For those readers with long memories, you'll remember that in December of last year, I discussed the possibility of Big Ten expansion, and the following schools were on my short list:
Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Cincinnati, Louisville, West Virginia, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska.
So, since then, it's come to my attention that the rule regarding bordering a Big Ten state doesn't really exist. That means all bets are off, and if you've been paying attention recently, Nebraska has unofficially announced its intentions to become the 12th member of the Big Ten Conference. Today, Colorado announced its intentions to join the Pac-10 Conference, and Oklahoma has confirmed that the SEC has shown interest in their university. While I don't want to come out and say that the Big 12 is going to dissolve, it will be difficult for them to find replacements of the same caliber as those three schools. We are most likely living in the end of days for the Big 12 Conference either as a power conference or as a conference period. That's fine by me. The Big 12 is the Frankenstein monster created from the corpses of the Big 8 and Southwest Conference, and no one has really been very happy with the arrangement. It made the least amount of money for the schools involved out of any conference.
The man really keeping an eye on the whole expansion business is Frank the Tank, an Illini alumnus whose observations are very astute and easy to understand. According to the news on his end, the Big Ten might be looking at Texas, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and Missouri. However, Notre Dame will only get an offer if Texas or Missouri says yes. Why?
Well, first, if Missouri signs on, that makes an awkward 13 teams, and that's a terrible conference name: The Awkward 13. Adding one more will make for 14 teams, enough for two divisions and a conference championship, which athletically was the ultimate goal for Big Ten expansion. If the Big Ten scores the big enchilada of Texas, we have to take the ugly stepsister of Texas A&M, because their state legislature is a bunch of dickless wonders that requires the two to remain tied to each other in whatever conference they belong to. That way, their rivalry remains a conference game, and much more important. Adding one gets you the other, which makes 15 teams, equally awkward to 13. Add the Irish, you get 16 teams, a superconference, capable of destroying entire planets in a single blast. In those circumstances, the allure of a large conference with a championship game and a lot of money may be too much for Notre Dame to ignore, at long last.
Now, for my thoughts on the Nebraska addition:
I'm “meh” about it, overall. Athletically, it's a great football school, it's one of the great teams of college football history with 46 conference championships and 5 national championships, the last one in 1997. In basketball, it sucks. Thematically, it fits well into the Big Ten, because it's a public, state flagship university, which is the general theme of the Big Ten (not counting Northwestern [not public or state flagship] or Michigan State [not state flagship]). Academically, it's not a great, or even good addition. On the often-overused and misleading U.S. News rankings, Nebraska ranks 96, which is over twenty spots below even the lowest-ranked Big Ten schools (Indiana and Michigan State). It's just not academically equal to the Big Ten, so my sincere hope is that over time, closer association with the conference will improve Nebraska academically as it shares in research and other educational benefits. In summary, I'm not exactly sure why the Big Ten courted Nebraska, unless it knew that taking it would trigger massive conference shifts which could lead to nabbing Texas or Missouri or Notre Dame.
Either way, the next two weeks are going to be very interesting, and we'll see how they play out. What are your thoughts?
