Good thoughts. A 12th member of the Big Ten is a very complicated subject, I think.

Let's Start With Money

Pittsburgh is indeed a great candidate. As you mentioned, it gives Penn State a natural rival in the conference (the Minnesota and Michigan State "rivalries" are the most contrived such mathchups in sports), and they match the academic profile of the Big Ten. The Big Ten's interest in Pitt, though would mostly be for access to the Pittsburgh sports market. The school's $2.8 billion endowment would make it the 4th-biggest school in the conference (behind, in order: Michigan, Northwestern and Minnesota). The incentive for Pitt would be to get a share of the Big Ten's media Titan. They'd go from being the biggest fish in the smallest BCS pond, to a kind-of big fish in the sport's biggest media market (one that slaughters even the SEC in views and dollars).

Is it possible?

What could make this easier is the impending disintegration of the Big East Conference in football. They are the most likely conference to lose their BCS autobid, leaving Pitt as maybe the biggest non-BCS program in the country. That would be good enough motivation to jump into a BCS conference. But I highly doubt that this is done deal, so it's best to operate, for now, under the assumption that Pitt would be leaving the easiest BCS conference for the second-toughest (and leaving perhaps the best basketball conference for a generally middling one). I don't know how their fanbase feels about it. I know they still mourn the Penn State rivalry, but that their corners of the Internet were smoldering pretty badly during the traitorous realignment in '05 (though Syracuse fans seemed the angriest bunch). Note, however, they are the key to the Big East's survival. Not counting Notre Dame, Pitt is by far the biggest program in that conference, with double the endowment of the next closest school (Cincy), and control of the conference's only major sports market.* The Big East without Pitt is a mid-major in football. The point is, that conference would fight tooth and nail to keep the Panthers, and may offer a sweetheart deal that even the Big Ten's deep pockets can't match. The last thing working against us in feasibility is the example of Penn State. The Nittany Lions, since joining the Big Ten, have slipped from being mentioned among Michigan/USC/Texas/Ohio State/Notre Dame to the next tier down. They had a perfect season that didn't win them a National Championship. They've been kicked around, for the most part, by Michigan and Ohio State. And Pitt isn't Penn State. Should they come in then, knowing that it's a very real possibility that two more losses per season in a tougher conference will lead to irrelevance? To sum up, Pitt to the Big Ten would not be sure thing any day of the week. But in a moment of weakness for the Big East, I think Pitt's poachable. * Cincy is again the next-closest comparable market, but the Big Ten, through Ohio State, lays probably more claim to that city than the local Bearcats.

Rivalries

Pitt would be walking away from the Backyard Brawl, a natural rivalry with West Virginia (sub-plot: how much can we take from that state before we start a war?) which is usually played on Thanksgiving weekend. I figure they could still play this as a non-conference game. The Big Ten schedule currently ends the week before that, but I believe this is changing. Whatever: if Florida can still play Florida State every year, we can preserve the Backyard Brawl. Their Cincy rivalry is contrived; nobody will shed a tear for it. The basketball rivalries are serious, but recent -- the UConn/Pitt thing started only in 1998. They have somewhat of a Notre Dame rivalry, which like, who in the Big Ten doesn't, right? Since it's a football rivalry, this doesn't really affect the decision all that much.

Re-organizing the conference

The biggest problem with the Big Ten going to a championship game, I think, is the Michigan-Ohio State game. When you have the best rivalry in American sports, by which I mean the one sports event between the same two teams that generates the biggest national audience, you don't fuck with it. This was the first year in like forever that the Big Ten Championship wasn't decided in some way by this game. Whenever this primal torture of Michigan fans is over, you have to imagine those two would still finish on top at the end. Plus, this isn't a great region to have championship games. It gets mighty cold up here. Other conferences' championship games are held because they generate huge TV audiences. They're an attempt to catch up to the Big Ten, which gets the same thing from Michigan-Ohio State. If the Big Ten becomes the Big North with Pitt, I wouldn't create divisions at all. Rather, let's go to 11 conference games. Every team plays each other, and you finish with an odd-numbered conference record and a more likely indisputable champion as you get now. The upside of this is it's awesome for the fans. Would your rather play a directional Michigan school or Indiana? Imagine Minnesota on the docket every season? Awesome, right? The downside is you're getting more losses for the conference as a whole. Intra-conference games for the Big Ten are a .500 proposition, which is a much lower winning percentage than Big Ten teams' current non-conference clip, so we're talking more losses for the conference as a whole, lower rankings, and whatnot. The downside for the schools is that they're giving up home games. Michigan has years when they play 8 games at the Big House. This is because we can pay om nom noms to come get blow'd up. An 11-game conference schedule means, at most, 7 home games, and as few as 5 (if the non-conf. game is in like South Bend, which more later). But the Big Ten Network makes this feasible. And if there's money to be lost in a BCS or national championship bid here and there, it's made up for in the much bigger draws of intra-conference matchups. This leaves room for just one non-conference game, which for most of these schools will be:

Notre Dame

Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Pitt have long-standing, mostly annual rivalries with Notre Dame. Penn State has an old one that was momentarily renewed a few years ago. Indiana's in their state. Illinois and Northwestern share the Chicago market with the Irish. And everyone knows, if the Big Ten were to expand, Notre Dame is the first one we would want. Only Ohio State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota don't have some claim to rivalry with the Domers. An 11-game conference schedule makes playing Notre Dame difficult for all of these schools. Already Notre Dame games intrude on the Big Ten schedule (Purdue usually plays them the first week of conference play). For these schools, you've got one game to schedule before the conference season begins, you go for a tune-up nummy num game that you can get at home every year, not the second-biggest football program in NCAA football history. And only one can start the season against the Irish anyway, meaning anyone else who wants to schedule Notre Dame has to do so after playing one or several Big Ten opponents. Meaning you don't get a tune-up game. In other words, an 11-game conference schedule would have the ultimate effect of making Big Ten v. Notre Dame matchups extremely rare, if not extinct. Which is why this is such a good idea...

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

or

The Subsection in which I Reveal My Law & Order-Like Plot Twist)

Ahah - I mentioned earlier that the Big Ten really wants Notre Dame, not Pitt. And when I talk about going to an 11-game schedule, getting Notre Dame to join the Big Ten is part of the scheme. They've managed to hang off as independent because of their TV contract, which doesn't last forever. And because they can pretend like they don't care about the Big Ten. Part of the reason for this charade in negotiations is that the Irish already can schedule all the Big Ten teams they need. They get Michigan. They get Michigan State. They get Purdue. If they want Penn State or Ohio State or Northwestern or Indiana or Illinois, it's a phone call away. Why give up a free BCS ride for winning 9 games against BYU and Navy and Stanford et al. when they already get all the Big Ten games they need? An 11-game conference schedule takes that away from them. If losing their Big Ten rivalries is imminent, Notre Dame gets nervous, and could be brought back to the table. If they still won't come in, we lock in Pitt (and maybe back down on the 11-game schedule). If the Irish take the bait, we lock 'em in, thank Pitt for being the mid-wife, and march forward with a conference so utterly dominating in American media market share we could almost be our own separate division (except for way too much talent being elsewhere).