Rumor has it the Big Ten will expand to 120 teams. It will then establish divisions which it will call the "Atlantic Coast", "Southeastern", "Pacific", "East", and so forth. Division champions will then play each other in a series of postseason games, with the two top-performing division champions playing each other in a championship game to establish the Big Ten Champion.
In that case, they'll have to rename the conference the Borg Ten Conference, since we will have assimilated everybody.
Well played on the avatar. I missed it the first time I read your comment and saw it in your later comments. Well played.
Notre Dame will stay an independent.
You also forgot the West, Moutain, Sun, and USA divisions. The latter is mainly city schools in the eastern half of the country, but it also absorbs Army and Navy.
Touche. But this time, Delany's in charge, so the Big TeNCAA will be vindictive enough to do something about it. Notre Dame will be dropped by NBC and have a new, $500,000 TV deal with Spike TV.
But there are only 119 division 1 football teams. How is that resolved!?
Western Kentucky moved up in 2008, and is the 120th team in the FBS
South Alabama (in Mobile) and UT San Antonio, both cleared to gradually move from no program to the FBS. So it will be 122 in a few years (I'm not sure about the exact timeline).
There is a moratorium in place right now on further expansion -- I'm not sure what will happen when it ends...
I'd like to see seven 12-team conferences (nine-game conference schedule) with two 20-team divisions that play for the last spot in an eight-team champions-only playoff, for a total of 124 teams with a non-mythical shot at the NC (with at most one unbeaten team in the end), with the two 20-team divisions and the current FCS using a promotion/demotion model like that of the English football clubs.
The Columbus Dispatch throws Georgia Tech out there... yep, the game has reached a new low.
"Georgia Tech is the newest AAU member. It was admitted last month, the AAU's first addition in 10 years. Given Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany's statement Tuesday that the population shift to the South is a driving force behind the consideration of expansion, some eyebrows were raised by Georgia Tech's admission to the AAU. Could the AAU's invitation be a precursor to a Big Ten invitation?
If so, it would be strictly coincidental. First, membership to the AAU is by invitation only. Schools cannot apply for consideration.
As for interest in or by the Big Ten, a school spokesman said Georgia Tech has not been contacted by the conference.
"If we receive a call or are approached, we'll consider it at that time," said Jim Fetig, associate vice president of communications and marketing."
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/05/23/academic…
It wouldn't be the first time Georgia Tech's been mentioned, but people took Delany's Sun Belt comment wayyyy too seriously.
All Delaney was trying to point out was that the population growth of the existing Big 10 states has not kept pace with the Sun Belt, and this is one of the big reasons they are looking to expand. A longtime member of the ACC located in the deep Confederate south is even less likely to join a conference up in Union/Yankee territory than is Texas.
The ACC is probably (along with the Pac-10) one of the other conferences that takes academics as seriously as the BigTen. I'm anticipating the ACC to pick up the remains of the Big East's leftover top academic schools (Syracuse? UConn? Pitt if we don't?) to completely gut the Big East.
The only possibility here is if the Big Ten went all "we're better than the ivy league" on us and picked off GT, UVa., UNC but that ain't happening unless OMG CONFERENCE ARMAGEDDON is broached and Delany reincarnates the spirit of Gen Jack D Ripper.
"You can't let Notre Dame see the map! it's our big map!" (Delany scrambling to cover large map on wall with his hands)
I half think that if ten schools left the ACC, Duke and UNC would be left behind, play each other ten times a year, and still call themselves the ACC.
still demand that the winner of the ACC get a #1 seed in the tourney since they play in the most stacked league in college b-ball baby?