B1G expansion

[Zstatman]

A good friend of mine, who usually has some pretty good inside sources, is telling me the B1G may be looking to expand, sooner than later. The idea is to head off Congress and expand before they can weigh in and muck things up.

He says they may be looking to go to 20 or 24.

If they go to 24 the leading candidates are Florida St, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, Stanford and Cal.

Anybody else hearing anything about this?

 

[guffus]

I follow the expansion message boards pretty regularly and I have heard nothing. You would think if something was going to be announced this year, they would have done it before July 1, like USC and UCLA did, although there have been other big announcements after July 1, so you never know.

Most speculation i have seen regarding the ACC schools has been that schools will announce in 2028 that they plan to leave after the 2029-2030 season. But that's just message board people speculating.

The main reason is the ACC recently re-did its Grant of Rights (GOR) agreement with ESPN so that the penalty for leaving the ACC gradually goes down from now until 2030, then stays the same after 2030. Also the Big Ten's TV contract runs to around 2030 and will start negotiating a new contract in 2029.

So 2030 seems like the magic year for the Big Ten to add schools from the ACC. Of course the SEC is interested in those same ACC schools. UNC, Va, Flor St. Maybe Miami or Clemson or even Notre Dame.

 

[SCHawkeye2]

A good friend of mine, who usually has some pretty good inside sources, is telling me the B1G may be looking to expand, sooner than later. The idea is to head off Congress and expand before they can weigh in and muck things up.

He says they may be looking to go to 20 or 24.

If they go to 24 the leading candidates are Florida St, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, Stanford and Cal.

Anybody else hearing anything about this?

I would be OK with Stanford and Cal. Would fill out the new "B10 West" with some quality programs.

 

[Westernhawk]

I would be OK with Stanford and Cal. Would fill out the new "B10 West" with some quality programs.

I agree. It would allow the inclusion of the P12 schools to make a tiny bit more sense!

 

[Zstatman]

I would be OK with Stanford and Cal. Would fill out the new "B10 West" with some quality programs.

I would take Stanford and leave out Cal, we don't need them both.

 

[guffus]

Adding Cal or Stan and eventually giving them full shares would require all other Big Ten schools to eventually take a pay cut. That is, unless the Big Ten adopts an unequal revenue share model for the next tv contract.

 

[Grady]

Adding Cal or Stan and eventually giving them full shares would require all other Big Ten schools to eventually take a pay cut. That is, unless the Big Ten adopts an unequal revenue share model for the next tv contract.

Which it's probably going to need to do in some way.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I think you can have an uneven revenue model as long as its not drastic. There could be tiers based upon lots of factors, but mostly who is bringing in the revenue do to name recognition. But, if OSU gets 10% and Purdue gets 2%, you might as well blow up the conference now because we will be MLB on steroids with only 4 or 5 big boy teams and the rest as farm league/feeder. Reward OSU, Michigan, etc for their brands and longevity in the conference, but keep competitive balance.

 

[Grady]

Right

I think you can have an uneven revenue model as long as its not drastic. There could be tiers based upon lots of factors, but mostly who is bringing in the revenue do to name recognition. But, if OSU gets 10% and Purdue gets 2%, you might as well blow up the conference now because we will be MLB on steroids with only 4 or 5 big boy teams and the rest as farm league/feeder. Reward OSU, Michigan, etc for their brands and longevity in the conference, but keep competitive balance.

Right. It's easy to envision the existing shared revenue model continuing, with added 'bonus' payments above and beyond for ALL BTen schools based on eyes on screens. This helps everybody feel like they're getting something extra, rewards the BTen giants to keep them from leaving the conference, and the conference could benefit because it motivates ALL the schools to bust their ass motivating their fans to follow their teams.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Right

Right. It's easy to envision the existing shared revenue model continuing, with added 'bonus' payments above and beyond for ALL BTen schools based on eyes on screens. This helps everybody feel like they're getting something extra, rewards the BTen giants to keep them from leaving the conference, and the conference could benefit because it motivates ALL the schools to bust their ass motivating their fans to follow their teams.

I like that. 90% of all TV money gets distributed evenly, and the remainder as bonuses for the schools that move the meter. Purdue can still field a competitive field of teams in that scenario.

 

[Fryowa]

In 2026/7 conferences are 99% irrelevant unless you aren't in the P2 which Iowa is. But alas, ISU is an irrelevant program in an irrelevant conference so it works out...

As long as you're in the P2 it doesn't matter in the end whether there's 16 school or 36 schools. Still the same number of teams, and still the same number of CFP spots. The money will increase as the conference expands, it isn't like there are 12 brand new teams created out of nowhere stealing Iowa's money.

I personally don't care how many teams are in the B1G anymore because the conference doesn't mean anything anymore. It used to represent the best in the Midwest but now its just the Big Ten in name only and it isn't going back. So who cares? The purpose of having conferences is obsolete now. It's like being the king of england...all fluff and no stuff. It's a nostalgic title and that's it.

We all know there's going to be either one or two new independent mega conferences in a few years anyway, I say hurry up and just get it over with.

 

[haydensly]

Old school me doesn't want any more expansion. Enough aleady. The only exception would be to let Notre Dame in plus one other TBD team to even the number out at 20.

 

[trj]

I’m with Fry… just get it over with already. We all know where this heading. A month or two ago Pollard was crying about the bullshit…lets see if he is really about that life.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

I would like to see further expansion for two reasons. First, Iowa State will be left out. F those guys.

More importantly, I think adding more teams will force the Big 10 to create smaller divisions in football, and that will give schools like Iowa legitimate goals to shoot for, and reinforce regional rivalries. Similar to the NFL model, the conference will be divided into divisions of 4-5 teams, who generally are geographic rivals. You would play those teams every year and rotate through the remainder of the conference. Winning The Big 10 Central, comprised of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois will be the measuring stick for a team's success, and will get you into a conference semi-final game.

In short, we need to get bigger to get smaller, IMHO.

 

[trj]

I would like to see further expansion for two reasons. First, Iowa State will be left out. F those guys.

More importantly, I think adding more teams will force the Big 10 to create smaller divisions in football, and that will give schools like Iowa legitimate goals to shoot for, and reinforce regional rivalries. Similar to the NFL model, the conference will be divided into divisions of 4-5 teams, who generally are geographic rivals. You would play those teams every year and rotate through the remainder of the conference. Winning The Big 10 Central, comprised of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois will be the measuring stick for a team's success, and will get you into a conference semi-final game.

In short, we need to get bigger to get smaller, IMHO.

To Fry’s point…isn’t this where we are inevitably going anyway?

 

[hawkdrummer1]

Old school me doesn't want any more expansion. Enough aleady. The only exception would be to let Notre Dame in plus one other TBD team to even the number out at 20.

Notre Dame in, Nebraska out.

 

[HuckFinn]

In 2026/7 conferences are 99% irrelevant unless you aren't in the P2 which Iowa is. But alas, ISU is an irrelevant program in an irrelevant conference so it works out...

As long as you're in the P2 it doesn't matter in the end whether there's 16 school or 36 schools. Still the same number of teams, and still the same number of CFP spots. The money will increase as the conference expands, it isn't like there are 12 brand new teams created out of nowhere stealing Iowa's money.

I personally don't care how many teams are in the B1G anymore because the conference doesn't mean anything anymore. It used to represent the best in the Midwest but now its just the Big Ten in name only and it isn't going back. So who cares? The purpose of having conferences is obsolete now. It's like being the king of england...all fluff and no stuff. It's a nostalgic title and that's it.

We all know there's going to be either one or two new independent mega conferences in a few years anyway, I say hurry up and just get it over with.

Yup.

 

[SwirlinLingerie]

I would like to see further expansion for two reasons. First, Iowa State will be left out. F those guys.

More importantly, I think adding more teams will force the Big 10 to create smaller divisions in football, and that will give schools like Iowa legitimate goals to shoot for, and reinforce regional rivalries. Similar to the NFL model, the conference will be divided into divisions of 4-5 teams, who generally are geographic rivals. You would play those teams every year and rotate through the remainder of the conference. Winning The Big 10 Central, comprised of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois will be the measuring stick for a team's success, and will get you into a conference semi-final game.

In short, we need to get bigger to get smaller, IMHO.

Yep, it's all pretty silly at this point. Let football get so bloated that eventually schools focus on playing regional rivals again. And that the other sports finally say that's enough, and those teams go back to playing Illinois State, Wisconsin, Drake, Loyola, etc.

I personally hate seeing the deterioration of schools like Iowa State and Washington State. The magic of college football is the charm of regional rivalries...and how schools a long ways from population centers like ISU and WSU could sometimes find the right coach who would consider the place home, and punch above their weight. Having legitimate football programs in Ames and Pullman was a pretty good thing for those universities and ultimately some of the large rural areas of those states.

 

[guffus]

I don't root for Iowa St to be downgraded because if they can do it to ISU, they could eventually do it to Iowa.

 

[trj]

I don't root for Iowa St to be downgraded because if they can do it to ISU, they could eventually do it to Iowa.

Nope. Call it luck, call it circumstance. We are already in the club.