Big Ten Expansion: Grid Of Judgment

All conferences will go to at least 12 teams in order to establish a conference championship game and the $$$$$$ that go with it.

It is also an essential step to get to a FBS playoff with the conference championship games being the first round of the eventual playoff system.

Is the BCS considering revoking the Big East and/or Notre Dames Auto bid criteria? It would allow more at large bids and stifle some of the criticism. Opens a can of worms.

I am not opposed really to either school. Notre Dame would be nice but does that take away from the strength of our out of conference scheduling? We won't take on another tough team so we will get 3 early pancakes with ND in our conference schedule every year and with MSU and OSU as guaranteed conference foes we will have a rough road to hoe every year.

Pitt on the other hand could be a great fit but I have to agree that their stadium would not be a great fit for college football. I am a Steelers fan and I have made the trek several time to Pittsburgh and for the Steelers I think it is awesome, but for a college game I am not sold.

I agree that these are the better options out there for the Big Ten. I would not be upset with Kentucky only because it gets us more exposure to the South but I doubt they would leave the SEC.

Anyway, my two cents.

Go Blue!!!!

You mentioned it in the Pitt discussion and I definitely think this is a huge factor (maybe one that could have been put on the grid of judgment). If the Big Ten goes with Pitt they're going to get a ton of Michigan fans traveling to Heinz Field from Cleveland, Cincy, Philly, D.C./ VA areas, etc. whereas Mizzo can't offer that sort of day-trip drive distance. Same holds true for OSU, PSU, MSU trevelers. I'm personally hoping for Pitt for this reason.

No mention of the AAU anywhere today? Isn't that a pre-requisite? I mention it because Mizzou is not a member. Pitt is. Notre Dame is also not a member.

http://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5476

Edit: Mizzou-Columbia is a member. For some reason I thought the main campus was in Rolla.

some sort of contract that allows for notre dame to keep its ties with nbc without revenue sharing and then phasing that out over a certain period of years (say 10). in that scenario, nd keeps its ties and money with nbc now, but then slowly and surly pays into the revenue sharing of the big ten.

as i write, i realize its probably not feasible. however, i would hate for the big10 to take a team for the sake of taking a team. pitt had its best year in years and Still finished 9-3 in a big east conference that is traditionally "meh". mizzou is another team that would cause a collective shoulder shrug.

i would hope its nd or nothing.

After watching a couple Pitt games on tv this year, I concur that sterile is the best word to describe Heinz Field as a college venue. Even on tv, the game atmosphere felt bland and dull. I don't know who at Pitt thought it would be a great idea to raze the on-campus stadium in favor of sharing an NFL stadium, but they were incredibly misguided. Minnesota finally saw the error of its ways and fled its NFL home for a dedicated on-campus stadium; we can only hope Pitt eventually heads in that direction as well.

Otherwise, though, bring on Pitt.

Even though Paterno has come out publicly in favor of Pitt, he wants nothing to do with it. C'mon they don't even play each other now. It's because Paterno has made it clear he does NOT want them on the schedule.

As it is, Pittsburgh kids either go to PSU or OSU if they are good enough. There isn't enough recent tradition to get kids jazzed about Pitt. Drop them into the B10 and suddenly PSU and OSU lose players. You can pick probably half a dozen kids off each roster from the greater Pittsburgh area.

Nope. My $$ is on Mizzou, but then again I thought Edsell was going to ND.

Should be

West Fuckin' Virginia.

Please fix.

Brian's previous post (below) mentioned BC as a somewhat attractive dark horse possibility. Unlike Pitt, it would offer a new market for the BTN and the Big Ten in general. The distance involved probably isn't a dealbreaker either. And though it's not an AAU member, its academics are very strong. My entirely uninformed opinion is that BC would have a stronger fanbase than Rutgers, and at least on par with Pitt.

Is BC no longer considered a possibility?

http://mgoblog.com/content/big-ten-expansion-pros-and-cons

Can we please get another Big Ten-elve school in coddamn Ohi-uh!?! SUMMBITCH!

Seriously though we have a hard enough time recruiting against them now, they need another school to trim off some of their recruiting base kind of like State likes to do to us.

"Nebraska. Massive football tradition and geographically somewhat feasible but there's no way the Cornhuskers would give up a 100 years of rivalries for the Big Ten. Have no links to anyone in the conference."

The Nebraska boards seem to indicate otherwise (at least according to my Husker friend), it sounds like they're a lot more open to the move than is Mizzou. The only team in the Big 12 North they give a rat's ass about is Colorado. The only other team they have a historical rivalry with in the Big 12 is Oklahoma, who regularly drops off their schedule. They really don't care about most of the rest of the Big 12. Academically, they're an AAU member and might like to be associated with the more academically prestigious Big Ten. Their only worry is whether it will mess up their recruiting in Texas, but they recruited there OK during the Big 8 days when they had no Texas teams in conference.

And they will travel to every one of our stadiums. Those fans are insane. When they played at USC a few years ago a bunch of them bought USC season tickets to guarantee they'd have good seats for the Nebraska game there.

They have had a decent football program (this past season not withstanding), long basketball tradition, and have generally balanced athletics across the board. They always compete with Penn State for recruits, so they could have a great MD-PSU rivalry going.

Academically it is also a solid institution, so I don't see why it wasn't spoken about outside the grid. It would make great sense to me...

I wonder what ND thinks about all this. The reality that is in 10 years the conferences and their structure will basically prevent ND from ever reaching a NC game.

We could play the "what if" game all day but would voters put a 11-0 Notre Dame team in the NC game over a 12-0 SEC, Big12, Big10, or Pac10 champ? I don't think so.

To me, this would seem to be their best, last chance to join a conference.

One nitpick: ND should be a 2 in football. They've been meh for 20 years.

It looks like we don't have a shot of the Big Ten picking up a major program as we did with Penn State. I love the Nebraska thought, but I guess that's not too likely. PITT and MIZZOU are decent, but I don't think they bring the strength that PSU did. Maybe a major move isn't possible these days.

We're not going to get anyone from the Big 12 that isn't a bottom feeder. Missouri is out. Same for Neb. I know this is a ridiculous longshot, and hasn't been mentioned by any pundit, but what about A&M? They're still trying to get back on their feet, they're completely non-competitive in the B12 now, and it would open up Texas for us. I bet they'd jump at the chance, and they could still play UT in non-con. Classic program. Great fanbase. Decent in hoops. Would love to see it. Yes, I realize it will never happen...

It would do well to remember that some of the smoke and heat of Big Ten expansion discussions of recent vintage have been due to high level discussions among the five Big Ten hockey schools and the Big Ten Network about the possibility of a Big Ten hockey conference. While those talks did not go anywhere this summer, if you're adding a 12th team, would you want to find one that has hockey, to give you that sixth school, that conference autobid, and weekly Friday night content for the Big Ten Network from November through March?

What I would wonder, were the economy not so down, would be with the Penguins new arena opening up next year, would Pitt be a logical choice to add a hockey team, since they would have a downtown arena that might be looking for dates?

I'm just spitballing here, because I know everyone is looking at the football/basketball aspects of it, and I am certainly not in favor of decimating the CCHA and WCHA for the sake of the Big Ten hockey conference, but it is interesting that there were high level discussions this summer.

Hence, the Big Ten now has a basketball tournament.

I sort of understand the Pre-FBS playoff aspect.

What I don't understand is why not wait until the end of the NBC-ND contract, and then do the inevitable?

I don't know; it sometimes seems like blog commenters are like newspaper columnists, full of glib answers to things they haven't had to think about, seriously.
Everybody hates the BCS; everybody wants a college football playoff. But what does that do to the 34 bowl games? What does it do to college football regular seasons? What does it do to college football Saturdays, and Saturdays before Labor Day and after Thanksgiving? What does it do to the Michigan-Ohio State game?

If there is, someday, an 8-team college football playoff and an 11-1 Michigan team that beat OSU in November, but lost to Illinois in a championship game is 9th, how will fans feel?

I don't want a "Junior NFL." I prefer college football.