1. Mizzou - academically and athletically solid, geographically perfect, built-in instant rivalry with Iowa and Illinois. Mizzou is unhappy with the B12 because their schools get to keep half of their TV money instead of pooling with the rest of the league. Oklahoma, A&M, and Texas each make about half as much again as much as do the rest of the schools (except for Colorado), but it takes 10 teams to vote for a change. Mizzou, Kansas, and ISU in particular HATE this.

2. Pitt - ditto, rivals with PSU and OSU. Not a land-grant college, but enough history. Would PSU lobby against them, though?

3. ND - Good fit, but bad history - this has Bad Karma written all over it. I think this would be like marrying the high-maintenance prima-donna cheerleader from your high school days that dumped you for another guy a couple of times - years later, she's now had three kids and is divorced, broke, and running for financial cover. She's "settling" for you, and will never let you forget it. Too much recent bad blood here with the other Big Ten universities unless ND comes in gracefully and unconditionally both in public and in negotiations - unlikely.

4. West Virginia - Athletically good, state-college type school - but the lack of AAU certification will keep them out

5. UC. Too noveau-successful in sports other than men's basketball - and Big Ten schools don't consistently pack their successful football coaches off to other Big Ten -type colleges college because they can't afford to pay them enough. Until UC replaces Nippert (or plays at PBS) they can't generate enough money from football operations. Come back in ten more years, fellas.

6. Iowa State - right profile and location but second rate academically and athletically. No real gain for the Big Ten here.

7. (tie) Rutgers/Syracuse. Syracuse is private, Rutgers is athletically weak. Both are solid academically, but too far East. (PSU gets a bye here on "too far east" because State College PA is more remote and rural that any other Big Ten school. )

9. (by a ton) - Louisville. The 'Ville is an overgrown commuter college, and is VERY weak academically.

noquarter wrote: Why isint WVU being considered? Is this addition for football or football / basketball combo only?

Like others mentioned it is academic. WVU is in a small state with limited options on significantly raising academic standards. That is why half of our student body is out of state students.

I'm not sure what they would need to do to join the AAU, but it might be possible as we are a great academic school once you get past the admission standards.


If the Big10 takes Pitt the BE is finished. We can survive losing a Syracuse or Rutgers.

Demolishing the BE football conference might not be that bad though. There have been rumors and speculation about the possibility of WVU joining the SEC.

The interesting part is how will the basketball conference play into this. I second the idea that the BE needs to force ND to make a decision.

Rutgers would be my choice. I really like the idea of opening up the NY media market to the Big Ten.

Cincy all the way!

Yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Big East if Pittsburgh leaves

jordo212000 wrote: Yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Big East if Pittsburgh leaves

It'd be more interested to see Mizzou leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten.

No one in New York cares about Rutgers, or college football at all for that matter. Rutgers wouldn't bring any market, and they would be a bottom feeder in both football and basketball. They would be one of my last choices.

Cincinnati wouldn't add much athletically, and nothing academically, and bring no new market.

West Virginia doesn't have the academics.

Pittsburgh would be a middle of the pack football program, a solid addition in basketball, and a nice fit academically. They don't bring any new market though. I wouldn't hate Pitt joining.

Missouri brings the St. Louis and Kansas City markets, would be a middle tier team in football and basketball. The academics are good enough though not exceptional. I wouldn't hate this move either, although I wouldn't be happy about it.

I personally wouldn't do anything if Notre Dame isn't interested, but if they had to take someone, I would be least upset with Pitt.

Bullshit they don't. The media around there exploded when they had Ray Rice and they were actually good.

SQ_Crazies wrote:

jordo212000 wrote: Yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens with the Big East if Pittsburgh leaves

It'd be more interested to see Mizzou leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten.

You'd likely see either BYU (most likely due to academics) or Utah get invited. The popular pick right now is TCU, but with a student body just over 3k, you'll never see them in the Big12 in your lifetime.

My guess would be, if they can't get Mizzou or Pitt, Rutgers is on this list because they will be the fallback choice because their academics would boost the Big10's rep, and it would be beneficial exposure in the midwest for Rutgers' recruiting. I would say the realistic list looks something like:

1. Mizzou
1a. Pitt

2. Rutgers

The other schools are just on there because they make sense geographically, and I'm sure they don't want every freaking reporter asking them eleven billion times, "why wasn't _______ considered?" so they throw in Louisville, UC and Syracuse just to make it look like they aren't desperate to get one of the top two above. Syracuse is a good fit academically, but their location and recent struggles in football are not a good fit; UC's location is good, but the numbers just don't compute for size and for academics. And Louisville is ok in both academics and location, but I don't know how much the Big10 is going to risk it on Strong to turn the football program around; could you imagine trying to fill a 50,000 seat stadium with Louisville vs. Indiana for a conference game? Let's face it, they were in CUSA forever, and they only had like one or two good years when they first got into the BigEast, and have since been in the crapper. They have to show they can produce a solid fan-base (relative to what the Big10 wants) as well as do it consistently. I have my qualms about Louisville.

The Big 10 already has 7 schools in the top 25 public universities. Rutgers won't do anything to boost the academic image of the Big Ten, as they are #26.

Heck, when you look at the overall Public and Private university rankings, throwing Northwestern and U of Chicago in there, Rutgers really brings nothing to the conference besides possibly some new viewer base.

Pittsburgh would actually bring the median academics up in the Big Ten.

Rutgers = boring

Looking a move or two into the future...

If Pittsburgh were to be added to the Big Ten, would the Big East make this move:

Big East North
Army
Connecticut
Navy
Rutgers
Syracuse
West Virginia

Big East South
Central Florida
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Louisville
Memphis
South Florida

That would relegate them to a second-tier conference. But one could probably argue that were were anyway. Navy and East Carolina would be fine football additions. Army would be a sacrificial lamb, as they'd get pummeled every game. You could possibly replace them with Marshall.

If Missouri is snagged from the Big 12, I think Texas Christian, Colorado State, Southern Methodist, Houston, and Utah are the serious candidates to replace Missouri. They could elect to go to fourteen teams and grab Houston, Texas Christian, and Colorado State. That would be interesting to say the least.

sjmvsfscs08 wrote: Looking a move or two into the future...

If Pittsburgh were to be added to the Big Ten, would the Big East make this move:

Big East North
Army
Connecticut
Navy
Rutgers
Syracuse
West Virginia

Big East South
Central Florida
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Louisville
Memphis
South Florida

That conference wouldn't deserve an automatic BCS bowl bid.

^It does now?

For the record, before anyone Big East guy gets pissed at my comment, I don't like automatic bids period.

I've heard that Arkansas would be interested in moving to the Big XII if events would permit - but haven't seen anything in print to that effectg.

The SEC would have no problem filling the gap by moving Vandy to the SEC West and pulling Clemson, Florida State. or Miami into the SEC East.

Cat Food Flambe' wrote: I've heard that Arkansas would be interested in moving to the Big XII if events would permit - but haven't seen anything in print to that effectg.

The SEC would have no problem filling the gap by moving Vandy to the SEC West and pulling Clemson, Florida State. or Miami into the SEC East.

well they used to be in the old SWC or whatever the hell that thing was called lol, which is basically where parts of the Big12 and Mt. West came from, so I could see them wanting to if it came to that.

Missouri is showing a strong interest in a possible move to the Big 10 according to 97.1 The Fan

Missouri has wanted in for a long time. This shouldn't come as a surprise.

The question is does the Big 10 want them? I would guess the big 10 goes this route...they want Notre Dame. Notre Dame doesn't want in though. Nebraska AD Tom Osborne has stated that they weren't looking at moving 'at this time' back on Monday afternoon. Who knows what they would be looking at with the Big 10 wanting them. It has been stated here they weren't happy when the Big 12 went from the Big 8 to + 4 Texas schools. They lost control. Big 12 moved their offices from KC to Dallas. Title game went from rotating between KC and Dallas to exclusively Dallas. Potential TV network similar to the Big 10 Network was essentially shot down by Texas. Nebraska's "THE GAME" against Oklahoma was forced to be irrelevant because of the conference split and the Big 12 refusing to let them play it annually regardless. I wouldn't be surprised if they would leave, but they will probably want to see the pitch from the Big 10 to see what it offers them.

Missouri is ready to go. Now. They offer a large market, but don't have the nationwide diehard fan base that Nebraska has. They also don't travel as well, fans don't show as much support when they are down, etc.

Mizzou sounds good to me

Sounds to me like it's between Missouri and Pittsburgh.

Assume the Big Ten grabs Missouri, would this be the Big XII?

Big XII North
Arkansas
Colorado
Colorado State
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Nebraska

Big XII South
Baylor
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Christian
Texas Tech

Now, a fourteen-team has been done before (the MAC did for a time I believe) but this would mean revenue sharing by fourteen teams as opposed to twelve. Let's assume Arkansas gets the nod over the others. Would the SEC look like? Add Clemson? Florida State? Miami? Georgia Tech (a former SEC member)?

I love the domino effect of teams switching conferences. The Geography nerd in me wishes it'd happen more often.

Pitt

I like this Set Up:

East:
Michigan
Penn State
OSU
Purdue
Michigan State
Indiana

West:
Illinois
Wisconsin
Iowa
Missouri
Northwestern
Minnesota

j_crazy wrote: I like this Set Up:

East:
Michigan
Penn State
OSU
Purdue
Michigan State
Indiana

West:
Illinois
Wisconsin
Iowa
Missouri
Northwestern
Minnesota

I like that too...a little more balanced than the Big 12 N/S setup as far as overall school strengths in each division.

Well the Big XII setup figured Nebraska would remain a dominant national power and Colorado wouldn't absolutely fall off the map like they've done. They two schools combined for four national championships in the 1990s, whereas Texas and Oklahoma combined for none.