New spin on Big 10 expansion

[OKCBuff]

I know, there are already a couple of Big 10 threads, but talking about this is a good distraction for me from all the Hawk stuff.

Anyway, so I've been keeping up with the whole Big 10 deal and saw this: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/chi-17-big-ten-brite-dec17,0,3820862.story

So while we're all talking about which school the Big 10 would add - Pitt, Rutgers or Mizzou - could the conference have decided to just go after them all?

The reason I could see it is the Big 10 has taken it on the chin in terms of rep and major bowl games in recent years and this would really shake things up and give them a lot more attention.

And, I could see the BCS nudge the big conferences to gobble up more teams in order to consolidate programs into the BCS so smaller conferences don't have a leg to stand on, although those three are already in AQ conferences.

The other reason I mention this is it could trigger the other major conferences to do the same. So, let's say the Big 10 stole Mizzou from us and took Rutgers and Pitt - who would the other big boys add? SEC takes FSU and Miami from a horrible (for football anyway) ACC? Big 12 adds TCU, CSU and Air Force to get to 14? Pac-10 adds Utah, BYU (yeah I know, wouldn't happen because of Sunday deal and religious views) and two others?

Anyway, this link sort of alarms me because the Big Ten, while home to crappy football, has a ton of alumni and a ton of stroke. And if they're convinced they need to make a major shake-up in order to be taken seriously again, they would do something like this.

If, in a year, the Big 10 comes out and says it's going to 14 beginning in, say, the 2012-13 season, then look out because I think every other league would scramble around trying to answer that news - ala the escape pod scene in Spaceballs.

 

[HornBuff]

Big 8 + SWC is 14 teams, right?

Ark, Rice, TCU and Houston to the B12.

 

[OKCBuff]

Arkansas makes too much money in the SEC and I don't see them losing a soul in there was another round of conference musical chairs.

In fact, I could see the SEC steal FSU and Miami from the ACC to get to 14.

 

[PhillyBuff]

here we go.... slippery slope...

2 big Divisions with 20 teams each and a playoff at the end!

 

[ScottyBuff]

It certainly is a valid point to consider, but I doubt that the President's of the universities would be motivated because the Big Ten football team's have "taken it on the chin" in rep and BCS games. Expansion is a 20, 30 ,50 year near-permanent move.

With that said, the prime motivation for the Big Ten to expand beyond 12 teams would simply be due to the fact that they own their own TV network now. The more markets and programs that they add the more popular the network is and the more profitable it will be.

Years ago there were rumors that the Big Ten was looking to add Missouri, Kansas, AND Rutgers. So this isn't the first time a 14-team Big Ten has been bandied about.

 

[ScottyBuff]

Arkansas makes too much money in the SEC and I don't see them losing a soul in there was another round of conference musical chairs.

In fact, I could see the SEC steal FSU and Miami from the ACC to get to 14.

Or Texas and Texas A&M?

 

[66BUFF]

would make more sense for the Big 5 (big12, acc, sec, big 10, pac 10) to pull teams from the big east(who have no business having a bcs slot) and the non bsc confrences to screw up their chances of ever getting in on the fun

Pac 10 takes utah and byu. boise st, fresno st
Big12 takes tcu and UH
SEC takes louisville and south florida
Big 10 takes pitt, syracuse and rutgers
ACC takes west virginia and Uconn

MWC, big east and wac are dead and C-USA does not have the programs to ever push for a bcs slot

 

[OKCBuff]

Or Texas and Texas A&M?

Absolutely. Now that the academics in the SEC seem to be better, UT might be more open to a move there. And A&M would love to go there, so if they both agreed they might do it. I think Texas feels like the Big 12 was a shotgun marriage type deal and don't see the pluses of playing the former Big Eight teams (aside from OU or OSU in fb and bb I suppose) anymore.

So who knows? I just get the feeling the Big Ten thing is going to cause a lot of aftershocks and changes in the system.

 

[ScottyBuff]

would make more sense for the Big 5 (big12, acc, sec, big 10, pac 10) to pull teams from the big east(who have no business having a bcs slot) and the non bsc confrences to screw up their chances of ever getting in on the fun

Pac 10 takes utah and byu. boise st, fresno st
Big12 takes tcu and UH
SEC takes louisville and south florida
Big 10 takes pitt, syracuse and rutgers
ACC takes west virginia and Uconn

MWC, big east and wac are dead and C-USA does not have the programs to ever push for a bcs slot

You left out Cincinnati!

Obviously impossible that all that would transpire, but I see what you are trying to say.

The thing is that one of those eventual non-BCS conferences would still produce a team or two every year that would get ranked (East Carolina, Hawaii, or Nevada or Tulsa, etc), and if that same team repeated that success for a couple of years we would be back to where we are.

 

[HornBuff]

I kind of like the way they do it in English soccer with the Premier League. The bottom one or two teams fall to the second level each year and the top one or two from the second level move to the first level each year.

Would be nice to incorporate this idea into college football somehow. Start with 60 teams in five leagues. Each year the bottom one or two from each of the five leagues falls out of the "premier" league to be replaced by teams from the second tier. All 60 teams in the premier have an equal shot at the national champoinship game. Small playoff at the end of the year to determine NC.