My surprise pick for the 12th Big Ten school

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ORGopher

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As for the Big Ten adding a 12th school, this is my breakdown:

Notre Dame - as for me, the heck with them. Until they can deal with reality and admit that they are no better than any other Big Ten school I don't want them and I don't think it will happen.
Syracuse & Rutgers - Brings in the New York market more than what Penn State does already. There interest would be the money. The Big Ten Network is a driver for them to give serious consideration.
Pittsburgh - would renew the rivarly in football with Penn State
Missouri (or Miz-ur-A if you live there) - somehow they always make the list and would be a decent addition and another big rival to Illinois.
Iowa State - I hope not.
Cincinnati - Ohio State would not favor this and I am not sure there reputation is good enough to give them much consideration. Thank Bob Huggins for that.

I read some other posts about the possibility of MAC schools - not a chance. Big Ten presidents would not consider them on the same level academically.

My sleeper pick is....UConn - while football drives the Big Ten ship, certainly men's basketball is the bread and butter when it comes to continued success...(see teams in the Final Four). They compete for bowl games at the BCS level in football so they bring something to the table. The other thing is they bring men's hockey. Is it possible for the Big Ten to have another revenue-making sport/championship because UConn gives them six Big Ten teams - the minimum to sponsor the sport at the conference level. Bye WCHA?

Division A
Penn State
UConn
Indiana
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Northwestern

Division B
Minnesota
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
Illinois

In football, you would play everyone in your division, plus three teams from the other divisions (maybe four). You would protect your rival from the other division and play them each year meaning cross-divisonal rivals would be:

Penn State vs. Michigan State
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin
Ohio State vs. Michigan
Purdue vs. Indiana
Illinois vs. Northwestern

Iowa and UConn I guess would start a new rivalry...sorry, the Iowa-Wisconsin game does not make the list.
 



Anything else I could have said may have been taken too negatively, so I tried to be civil. Truth is, it's one of the more ridiculous scenarios, and it really didn't need its own thread...
 

ORGopher said:
The other thing is they bring men's hockey. Is it possible for the Big Ten to have another revenue-making sport/championship because UConn gives them six Big Ten teams - the minimum to sponsor the sport at the conference level. Bye WCHA?
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UConn's hockey team is 3-12-2 playing in the extremely week AHA. Their only wins this year are against Royal Military College and American International. Their arena seats all of 2000 people. I don't think too many people are going to be interested in breaking up the WCHA for UConn.
 


They will never break up the wcha, it is the elite league in college hockey and dumping on 8 of the 10 teams (soon to be 10 of 12 teams, Omaha and Bemidji State) to make a big 10 team that would only have 5 or 6 teams would be stupid.
 

I didn't even realize UConn had a hockey program....thanks RJSF for the enlightenment!
 

UConn will be seriously considered.

It isn't as clear cut they won't be as magpie seems to think.
 

ORGopher said:
As for the Big Ten adding a 12th school, this is my breakdown:

Notre Dame - as for me, the heck with them. Until they can deal with reality and admit that they are no better than any other Big Ten school I don't want them and I don't think it will happen.
Syracuse & Rutgers - Brings in the New York market more than what Penn State does already. There interest would be the money. The Big Ten Network is a driver for them to give serious consideration.
Pittsburgh - would renew the rivarly in football with Penn State
Missouri (or Miz-ur-A if you live there) - somehow they always make the list and would be a decent addition and another big rival to Illinois.
Iowa State - I hope not.
Cincinnati - Ohio State would not favor this and I am not sure there reputation is good enough to give them much consideration. Thank Bob Huggins for that.

I read some other posts about the possibility of MAC schools - not a chance. Big Ten presidents would not consider them on the same level academically.

My sleeper pick is....UConn - while football drives the Big Ten ship, certainly men's basketball is the bread and butter when it comes to continued success...(see teams in the Final Four). They compete for bowl games at the BCS level in football so they bring something to the table. The other thing is they bring men's hockey. Is it possible for the Big Ten to have another revenue-making sport/championship because UConn gives them six Big Ten teams - the minimum to sponsor the sport at the conference level. Bye WCHA?

Division A
Penn State
UConn
Indiana
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Northwestern

Division B
Minnesota
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Purdue
Illinois

In football, you would play everyone in your division, plus three teams from the other divisions (maybe four). You would protect your rival from the other division and play them each year meaning cross-divisonal rivals would be:

Penn State vs. Michigan State
Minnesota vs. Wisconsin
Ohio State vs. Michigan
Purdue vs. Indiana
Illinois vs. Northwestern

Iowa and UConn I guess would start a new rivalry...sorry, the Iowa-Wisconsin game does not make the list.
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I like your thoughts on this. U Conn would draw more fans from the NYC area than Rutgers or Syracuse. I am not sure either of those schools are a bigger draw than Penn State is in NYC anyway. It would really add a punch to basketball in the Big Ten.
 



The UConn scenario is interesting, but even with them there is no way there will ever be a Big Ten hockey conference. By my count there are only 8 BCS-type universities in college hockey, so taking 6 of those teams and putting them in one league would go a long way to destroying college hockey. These teams need to remain spread out through a few different conferences to keeep parity and interest spread out.
 

I'm in Michigan right now for work and the school folks here are talking about, in addition to those mentioned above, is Boston College.
 

My first choice is Pittsburgh (academics,football tradition, location).

My second choice is Boston College. Boston College has strong academics, Northeast TV market, football is very competitive, rich tradition in hockey, and a great city to visit. Imho, BC brings a lot more to the table than Rutgers and Syracuse.

Go Gophers!!
 

scools12 said:
UConn will be seriously considered.

It isn't as clear cut they won't be as magpie seems to think.
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Why will they be seriously considered? Nothing they offer is more positive than Pitt (EDIT: To clarify, while UConn's bball team is traditionally stronger, Pitt's is also good and thus I consider that a wash). They do not have a big share of the NYC market. And they are even more of a geographic anomaly then 'Cuse or Rutgers. A weak hockey program isn't enough of a reason.
 



I thought one of the "rules" when looking for an additional team for the Big Ten was that the state it's in must border a state that already has a Big Ten team. I don't thinkg Connecticut borders Pennsylvania.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I thought one of the "rules" when looking for an additional team for the Big Ten was that the state it's in must border a state that already has a Big Ten team. I don't thinkg Connecticut borders Pennsylvania.
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According to Rittenburg this isn't an official rule. Just a semi-formal guideline/traditional expectation.
 

UConn has 1 winning season in the Big East. We can all agree that the Big East is weak.

Their football field isn't even located in the same town as their University. That doesn't fit the Big Ten identity. We were toeing the line there for 27 years.

They are NOT a member of the AAU, so they're not academically compatible.

Pass.

The more I think about it, the more I think Nebraska might be a strong fit. Their only true rivalry in the Big 8 was Oklahoma, and that's already mucked up.

While they have been down in football lately, they have a higher profile than any other school that I've heard mentioned outside of Notre Dame. They bring in a large national fan base, beyond anything regional that Pitt or Mizzou would offer.

Basketball is weak, but they're strong across the board in non-revenue sports. Academically, they'd be the weakest undergraduate school, but they are a member of the AAU and do higher level research than Notre Dame.
 

NateDawgUM said:
The more I think about it, the more I think Nebraska might be a strong fit. Their only true rivalry in the Big 8 was Oklahoma, and that's already mucked up.

While they have been down in football lately, they have a higher profile than any other school that I've heard mentioned outside of Notre Dame. They bring in a large national fan base, beyond anything regional that Pitt or Mizzou would offer.

Basketball is weak, but they're strong across the board in non-revenue sports. Academically, they'd be the weakest undergraduate school, but they are a member of the AAU and do higher level research than Notre Dame.
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I agree with Nebraska being a good choice (great choice actually). But somehow they just feel "Big 12", ya know? And I wonder how inclined they'd be to move. Mizzou is a possibility because of the unequal sharing of Big 12 TV money (the more you get on TV the more money you get)...Mizzou is getting the shaft in that system. Moving to the Big Ten would give them an economic boost in addition to an academic boost. The same can't be said for Nebraska.
 

Well Tom Osborne was the head coach when they joined the Big XII, and I know that one of the main reasons he almost immediately retired was due to Nebraska getting royally shafted by Texas when the rules of the conference were drawn up.

Now that he's AD, he might want some payback.

Further, Nebraska has issues with television for non-conference games. The Big XII only has a few channels at their disposal, Texas and Oklahoma always get the ABC games, so half the time Nebraska winds up on Versus or Pay Per View. It is not popular with the fans. I think they would love access to the Big Ten Network.
 

GoAUpher said:
Why will they be seriously considered? Nothing they offer is more positive than Pitt (EDIT: To clarify, while UConn's bball team is traditionally stronger, Pitt's is also good and thus I consider that a wash). They do not have a big share of the NYC market. And they are even more of a geographic anomaly then 'Cuse or Rutgers. A weak hockey program isn't enough of a reason.
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My point being that to simply dismiss UConn is wrong. This has nothing to do whether I think they are a good fit or whether the school has a hockey team. I doubt whatever schools are being considered the hockey program or lack there of is a higher priority.

I just don't see a Big 12 team jumping. IMO more than likely if it happens at all it will be a team from the Big East. I am not saying UConn should be the team I just think they will be a school that is considered.
 

I dislike Nebraska very much so. I feel like I would have to hate them if they would join the Big Ten. I'm not sure I have any hate left in me with Iowa and Wisc. getting all of it. This could be a problem.
 

Nebraska has it's positives, but it's simply not the football power it once was, and likely won't be anytime soon. It's other sports are pretty average. And it doesn't add two large media markets the way Missouri does. Missouri is still a better fit overall. If we're only thinking football, I can see Nebraska, but let's not get tunnel vision.
 

Who cares about media markets? We'd be adding Missouri, not the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missourians aren't crazy about their college sports. Who cares if they have TVs if they're on another channel?

I've also never understood this rationale for Rutgers. My entire family is from New York and nobody gives two poops about Rutgers.
 

NateDawgUM said:
Who cares about media markets? We'd be adding Missouri, not the St. Louis Cardinals.

Missourians aren't crazy about their college sports. Who cares if they have TVs if they're on another channel?

I've also never understood this rationale for Rutgers. My entire family is from New York and nobody gives two poops about Rutgers.
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You need a lesson in television economics. Which media markets the new school brings is probably the #1 criteria being considered. Exposure to new TV markets is the #1 reason why Penn State was added and the only reason Rutgers is even being mentioned. PSU opened up the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and to a degree NYC television markets to the Big 10. That was huge and gave them the largest market share of any conference in America. Rutgers and Syracuse are being considered almost entirely on the theory that they would increase exposure in the NYC market beyond what PSU has already done. In the case of Rutgers, I don't think it would help much, your right about that.

Missouri would add basic cable/satellite exposure in both St. Louis and Kansas City which are fairly large markets. You may be right, Mizzou may not pull down huge #'s there (though I think they do OK) but that is secondary to the # of per subsriber fees that will be generated in these to large markets for the BTN. I don't think a cable company in either city could afford to refuse to carry it. DirecTV and Dish already have agreements to carry in any state in the 'footprint.' Nebraska on the other hand, adds only a few small markets like Lincoln and Omaha. Not nearly the same market penetration.

Now when it comes time to re-negotiate with ESPN/ABC is Nebraska more attractive then Missouri? Yes for football, no for basketball. Nebraksa still probably wins in that, but I don't think the mothership would pay enough extra to off-set what the BTN would lose out on in St. Louis and KC.
 

howeda7 said:
Nebraska has it's positives, but it's simply not the football power it once was, and likely won't be anytime soon. It's other sports are pretty average. And it doesn't add two large media markets the way Missouri does. Missouri is still a better fit overall. If we're only thinking football, I can see Nebraska, but let's not get tunnel vision.
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I think Pelini already has them on the way back in year 2 and in a few years(2-3) they will be back competing at a high level. As NateDawgUM stated as well they also do very well at the non revenue sports with a long tradition of excellence in volleyball, gymnastics, track and field, etc. They have also been very successful over the past 10-12 years in baseball. I don't know however if I would see Nebraska making the switch because in addition to the Oklahoma rivalry which they do not get to play every year they do still have a pretty bitter rivalry with Colorado. They just have to much history in the Big 8/Big 12. I think Missouri or Pitt would be the more likely schools to make the switch.
 

Adding Penn State opened up those markets because they have a ton of fans. That's why you add them rather than Temple. Nebraska has one of the largest fan bases in college sports.

I understand that adding Missouri gets St. Louis and KC into the Big Ten market instead of Big XII, but fan interest isn't high.

Why add Notre Dame? Chicago is already a Big Ten region. Oh, because they have a national fan base. Same as Nebraska.
 

GopherGod said:
I don't know however if I would see Nebraska making the switch because in addition to the Oklahoma rivalry which they do not get to play every year they do still have a pretty bitter rivalry with Colorado. They just have to much history in the Big 8/Big 12. I think Missouri or Pitt would be the more likely schools to make the switch.
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Huh? Nebraska joined the Big Eight in 1907. Missouri joined the Big Eight in 1907.
 

scools12 said:
UConn will be seriously considered.

It isn't as clear cut they won't be as magpie seems to think.
Click to expand...

I wasn't referring to UConn alone, but as his so-called alignment would go as well. No way would Minn-Wisc be split up, let alone Mich-OSU.

The entire first post is a laugh at best.... as are many people's parody threads (chicago/toronto).

I do like the BC idea, but that won't happen.
 

Media markets will be a big consideration in terms of adding the 12th team, esp since the conference has its own networks...Nebraska is nice, but they don't have the markets as others have already stated.
 

I wasn't referring to UConn alone, but as his so-called alignment would go as well. No way would Minn-Wisc be split up, let alone Mich-OSU.

The entire first post is a laugh at best.... as are many people's parody threads (chicago/toronto).

I do like the BC idea, but that won't happen.
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OK Magpie - lets hear what you have?
 

Nebraska would be a great choice...if it wasn't for their #1 fan:

LARRYTHECABLEGUYGUITAR.jpg
 

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