Kinda OT: Big Ten Expansion

[ajaX82]

Most of us watch college football and this is the heart of Big Ten country, so what do you guys make of the major expansion rumors?

The word is that Notre Dame, Rutgers, Missouri and Nebraska have all been invited to join, though not officially. If all agree they will look for a 16th team. Personally i feel Mizzou makes a lot of sense and is a lock to be in. ND wont do it for obvious monetary reasons. Nebraska and Rutgers im not sure on.

So how do you see it shaking out? And than how do the inevitable divisions take shape? I dont want 16 teams, 14 i could live with, but 12 right now sounds nice.


Big Ten West: Mizzou, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois (Nebraska)
Big Ten East: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue (Rutgers)

The East would be loaded but im not sure how else you could do it geographically

*edited because of lack of geography skills

[Liqourish]

I don't see Rutgers joining (for the same reasons I think Texas backed out). They might want part of B10 network money... but the expenses of road games for conference games will cost them. I think Missouri might join. I don't want Notre Dame anywhere near the Big Ten (12).

Texas would have added a large viewing audience for the Big Ten. Much more so than these other schools.

I think you might want to change your divisions. I think you got your East/West mixed up.

[Icness]

I laid out my vision in the link in my sig. I do think Mizzou is a done deal to come to the Big Ten.

Dividing it up is pretty easy...
East:
PSU
OSU
UM
MSU
IU
Purdue

West:
Iowa
Minny
Wisconsin
Illinois
NW
Mizzou

add Rutgers to the east and Nebraska to the west if they join.

The fun part will be seeing what happens to the Big 12 and Big East.

[Piston Pete]

^^^
East is loaded, the West is clearly inferior....


We almost NEED to get Nebraska and one of (Notre Dame or Texas) to balance out the two....then add some combination of Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, or UConn to the East....

[Icness]

Yeah Nebraska or Texas would definitely help make the West more even in football. It actually balances pretty well in hoops, both men and women.

I really don't think Texas wants the Big Ten. I think they'd rather go to the Pac-10 and only have to worry about USC and maybe Oregon every other year instead of OSU and PSU being top 10 every year and Iowa/Wisconsin usually being right there too. Plus Pac-10 teams travel terrible in football--only USC and Oregon have winning records outside the PST zone over the last 10 years.

[ajaX82]

Ice, i also think Mizzou is in. And i like the look of a 12 team league. If we look at how current teams are set in football

Big Ten West: Mizzou, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois

Iowa, Wisconsin and Mizzou are all pretty legit. Minnesota and NW are pretty blah but decent. Illinois is crap

Big Ten East: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue

Obviously Penn St and OSU are the class of the Big Ten here. Who knows about UM and MSU is always a middle of the road team. Purdue lately is bad and IU is always very bad

In other words, i think Football wise it isnt terrible. West has 3 good to very good teams, 2 ok teams and 1 bad team. East has 2 great teams, 2 ok teams and 2 bad teams. It could be worse. The important thing is you now have a Big Ten Championship.

Heres another look, last years standings (with Missouri's Big 12 record added in*)

Ohio State E
Iowa W
Penn State E
Wisconsin W
Northwestern W
Missouri* W
Michigan State E
Purdue E
Minnesota W
Illinois W
Michigan E
Indiana E

I think its pretty even

[Icness]

Nebraska is officially in, taking it to 12.

Most logical division if it remains at 12:
Nebraksa/Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota/Illinois/Northwestern
Ohio State/Penn State/Michigan/Michigan State/Purdue/Indiana

though I've heard from a couple of people that competitive balance in football overrules geography, which could move Penn State with Wisconsin and Nebraksa and shift Iowa to the other side.

There is still a lot of talk going on about Notre Dame. The people are ND that I know say they will only join if it's clear the Big East and ACC are going to somehow merge, which is predicated upon more SEC expansion (Florida State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech).

I've heard rumors about Maryland, Syracuse, and Rutgers but it's nothing more than that at this point. I know Texas approached the Big Ten about joining but that was apparently just them covering all bases.

[TSE]

I wouldn't mind seeing a lot less divisions as a result of more consolidating. Just take out the whole Big 12 and Big East, and then maybe consolidate the WAC with the Sun Belt and have one super conference of all the worst 16 teams or what not, just to get them out of the way and keep them paired up with each other a little more regularly instead of having them frequently pop up against elite teams. I mean Western Kentucky went 0-12 last year. They open the season on the road against Nebraska, that's just pointless and not fun. And you might have a little reshaping too do, maybe some of the teams can slip into the MAC or Conference USA or Mountain West, whatever it takes to clean things up and give all the new conferences a strong fresh logical identity for the future.

[ajaX82]

Im shocked the Big 12 survived. Happy too. I didnt want to see the Pac-10 become a super conference. And we made out pretty goof grabbing Nebraska and setting ourselves up for a championship game.

Good stuff all around. Hopefully this conference expansion nonsense calms down

[ajaX82]

Well here is what ESPN is reporting for the new alignment

Multiple sources told ESPN.com that the two divisions in the Big Ten will look like:

• Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota.

• And Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois.

I have yet to find a shred of continuity with how they set the divisions up. I guess they did it on traditional power house football schools, though that second division is very top heavy and bottom light

According to multiple sources, the Big Ten wanted to preserve a number of traditional rivalries such as Michigan-Michigan State, Iowa-Minnesota, Purdue-Indiana and Indiana-Illinois.

The Big Ten is also expected to announce a consistent crossover game in football similar to Ohio State-Michigan that will be played each year. Expect to see longtime rivals Wisconsin and Minnesota playing every season.

Sounds smart and right

This is very interesting and im not sure what i think right now...


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5519832

[ajaX82]

oh and here are the yearly cross-divisional games

Besides the Buckeyes and Wolverines, the other "protected rivals" who will play every year across the divisional divide are Penn State-Nebraska, Wisconsin-Minnesota, Illinois-Northwestern, Indiana-Michigan State and Purdue-Iowa. Get excited, Hawkeyes.

MSU-Indiana...the rivalry of a lifetime


http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/b ... ng-content

[Liqourish]

I don't mind the divisonal breakdowns. At least they kept the Michigan/Ohio State rivalry intact. It's the biggest rivalry in college football, even with the Wolverines being bad the past couple years. Plus, if the Wolverines get back to being great, we could see a UofM/OSU conference champ game.

There is also talk of them expanding the schedule to 16 games. If they decide to do it, it won't go into effect until at least 2014.

Getting Nebraska and adding a conference champ game is huge for the Big Ten. It adds another market, it adds recruiting options, and the champ game will add revenue both in merchandise and TV. Loads of money to be made. Keeps the conference relevant. And it keeps the rest of college football on their toes.

[ajaX82]

No doubt the expansion, championship game etc etc is all very important. Really smart move by the Big Ten. Nebraska football is a perfect fit even. I dont like the fact that OSU-UM could be two straight weeks...i think that kind of takes from the rivalry. But otherwise, im pleased

The conferences appear to be pretty darn fair. The regional thing would have been difficult. Now the question is what to name the two divisions. Maybe using colors?

Altogether, the Big Ten, which i love btw, will be much better for all these moves. Im very happy

[Liqourish]

Big win for the Wolverines yesterday. Think they want a big year before the conference breaks down? Denard looks good out there. We all knew he was more of a rushing QB but he made some damn good passes yesterday as well. We had a nice balanced attack. Our secondary is bad though.