Your favorite expansion options

L

Lucky77777s

Banned
Since I am in favor of smaller growth, mine are:

1. Go to 12 teams. Just add ND. They play 4-5 Big Ten games a year anyway, are in the middle of Big Ten country and would add a national following to the league and network. Clearly a situation were the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts for both parties.

2. Go to 14 teams. Add ND (same reasons as above). Add Rutgers - breaks the league and network into the NY market. maybe not from day 1, but I do believe it will over time. Add Boston College - Breaks the league and network into Boston, adds a sister catholic school and rivalry for ND, and forms a Boston/NY rivalry in the league with BC/Rutgers, again maybe not from day 1, but could over time. All 3 of these additions compliment each other and the league well.

3. Go to 16 teams. Add the same 3 mentioned above in #2. Add one of Virginia or Maryland - a team that can break the league and network into the DC market, I favor Virginia because of their beautiful campus. And add one of Nebraska or Missouri. Missouri brings more TV sets for the network and Nebraska brings a stronger football program with more tradition (brand recognition), I favor Nebraska out of these as I would love for Iowa to develop a rivalry with them.

4. Going to 18 would be the 7 teams listed in 3 above.

5. Going to 20 would be the 7 already mentioned, plus North Carolina and UConn
 
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My favorite option would be to go to 20 teams

Add ND, Nebby, Missouri, Rutgers, Maryland, Kansas, Virginia, Pitt, Syracuse

Two 10 team conferences
 
1. Add 1 - ND and go to 12

2. Add 3 - ND, Nebraska and whoever for a third. Pitt or Rutgers seem most likely IMO. Out of the two I prefer Pitt so: ND, NE and Pitt. If ND is out put Mizzou in their place.

3. Add 5 - Take the leftover out of Pitt and Rutgers and add Mizzou so: ND, NE, Pitt, Rutgers, MO. If ND is out you put another Big East school in their place, I'll say Syracuse.

If there is expansion beyond one I have NE in there just because it would be such an epic rivalry. But it is bittersweet. Yeah we get the chance to beat them and shut them up every year, but they're Husker fans, they never shut up. Having to put up with them may not be worth it. It would be much more entertaining watching their confused, dejected faces wondering if the world is going to end after the fall of the B12. And if ND refuses once again I like taking 3 Big East teams. It gurantees the fall of that conference IMO and then ND will be screwed. Sure they could join another conference and would be invited, but even their fans know that if a conference is a must they would be best off in the B10. While it would be so much fun to watch either program grasping at straws, unfortunately I do think both have enough to offer the college football world that it wouldn't come to that. So I say have em join the B10 and lets shut em up the old fashioned way - an a$$ whoopin!

I left TX out because I don't think it's realistic. But just for fun, here are the top 3 pipedream scenarios.

1. ND

2. ND, NE and TX

3. ND, NE, TX, A&M, MO - I left out all Big East teams in this scenario because the TX tv market would be locked which is much better IMO than a long shot at the NY tv market. Also, I buy into the theory that the B10 is trying to scare ND into joining with all the Big East talk and also that the Big East would force ND out with the goal of preservation if the B10 agreed not to take any teams if they (the Big East) help ND join the B10 with an ulitmatum.
 
It's going to be interesting to see how the TV deal works out. If we have 16 teams that means there are 8 conference games on Saturday. How do you fit all of those games on the Big10 network and ESPN without completely shutting out the other conferences?
 
Add the Domers and call it a day.

west

hawks
gophers
whisky
msu
mich
ill

East
psu
osu
pur
indy
nd
nw

east plays west champ in the new indy dome 1st sat in dec.
 
I could careless about TV revenue, so this is what I would like to see:

Iowa State (yeah yeah, I know this will never happen)
Nebraska
Missouri
Notre Dame
Maryland
 
add 3 teams at first then keep on growing until the NCAA is only left with mid-majors
 
My favorite option would be the following 4x4 option:
1-Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois
2-Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame
3-Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State
4-Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke

Brings in Notre Dame, academics, high quality basketball, southern recruting, tons national revenue for BTN (Duke-Carolina on BTN would be sweet).

There is zero chance of this happening, but it would be my personal ideal.
 
I like 16 teams with Nebraska, Mizzou, Pitt, Rutgers, & I'm not all that enthused with 'Cuse but my vote doesn't count.

To hell with Notre Dame.
 
This is why the Big Ten needs to hit hard and fast. If they wait, they will be the ones left out in the cold. Get Nebby and Missou now and let the Pac Ten play the remaining members of the Big 12. They will eventually merge anyway.
 
2 8-team divisons. You play all 7 teams in your divison plus 2 from the other divison, only 3 non conference games. The conference championship game would be more like a super bowl game where you have never really even scene the other team in the championship game.
 
I would prefer just adding one team. I can live with 14 provided the right schools are added (Nebraska and Pitt are my two favorite candidates, then ND). And I HATE the idea of a 16-team conference. HATE IT!!!!
 
I as well would just like to add one team. If we do that I really have a feeling that it will be Mizzou, even though I would like it to be ND. If they decide to not just add one.... Make it 14 with ND, Mizzou and Neb and call it good. I do love the idea of playing the Big 10 champ game in Indy though.
 
An important question that is not asked enough
is...what potential/legitimate candidates will the B10 university
presidents accept at a level that actually delivers new members.

Bottom line is that we really only care about it from a sports perspective.
The university presidents will mostly care about it from an academic perspective.

Knowing that the vote for Penn st was 7-3, tells me there likely will be
opposition from some towards any expansion irregardless of the school.

To me it would be interesting to see a breakdown of how each university president
would vote on potential candidates, based on their leadership direction at their schools.
 
To me the ideal expansion option would be to add just 1 school.
Invite ND and Nebby.When the domers decline or want special treatment/extra $, say "sorry,no"
Nebraska would likely accept without special provisions

Then, with 12 schools in the conference, the football schedule would look like this:

Everyone would play a 12 game schedule with a bye week (or 13 game schedule without a bye week if the conf wanted to). Regardless, everyone plays everyone in conference.

Yes, thats right, 11 conference games for everyone in the New Big Ten.
Everyones bye week is on the same day at mid-season,say week 6.
Everyones non-conf game would be the first week of the season...(sorry Domers you turned us down twice, now you dont get to play with the Big Boys for the big $ anymore, good luck with your next tv contract with a schedule full of army,navy,air force,and mid-majors)

Positives:
True conference champion every year, maintains all the old rivalries and adding Nebby will create new ones quickly, good geograpical and academic fit, keeps Big Ten football on TV that extra week during which other conferences are having their so-called "conf. championship" games.

Negatives:
Brutal schedule ( this could also be a positive when it comes to strength of schedule/BCS rankings)

Im sure i missed some positives and some negatives so feel free to add to/pick apart the above "ideal" expansion idea...
 
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