Conference Expansion

Sorry, Northwestern was in top 10 most powerful, not largest. Good catch. Either way, I was surprised to see them.

Powerful makes sense. I recall in the days of yore...as they were getting their butts kicked on the field...the Northwestern band used to chant "That's all right...that's OK...you'll all work for us someday".

A degree from NWestern is like one from Stanford. No placement issues after graduation.
 
I would much rather the Big Ten stayed at 14 teams. I'd rather settle into the 9 game conference scedule for a while and see how things go. Quite honestly, I think Iowa would lose ground if a team like Notre Dame ended up in the Big Ten West. As things are, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern all have a good shot at winning it and Minnesota has an outside shot at it.
 
I would much rather the Big Ten stayed at 14 teams. I'd rather settle into the 9 game conference scedule for a while and see how things go. Quite honestly, I think Iowa would lose ground if a team like Notre Dame ended up in the Big Ten West. As things are, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern all have a good shot at winning it and Minnesota has an outside shot at it.
I would too but like it or not I believe more expansion is coming sometime in the next years.
 
I would much rather the Big Ten stayed at 14 teams. I'd rather settle into the 9 game conference scedule for a while and see how things go. Quite honestly, I think Iowa would lose ground if a team like Notre Dame ended up in the Big Ten West. As things are, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern all have a good shot at winning it and Minnesota has an outside shot at it.

If Notre Dame and UVA joined the B1G, it would be interesting to see the divisional breakdowns. UM, OSU, PSU, ND are the elite names. You wouldn't want them to be in the same division. You would have to consider putting ND and UM in the west because you couldn't put PSU or OSU in the west. So, Iowa would suffer. So would WUs, and MSU and kNU. But, having ND and UM in the west would get Iowa more tv viewing in on the east coast, particularly NYC, Boston, DC where ND has huge tv share. Same with UM being a big tv draw on the east coast. Hell, we don't allow ourselves to expect national recognition now, what would it hurt when it's guaranteed not to happen?

I also do think things eventually shake out into 4 super conferences. That would make each conference championship game the determining factor on getting a playoff slot. Suck it, SEC, you'll get just 1. Yes, Bama and LSU and sometimes Auburn and UGA contend, but for the most part, top to bottom, the SEC is an average conference.
 
Two reasons why Notre Dame will remain independent: from Jack Swarbrick October 2015

1) “Our goal is to remain independent,†Swarbrick said. “I think it serves the university’s purposes and our educational purposes to maintain our independent model. The things that could change that are ones that I think are generally understood. One is if our independence proved to be too great an obstacle towards participating for the national championship. That would be a consideration.

2) “Secondly, if we didn’t have a broadcast partner who wanted to support us and allow us to use football to promote the university as independent, that would be a challenge. Those are really the only two right now. We don’t have any issues with building our schedule, especially in light of the ACC agreement. We don’t have a problem with access to postseason.

“So those are really the two major risks that I see, and I’m glad to say that I don’t think either is imminent.â€

source
 
I think the most logical school would be oklahoma. Not a huge market but great football and bball schools, a rabid fan base, and you can put them in the big ten west and they would immediately bring a much needed buff to that side of the conference. Also gets you inroads into the south which is huge for recruiting and exposure

As for the second school I think the big ten would only go for a home run. Notre dame, north carolina (they wouldn't go anywhere without duke I doubt, dick Vitale wouldnt allow it). Not sure who else would really qualify
 
I think the most logical school would be oklahoma. Not a huge market but great football and bball schools, a rabid fan base, and you can put them in the big ten west and they would immediately bring a much needed buff to that side of the conference. Also gets you inroads into the south which is huge for recruiting and exposure

As for the second school I think the big ten would only go for a home run. Notre dame, north carolina (they wouldn't go anywhere without duke I doubt, dick Vitale wouldnt allow it). Not sure who else would really qualify

Oklahoma just won't cut it. A small population state with few TV sets. The only smaller states would be Iowa & Nebraska. Plus, Oklahoma is not a member of the AAU. Those are two fatal flaws. Caveat: Nebraska is the only school in the B1G that is not a member of the AAU. However, the Huskers were a member of the AAU when admitted to the conference. I believe that Notre Dame is the only school not in the AAU that the B1G would accept.
 
I would also add that GA Tech would should be in consideration over UVA. Ga Tech wasn't on the original list of schools in the post. However, the Atlanta area has well over 6 million tv sets. That would be a huge new market for the B1G. If ND and Ga Tech joined, the B1G would be in the NYC, DC, Boston, Philly, Chicago, Indy, Atlanta and Los Angeles tv markets. Wow.
 
I would also add that GA Tech would should be in consideration over UVA. Ga Tech wasn't on the original list of schools in the post. However, the Atlanta area has well over 6 million tv sets. That would be a huge new market for the B1G. If ND and Ga Tech joined, the B1G would be in the NYC, DC, Boston, Philly, Chicago, Indy, Atlanta and Los Angeles tv markets. Wow.
The Big 10 has talked about wanting to expand South. Atlanta would be a huge get. But again from a sports fan's perspective, blah
 
If you believe rumors, there are supposedly Texas to the BIG talks going on. Hard to say in this day in age of social media.
 
If you believe rumors, there are supposedly Texas to the BIG talks going on. Hard to say in this day in age of social media.


Let Texas keep its own network if it wants to join and NDU keep having its home games on NBC. Make it work B1G, cause, despite losing some revenue, getting those two would still bring in a net gain in revenue and a whole lot more prestige.
 
Let Texas keep its own network if it wants to join and NDU keep having its home games on NBC. Make it work B1G, cause, despite losing some revenue, getting those two would still bring in a net gain in revenue and a whole lot more prestige.
I think the problem for Texas right now is that the LHN is a failure. There is talk about folding it into a Big 12 network. If you are Texas are you going to make more money in a Big 12 network, or a BIG network? That answer is very easy. The question they have to answer is, can they live not being the BMOC?
 
Rumors are UVA, UNC, Florida State, abs Georgia Tech. Pretty much tearing up the ACC
 
Rumors are UVA, UNC, Florida State, abs Georgia Tech. Pretty much tearing up the ACC

Same twitter account said the ACC Grant of Rights would be null if they don't have an ACC Network, which apparently ESPN said no too? Not sure of any of this, just have followed his account over the weekend.

This account also said Texas and ND were still in play...

Crazy if any of this comes to fruition. But Mega Leagues are the reality, and at this point if you can add and increase each schools payout, you're doing something right.

I would of preferred ND joining after PSU and keep it at 12, but that Genie is out of the bottle...
 
As a ND fan, I've always wanted them to join the B1G. With that said, being independent is in ND's best interest as we have to have a national schedule in order to continue to recruit nationally. The main reason ND joined the ACC was the exposure to southern recruiting.

I don't know about the recent rumors but Oklahoma making the playoffs took away any forceful leverage for ND joining a conference being that you don't necessary have to win a conference championship game.
 
As a ND fan, I've always wanted them to join the B1G. With that said, being independent is in ND's best interest as we have to have a national schedule in order to continue to recruit nationally. The main reason ND joined the ACC was the exposure to southern recruiting.

I don't know about the recent rumors but Oklahoma making the playoffs took away any forceful leverage for ND joining a conference being that you don't necessary have to win a conference championship game.

But OU did win a conference and if you remember ND was on the outside looking in at the playoffs in all likelihood even if they would have beaten Stanford. Tnhe committee is a majority of power conference members and they are not going to do ND any favors over power conference champions.
 
Same twitter account said the ACC Grant of Rights would be null if they don't have an ACC Network, which apparently ESPN said no too? Not sure of any of this, just have followed his account over the weekend.

This account also said Texas and ND were still in play...

Crazy if any of this comes to fruition. But Mega Leagues are the reality, and at this point if you can add and increase each schools payout, you're doing something right.

I would of preferred ND joining after PSU and keep it at 12, but that Genie is out of the bottle...
I have no idea if any of this is true either but I agree, there has been talk of super conferences for a few years now. Seems to be the way things are going and the timing makes sense with the BIG tv contract. Hard to say, we've seen rumors go wild before and things change day to day. I remember when Texas and Oklahoma were going to be in the Pac 12 and Missouri was in the Big 10.
 
I think the B1G is probably pushing this. They really need to get a footprint into the south/southeast. Getting a foothold in Texas would be equally awesome. If ND doesn't want in, no biggie for the B1G, they really only bring name brand, they don't bring a recruiting region.
 
I think the B1G is probably pushing this. They really need to get a footprint into the south/southeast. Getting a foothold in Texas would be equally awesome. If ND doesn't want in, no biggie for the B1G, they really only bring name brand, they don't bring a recruiting region.
Agree, I think ND=money, but I think some of the larger markets can bring in enough to go around. I can only imagine how much $$$ per school adding some of these teams would bring.
 

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