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Big 10 seriously considering going to 16?

I believe him when he says that the Big 10 is looking at 3 scenarios:

1- stay at 11 teams (life's pretty good as it is)

2- add 1 team that's revenue positive and gives the championship game revenue (Notre Dame preferred)

3- add 5 teams to go to 16 and create a super conference (the scenario that makes the dominos fall)

Consider, if they did that, then the Big 16 would probably go after big media markets and snag Notre Dame for national and then 4 from the group of Rutgers, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, Missouri and Nebraska.

SEC would respond by adding 4... Clemson, Florida State, Texas and Texas A&M. They might also look to the southwest and consider Oklahoma and Oklahoma State instead of Florida State and Clemson. An SEC West of Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas, UT, TAMU, OU & OSU would definitely work and balance an SEC East of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. (Although they'd trade Vandy for FSU in a heartbeat despite the Nashville market.)

ACC would be down to 9-10 teams, Big East down to 4-6, they merge to get to at least 12 and maybe find a path to 16. The 7 non-football programs in the Big East (8, but lost Notre Dame), would probably raid the A-10 for basketball to get up to a 16-team basketball conference. The new ACC probably pulls Temple for full membership and access to the Philadelphia market. I'm not sure who else they'd target. I could see them taking a long look at UMass if they're going to FBS for football (and the Big 10/16 took Boston College away).

Big 12 is cooked with the loss of between 2 and 4 of its top programs and is done as a conference. The Pac 10 goes to 16 by picking of CU, KU and UofU... plus 3 more that could come from NU and MU if they didn't get the Big 16 invite, OU if they didn't get the SEC invite, or could include a program or two from the state of Texas (TCU, TTU, Baylor or Houston). KSU, ISU and OSU wouldn't have much chance because of small media markets and/or being light on academics, but Oklahoma politics could possibly be forced as a tag-along with OU.

We could realistically end up with 4 superconferences that had 16 teams apiece.
 
Not sure if if its automatic that the SEC expansion would be UT and TAMU. Despite what we think about some of their other practices Texas does care about academic standards and was the driving force against the use of partial qualifiers in the Big 12, I think from an academic perspective they'd rather go Pac 10 and let OU/OSU join the SEC. They have serious reservations about the SEC's commitment to academics, and the SEC is the conference that is the least likely to let them throw their weight around. What would be interesting is whether they'd be able to drag Tech with them into the Pac 10, though I'm not sure if they really care about any of the Texas schools beyond TAMU. TAMU would be perfectly happy to go to the SEC but I don't think it would happen because of the political pressure. Also, I've read some opinion stuff stating that Texas is not about to let TAMU skip off to another conference where they can't keep their eye on them given TAMU's history of...shall we say...liberal interpretations of the NCAA rules and recruiting practices.
 
(Although they'd trade Vandy for FSU in a heartbeat despite the Nashville market.)

got to have a private school so you can keep the conference books closed. U of Tennessee gives you the Nashville market....Vandy's students/alums are mostly from outside Tennessee. I went to Vandy for 2 years before t-ferring to Colorado College. Vandy isn't a media market unto itself....no one in Nashville gives a hoot about the Commodores for the most part....it's a UT kind of place.
 
You're right about Texas and the SEC. I didn't think that through. But UT also won't consider a scenario where they have to play a tough conference schedule and then take on Oklahoma and Texas A&M in their non-conference slate. This is not going to be easy.
 
got to have a private school so you can keep the conference books closed. U of Tennessee gives you the Nashville market....Vandy's students/alums are mostly from outside Tennessee. I went to Vandy for 2 years before t-ferring to Colorado College. Vandy isn't a media market unto itself....no one in Nashville gives a hoot about the Commodores for the most part....it's a UT kind of place.

Interesting. Maybe that would push them to Miami (FL).
 
We could realistically end up with 4 superconferences that had 16 teams apiece.

my preference would be 8 8 team conferences....but, something like that is where we are headed. it's basically the same thing with conference championship game revenue as a pre-playoff eliminator.
 
Barnhart is a fairly credible reporter. Anything SEC or ACC related I would believe him unless proven otherwise. I am not sure how "up to snuff" he is with Big Ten issues, however.

My personal opinion if the Big Ten goes to 16 is that they would go after Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. The SEC would seriously take a run at Louisville and West Virginia then make overtures to some combination of Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Florida State, Miami, or Clemson. The ACC would target Rutgers, Syracuse, and/or UConn. The remaining Big 12 teams would merge up with the Pac-10 schools, probably cutting some of the dead weight in the process (Wazzou, Baylor, etc). That would leave four "super-conferences" of 16 teams; and the Big East leftovers would go back to Conference USA while the MWC would add the Big 12/Pac-10 leftovers leaving two true "mid-major conferences" that have good athletics but smaller market power.
 
I believe him when he says that the Big 10 is looking at 3 scenarios:

1- stay at 11 teams (life's pretty good as it is)

2- add 1 team that's revenue positive and gives the championship game revenue (Notre Dame preferred)

3- add 5 teams to go to 16 and create a super conference (the scenario that makes the dominos fall)

Consider, if they did that, then the Big 16 would probably go after big media markets and snag Notre Dame for national and then 4 from the group of Rutgers, Boston College, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut, Missouri and Nebraska.

SEC would respond by adding 4... Clemson, Florida State, Texas and Texas A&M. They might also look to the southwest and consider Oklahoma and Oklahoma State instead of Florida State and Clemson. An SEC West of Ole Miss, Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas, UT, TAMU, OU & OSU would definitely work and balance an SEC East of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. (Although they'd trade Vandy for FSU in a heartbeat despite the Nashville market.)

ACC would be down to 9-10 teams, Big East down to 4-6, they merge to get to at least 12 and maybe find a path to 16. The 7 non-football programs in the Big East (8, but lost Notre Dame), would probably raid the A-10 for basketball to get up to a 16-team basketball conference. The new ACC probably pulls Temple for full membership and access to the Philadelphia market. I'm not sure who else they'd target. I could see them taking a long look at UMass if they're going to FBS for football (and the Big 10/16 took Boston College away).

Big 12 is cooked with the loss of between 2 and 4 of its top programs and is done as a conference. The Pac 10 goes to 16 by picking of CU, KU and UofU... plus 3 more that could come from NU and MU if they didn't get the Big 16 invite, OU if they didn't get the SEC invite, or could include a program or two from the state of Texas (TCU, TTU, Baylor or Houston). KSU, ISU and OSU wouldn't have much chance because of small media markets and/or being light on academics, but Oklahoma politics could possibly be forced as a tag-along with OU.

We could realistically end up with 4 superconferences that had 16 teams apiece.

I would think the SEC would take FSU/Miami and maybe Clemson/VT to keep a full set of Florida rivalries and UT/A&M head west with CU/Utah and mybe OU/OSU.

Certainly would make for great games.
 
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I'm such a nerd--I love this stuff.

The Big 10 holds all the cards when it comes to expansion. The Big 10 Network has been such a $$$ maker that current members receive more per year TV revenue than Notre Dame receives from NBC contract. If they go to 16, it has to be with Texas (plus A&M) --- otherwise, I don't think expansion makes financial sense since they'd have to cut up the pie 16 ways from 11 now. Therefore, from CU's perspective, this means that I don't think the Pac 10 ends up with Texas under any scenario. Either Texas rules the roost in the B12 or takes the $$$$ from Big 10. Pac 10 is a distant 3rd.

If Big 10 goes to 16, Big 12 is in trouble because that means Texas, A&M and in all probability Missouri and maybe Nebraska are gone. Pac 10 then may look to go to 16, although 12 probably makes more sense. If Pac 10 goes to 16, I'd expect CU, Utah, Oklahoma, OSU, Kansas and Nebraska/Missouri (whichever is not picked up by Big 10).
 
I would think the SEC would take FSU/Miami and maybe Clemson/VT to keep a full set of Florida rivalries and UT/A&M head west with CU/Utah and mybe OU/OSU.

Certainly would make for great games.

You meant Georgia Tech, not Virginia Tech, right?

FSU, Miami, GT & Clem to the SEC would be sick.
 
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