Here comes ISU. Kansas/ISU in talks with BIG?
Now it looks like Iowa State getting involved.
B1G should go after ISU and Okie St.
Why the downvotes? This isn’t a horrible idea
Because people can't stand opposing viewpoints.
I feel Kansas basketball would be a greater benefit to the B1G as a whole than Okie St football.
Kansas is a parasite that relies on footprint and reputation for basketball recruits. Not a fan of inviting them into the B1G for recruiting reasons.
You’re wrong.
Don't let it get to you. It's the 'rabble-rabble, Big Ten means 10!!!' crowd. The writing has been on the wall that the Power 5 are going to expand over time. If the B1G has to expand, ISU and Kansas sorta make sense. They are proximal to Nebraska and Iowa, so it's reasonable. OK State may be a bit too far away. ISU will be a fun football opponent and Kansas will make Basketball more exciting.
I would HOPE that the BIG already had a contingency plan in the event this occured as you stated, this isnt really Shocking news
ISU also gives Iowa a true rival and frees up an OOC game for them every year.
Cheers.
This does make a lot of sense. No thanks on Kansas though,
They already play every season so the "rival" thing doesn't really matter and also who cares about Iowa (the U of Iowa and the sliver of the state that cares about ISU but not Iowa which is the only added media/eyeball exposure)?
Because the OP is thinking about this in terms of the current teams. This has nothing to do with that. Its about money and these teams bring nothing to the table and adding them would mean less money for each current B10 team.
You don’t have to give them a full share right away. They are not in a strong negotiating position.
I do like this idea more so than adding someone far outside the geographic footprint. It lets Purdue and Indiana reunite in the Eastern division. The West embraces it’s “we are corn” identity.
Craig Ross mentioned adding Toronto to the conference. That would be wild, but it’s a major market, and immediately adds Canada to the B10. There’s just that matter of teaching them American football.
Living in Toronto at the moment and this would be a fantastic add IMO.
I do too, actually. From an academic perspective it makes a lot of sense and if it means I can walk to the occasional game I'd love it; I walk by Varsity Blues Stadium (seating capacity: 5000) all the time.
Athletically, though, for anything other than hockey I'm not convinced this is a good idea. The football team dates back to 1877 but ignoring the whole Canadian rules issue and the likely lack of football talent relative to even the poorer B1G teams they haven't had a winning season this century. They did go 4-4 in 2013 but also had a 49-game losing streak.
The basketball team is less prominent and would presumably have less of an issue with the rules but they haven't been very good either. Canada does have some basketball talent; obviously Michigan fans remember Nik Stauskas and I used to work with a couple of guys who'd played Division I ball. But just based on the size of the Canadian population it's going to be a smaller talent pool.
But hey, I'd love to see it anyway.
It is a bad idea. Maybe not horrible, but pretty bad. We don't want two secondary schools in small media markets/states with mediocre athletics and mediocre to bad (in the case of OSU) academics.
If the conference feels like it needs to get to 16 (and I don't know why it would) then go for more attractive schools from the ACC, like UVA and VT.
It is 100 percent a horrible idea. Those two programs are very small potatoes in the grand scheme. They've recently had some relative success, but historically both have been somewhere between lousy and mediocre. The schools' brands and fanbases are basically nonexistent. Neither has a good academic reputation. Or look at it this way. Both programs are in small, obscure states with tiny populations, and yet neither is the most popular team in its own state. Ridiculous.
Pittsburgh and ND should be the only schools considered if we truly want to emulate BIG roots and geographic sense.
Pitt would be neat. I’m also a fan of ISU joining. Get Iowa a little buddy in its own state. That’s adorable. They both have birds on their helmets or uniforms and you gotta like that consistency.
I am serious that ISU and Pitt would be fun. Not a fan of Kansas.
Pitt doesn't expand the footprint of the Big Ten. Pitt is also in a professional sports city where they care diddly about college sports. Won't be Pitt.
I know and you’re right. While Kansas expands the footprint it just adds another Rutgers to the conference for football. Basketball is different but I’m not much of a basketball fan.
To hell with Norte Dame. Take UNC and Clemson out of the ACC and let ND make due with a diminished ACC.
ISU should be reaching out. Along with every other member of the Big Twelve to any other remaining Power conference. Does not mean the Big Ten needs to answer.
EDIT: I genuinely do not understand the infatuation with adding Iowa State as a Big Ten member. At least Rutgers and Maryland made sense from a money perspective. Iowa state is not a national brand, is historically terrible in football and basketball, does not open a new market to eyeballs.
UVA, UNC, Cincinnati, and as last options ... Pitt and Okie St
This is an underrated comment. If the SEC is getting Texas and Oklahoma, you don't counter by taking the scraps of the Big 12 -- you go go try and raid the ACC and Pac-12. UNC, Clemson, or FSU moves a needle. UVA, Pitt, and Colorado at least are solid pickups. Oklahoma State/Iowa State should be total non-starters. (Cincinatti would be blocked.)
Don't sleep on Syracuse. They are a national brand in basketball (Michigan would draw 30k at the Dome - and if you haven't been to a Syracuse home game against a top opponent, it is unreal (and I hate Syracuse)). They are one of the few teams in the past few years to have beaten Clemson in the regualr season in football, and they deliver the NYC market better than Rutgers.
Football is where the money is at and Syracuse provides no recruiting ground. The south and the west coast are where the recruits are and that is where football power will remain for some time outside of Ohio St. Either you want to play with the big boys or not. Syracuse? Kansas? ISU? Ok. St.? Come on. Just throw in the towel in that case.
The long-term answer lies in raiding the other conferences for some teams in the south and/or west or merging with them. Otherwise, you're not serious about actually competing in football.
IMO the Big Ten made a HUGE mistake passing on Syracuse. If the goal was to reach the NYC market, Cuse is more popular there and brings better football, basketball, and facilities, and probably on par academically.
Adding UNC and Clemson to the B1G would be a major coup. UNC fits the academic bill, as does Clemson to an extent. UNC is a pretty good football draw and obviously an excellent basketball draw. Clemson is a premier football draw. Then in football, Michigan moves to the West division. Ohio St and Clemson are in the east division and they can beat each other up in the quest for the B1G championship game. Sounds perfect to me.
Why would Clemson leave their cupcake path to the CFP to play in the same division as OSU?
Would love some combinations of either regionally local teams or ACC teams to join but I think the ACC grant of rights agreements are going to make that really tough, or virtually impossible.
Pitt has great academics, decent MBB and decent football. Add them to the East. Take OSU and send them to the West. Makes perfect sense in all facets.
At this point maybe you just go for numbers to just to even out the league. Iowa St has a natural rivalry with Iowa, and they are decent in the major sports. It wouldn't increase the cost of travel for the non revenue sports, and they are good academic fit, I would guess, compared to the rest of the Big 12.
You don't add a school just for the sake of adding one.
If we absolutely have to add someone, it should be one of Syracuse, UVa, or Va Tech.
You add Pitt and ND
ND won't join. Pitt is OK but doesn't expand the footprint.
Yeah. Though it's too bad that 'expanding the footprint' (for TV) is a top priority, as it's directly at odds with regional rivalries/matchups that give college sports so much of its passion. If they just want four well-rated TV stations then it'll just be like pro sports, which I find to be much more bland.
Adding Syracuse is not a serious play. It should be a non-starter.
The Big Ten's new TV deal is coming up in a couple years. With streaming now dominating the landscape, it is less important to reach specific tv markets since most of the Conference networks are national now.
Iowa State does not improve the conference to demand additional $$$$ from Fox/ESPN when those negotations happen. In fact, they probably actively weigh down the payments to each school since now we are cutting the Pie 16 ways instead of 14 or 15.
The Big Ten does not need to do anything right now as it stands. It's too expensive to grab ACC schools with their new grant of rights agreements, they are relatively stable from a history and competitive standpoint, they have schools that demand eyeballs.
It's not just the number of members, it should be about viewership.
Big Ten should at least collectively reach out to UVA, Va Tech, UNC and Duke about all joining the Big 10. Allows them to keep traditional rivalries. Maryland and Penn State would be ecstatic. Sure, 18 teams is more "2 related conferences" than anything else, and it has more basketball upside than football, but it's far better than ISU/KU.
I'm almost positive it won't happen at least not in the short term. The new grant of rights the ACC signed and agreement with ESPN when they launched the ACC network makes it basically impossible to poach ACC teams.
From the linked article: "The conference's grant of rights makes it financially untenable for a school to leave, guaranteeing in the 20 years of the deal that a school's media rights, including revenue, for all home games would remain with the ACC regardless of the school's affiliation."
This agreement ends in 2036. Unless the ACC is willing to part with some of these schools for whatever reason and release them from the grant of rights, it won't happen. Maybe in 10+ years when there is less time on the agreements you can try it but right now you're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is correct. The Big 12 schools need to be prepared to escape a doomed conference. But from the Big 10's perspective, do they actually add anything?
The last round of expansion revealed that major basketball programs didn't factor into anyone's decisions; it was all about leveraging football to force conference TV networks onto cable subscribers. I'm not sure how this will be different. Iowa is already in the footprint and is Wichita and KCK enough to matter?
If the Big Ten were serious about expansion they should absolutely listen to these pitches. Then they would go out and try and poach Georgia Tech and UNC.
Matt Campbell syndrome...
But but but....Matt Campbell
After this, the big ten needs to go after NDSU and Wyoming.
Finally capture that Ames television audience.
It's big brain time!
I get Kansas but ISU should be something like the 25th school in priority for the B1G.
The super conference is inevitable so you might as well drive that ship
We already have the Des Moines market and the entire state of Iowa which has a diminishing population. Matt Campbell will not be the coach at ISU forever and when he leaves, odds are they revert to their mean.
This would be dumb.