the conference has other priorities and Texas doesn't fit. That's a matchup that ain't happening.
September 19th, 2011 at 5:05 PM ^
Please no to Texas.
I'm happy to be in a true east coast conference now. No reason to screw that up.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:06 PM ^
the link and preview says it's a possibility (i.e. not a sure thing)
September 18th, 2011 at 3:08 PM ^
I guess that means we'll have to settle for Penn State and Nebraska. Wait, what's that? We already have Penn State and Nebraska? Sweet. Let's stick with what we have then.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:09 PM ^
I know there was no real reason to think it was likely, but I also thought that maybe we could get UT and ND. Throw in Mizzou and WVU, and you've got a mega-conference that could keep up with the best of them.
Guess we gotta keep looking for the right suitor . . . .
September 18th, 2011 at 4:43 PM ^
there is absolutely zero chance from an academic standpoint that the B1G would take WVU. zero.
September 19th, 2011 at 10:20 AM ^
I really wanna thank you for being so clear about this. The day WVU joins the B1G would be a sad, sad day for us all. Luckily we don't have to face this possibility because it absolutely will not happen.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^
USC should finally have legit competition in their division of the PAC. I hope!
September 18th, 2011 at 6:49 PM ^
Oregon?
September 18th, 2011 at 8:54 PM ^
One team does not make consistent competition. But i was referring to Divisions and not the Conference as a whole:
North - Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California
South - Southern California, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado
USC has UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Utah and Colarado. I'm guessing Texas would fall in the "South" division. If you look at Oregon, they play, Stanford, Cal, Oregon State.... that's tougher than the South division, IMO.
September 18th, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^
Talking about divisions specifically makes sense. My initial reaction was just one of confusion since Oregon has been better than USC for quite a few years running now... But yeah - those divisions are pretty clearly imbalanced.
I forgot how many mediocre teams were in the Pac12.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:13 PM ^
Other than Mizzou and WVU are scholastic dregs. The ACC grows stronger scholatically and we take a step backwards. No thank you. Delaney may have "smugged" himself into a a problem.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:46 PM ^
Are you claiming that Mizzou has poor academics, and that they're akin to West Virginia? The answers to those two questions should be 'no' and 'no'.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:29 PM ^
Mizzou's USNWR ranking is 80, both are well below what Pitt is ranked at (58). Mizzou would have been the lowest ranked school in the B1G until we admitted Nebraska, which is a huge plus in football but not academically, particularly now that they have lost thier AAU ranking, which at least Mizzou has. I am one of those people who believes that academics matter. WVU is not even woth thinking about.
What bothers me is that when it became obvious that things were changing, it seems the B1G did nothing.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:41 PM ^
That is the best word in your final sentence. Perfect power-plays are made behind the scenes, nobody wants to see the puppet master. Let's hope it really does just "seem" that the B1G did nothing.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^
Mizzou is a pretty solid school.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:18 PM ^
Meh, Texas will just blow the Pac-16 up with outrageous demands. Do not want
September 18th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^
They bring Texas tech too!
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<br>Rlydonotwant
September 18th, 2011 at 9:23 PM ^
with the "Raider Rash"
September 18th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^
The only way we can let ND in is if we can find a comparable school to keep the divisions even. Texas looked like that school, so what do we have now?
September 18th, 2011 at 3:21 PM ^
We have a comparable school to balance with ND: they're called Minnesota. Neither of them have been relevant since the 1940s.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:24 PM ^
Except for those amazing teams and NC in the late 80's you mean? I don't mean to be too harsh, but that kind of non-sensical crap logic really, really sounds like an MSU fan.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^
I thought it was obvious I was being tongue-in-cheek, but apparently not. OK, for the record: Notre Dame is much more relevant today than Minnesota.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:50 PM ^
Yeah, Notre Dame won a NC in '88 and a Heisman in '87. They also tended to give us hell in the 90s. Not to mention that Notre Dame would bring in the Chicago market better than any current B1G team does.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:32 PM ^
Chicago is the biggest melting pot of any city in terms of demand for the B1G. There are tons of UM alums and alums from Wisconsin, Ohio, MSU, etc., not to mention the fact that there are two IL schools in the B1G from Illinois. Notre Dame is not needed for the B1G to have success in the Chicago TV market
September 18th, 2011 at 4:38 PM ^
Yeah, I'm from Chicago and I can tell you that no one gives a crap about Northwestern or Illinois. Go to espnchicago.com and see how deep they cover Notre Dame. Chicago is Notre Dame's city.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
Perhaps you are correct with respect to the suburbs but definitely not the city. Ever walk around Lincoln Park or Lakeview on a Saturday in the fall? You will see TONS of fans of UM, Ohio, Wisco, and MSU walking around and there has to be at least 2 dozen different B1G bars in those neighborhoods (and I am not talking about bars or fans for Northwestern or IL).
September 18th, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^
I definitely think you're right. I mean, every Big Ten team has plenty of its own pubs (hell, even Kansas and Tennessee have their own bars in the City). Maybe my opinion is skewed because I grew up in Arlington Heights (Northwest suburbs) and I was good friends with a future ND football player, but I remember all of us neighborhood kids had ND starter jackets (remember when those were cool?) and we were generally ND fans. I see what the below poster is saying about epanding into new TV markets, but I really don't see how that happens. No one in New York cares about college football, especially not Rutgers/Syracuse/UConn/any of those other not-big-name teams. Notre Dame brings a huge Chicago market that might be apathetic to the B1G now and obviously has national pull (Not that we don't already have that with Michigan, OSU, Nebraska, and Penn State, but you can't ever have enough national names). What other market would we add?
September 18th, 2011 at 5:23 PM ^
I'm from a couple towns over (Algonquin/Barrington) and graduated high school in 2008. I had a ton of Wisconsin friends, slightly less Iowa, and then M/OSU had a strong presence as well. ND...I'm not sure what to say about ND. Lots of merchendise, but I think it was more along the lines of future sorority girls wearing Cubs shirts because it's the "cool" thing to do.
September 18th, 2011 at 6:36 PM ^
Wow, OSU? Really? I can't remember any of my friends being OSU fans. Then again, I graduated high school in 2006 so Ohio State had yet to play for those two NC games. People were Iowa fans by default becase a kid from our HS was a backup QB there (and they were usually the people who didn't get into Illinois). I remember senior year, a lot of people became Illinois fans when they decided they were going there for school, however, almost all of my friends that I grew up with were Notre Dame fans. Funny how just a few miles (and years) seems to change so much.
September 18th, 2011 at 6:42 PM ^
The OSU part might have been exaggerated by having a high school girlfriend (from Naperville, not up by us) who is from a rabid OSU family, but I did have several high school friends who were into Ohio.
I have the exact same impression of Iowa, though. Basically the stereotype is Illinois? Rejected. Okay, Iowa? A) Accepted B) WIU. I'm gonna party every night GO LEATHERNECKS I DIDN'T WANT TO GO TO A BIG TEN SCHOOL ANYWAY WOOO I'M WASTED.
September 18th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^
100% correct, additionally - isn't the B1G Network already on every cable package in the Chicago area? We already have the market - if we must expand the conference - then let's expand into new markets.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:25 PM ^
Yup, B1G took over Chicagoland Galactic Empire style as soon as it was launched. ND would do a good job in NYC though, probably better than anyone else in the country.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:36 PM ^
maybe they haven't won anything recently but they are going to a BCS bowl this year. How do I know that? you may ask. Well I heard Lou Holtz say it and he would never say that unless it were true.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^
Why would the divisions have to be even? There have been plenty of examples in sports history where there has been uneven divisions (the current NL Central in MLB has 6 teams while the AL West only has 4, as one example).
September 18th, 2011 at 4:23 PM ^
That works only because they play enough games. Try drawing up a schedule with uneven divisions playing less than a round-robin. It doesn't work.
September 18th, 2011 at 5:50 PM ^
September 18th, 2011 at 6:57 PM ^
but they have some teams in the same division not playing each other. I guess that works, but it's not a very good system. They also don't have protected cross-division rivalries. We couldn't either unless someone was willing to be left out.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:51 PM ^
Why is that? The B1G wants ND. They can't stop at 13. The only question is who else they would take if ND changes their mind.
I'm starting to wonder where Kansas might land. Does anyone better than the Big East want them?
September 18th, 2011 at 5:47 PM ^
If the ACC takes 4 teams from the Big East I don't think there will be a Big East for Kansas to go to. I personally would like to see the B1G pick up TCU, on the condition that their academics are high enough. If UT, OU, OSU, and TT leave then I would like to see us pick up Kansas and K state as the J-Hawks bring in good round ball. All of that being said if there is no need in adding teams I say why do it. Lets' not be the confrence that adds just to add.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:22 PM ^
If we expand, ND is pretty much a shoe in. After that, who knows? If the Pac-12 really does take TX, then the dominoes are going to really start falling, especially with the ACC being so proactive in expanding. I still think the B1G bides its time for now. I don't think they want to water down the good product that we have now.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
I still think OU to the B10 is the most likely option, with ND as well.
Wherever Texas goes, OU will NOT follow. Neb and OU have the natural rivalry and are cordial to each other. OU brings essentially what Neb brought to the conf.
I know it's never been discussed, and I know OkSt tagging along would be a dealbreaker, and I know ND would never do it, but it makes too much sense.
September 18th, 2011 at 3:25 PM ^
"The Pac-12 appears to be working out the final details of a deal that would bring Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to the conference, sources close to the situation told Hookem.com and the American-Statesman on Sunday morning."
September 18th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
than OU-Nebraska especially since the Big 12 killed it
September 18th, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
OU comes into the Big Ten. they are still an academic back water outside off engineering and meteorology. Something about tonados....
September 18th, 2011 at 3:25 PM ^
but what about the longhorn network?