Big 10 to amplify its search for a 12th member

From the Arkansas perspective, Texas might have been their biggest rival, but from the Texas standpoint their most prominent rival has been Oklahoma for many decades.

There are only so many schools that we can actually take. The BigTen requires AAU membership, which limits it to only about 9 current FBS teams (5 to the north & east, 4 to the south & west).

In the pictures below, you'll see all of the AAU member, FBS schools based on the direction of expansion and my proposed divisions.

Expansion to the Southwest:

Expansion to the Northeast*:

*Buffalo is missing from this graphic

Those schools (Buffalo included) are the only schools with AAU membership currently in the FBS. I don't think ND would have much trouble joining the AAU as their academics are very good, it would just be if ND would want to join the AAU.

It would not be worth it to include a Pitt, Rutgers, etc.

But I'm all for pursuing Notre Dame with a little more verve

For years I've heard from a couple of Nebraska alums that the Athletic Department there was unhappy with the Big 12 Setup and that the university administration has higher academic aspirations than most of the Big 12 schools and they feel affiliating with the Big 10 would be advantageous. I even heard they've reached out to Delaney a couple of times.

If it's not Nebraska, I'd bet on a Rutgers or maybe Syracuse to try to improve its NY ties. The New York media will cover PSU, UM occasionally, and that's pretty much it at the moment.

But in case nobody's done it yet, here's a post of Brian's from a couple of years ago that does a great job summarizing the possibilities:

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

It's strange that it took so long for anyone to mention AAU membership when it's clearly one of the main criteria for any school that isn't Notre Dame. And ND's ambition to be considered as a graduate education powerhouse has been in overdrive lately — the faculty and administrators in South Bend do covet AAU/CIC membership. It might make sense for the league to wait a few years through the Kelly era and Notre Dame's NBC contract (expires 2015) before moving on any other teams. If the next five years turn out like the last five years, NBC might be looking to end that relationship.

But, really, the next best option is plucking Rutgers from the Big East. There's, of course, the New York media market. From a UM perspective, considering how many alums we have in that area, it would be a great support opportunity for them every couple of years. They are a good, land-grant, state school with strong roots. However, though they've been a good team at times but haven't been the #1 team in the country since 1869 (Princeton was #2, there was no #3). But the campus is only a few hours from State College, which is good for Penn State.

The real problem, as these responses have indicated, would be putting the teams into divisions. It would be preferable for Michigan and OSU to be in the same division, if only to ensure that the rivalry retains its privileged place. Meanwhile there's no way, geographically speaking, to keep PSU out of that same division, which would be good for our rivalry with them (and open to taking a year or so off every so often to be replaced with an inter-league game). But that would make for one concentrated division within the league; you'll end up with a Wisconsin-Iowa cakewalk into the championship game most seasons.

If it's not Notre Dame, it will be Pitt. We should just all accept it and move on.

The reson its hard to get in to osu for ohio residents is because they get so many applications from in state students that they can pick the cream of the crop. Its acutally much easier to get in if your from out of state since they get a lot less aplications so the standards are lower.

I'd say our best options are:

Iowa State - natural in-state rivalry with Iowa.

Nebraska - the academics to be a part of the conference, and also the potential for a clean rivalry with Michigan. It'd be hard to pull them away from the Big 12, but in reality the Big 12 North has nothing for them... they don't have a real rivalry with anyone in it.

Pitt - natural in-state rivalry with Penn State.

Chicago - If they could fire their football program back up, they would be the ideal school to add to the mix. It's a huge longshot, but it's possible - they have the $.

Notre Dame is NOT AAU, which a lot of people tend to overlook. The Big Ten won't offer them again.