nic

I think they let ND walk away already. I dont think going after schools in the ACC was an attmept to make ND join our conference. I think it was just a TV set grab. I agree ND would have been a good fit even academically from what understand. My sense from the ND fans that I know is that they really don't like the Big Ten and it would be a last resort, but ND Joe would know better than I. I also doubt Michigan had anything to do with not getting FSU, if they were even on the table. But I do think the Big Ten really wanted to expaned again, and soon, to at least 16, based on Delany's latest comments. The ACC schools said no with the GOR. The days of Michigan and OSU owning the Big Ten are long gone. The Big Ten needs different teams to step up more like the SEC, I would think they should strive for that. All Wiscy, MSU, PSU and NU have to do is win it.

Really. Why did you care enough to bother? Are you sort of a Husker fan too, or do you just hate the Big Ten? So do you think Lisa will someday make a comittment and just settle down with the ACC or will her flirtations take her to the highest bidder? I am not sure where you pulled the Lisa reference from.

Saw this article...Delany is vague, but it sounds like the rumors of multiple schools being looked at is true. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/jeremy-fowler/22173078/delany-big-ten-talked-seriously-with-several-schools-about-expansion

I think ND Joe is referring to when ND was passed over a long long time ago, mostly due to Michigan's objections. Since then, ND has turned down offers twice. Once after Penn State joined, and also in 1999 when they were almost in, but the board of trustees killed the idea. Ironically, if they had joined, I doubt the Big Ten would have been looking to expand again. ND is in the ACC now, but at least ND Joe seems to like hanging out on Big Ten boards. :-)

Division overall winning percentage past two decades (East in Blue...for obvious reasons) Ohio State 0.796 Nebraska 0.704 Penn State 0.692 Michigan 0.691 Wisconsin 0.690 Iowa 0.568 Michigan State 0.553 Purdue 0.504 Northwestern 0.494 Maryland 0.478 Rutgers 0.435 Minnesota 0.433 Illinois 0.389 Indiana 0.338

I think they may have cut bait awhile ago. If not...its past time.

I suspect it will be as follows: Mich-Ohio NU -Iowa MSU-PSU Rutgers-Maryland IU-Purdue Minn-Wis NW-Illini But you might be right about swapping PSU for Mayland or Rutgers

I know you guys were worried about competative balance. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that NU would be playing OSU, UofM and PSU as much as possible. Here is a quote from Delany. "In the first 18 years, you're going to see a lot of competition between teams at the top of either division," Delany said. "We call that a bit of parity-based scheduling, so you'll see Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa playing a lot of competition against Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. But it will rotate. Early on, we feel this gives the fans what they want." Not sure where the 18 year comment came from....but I thought it was odd that he threw that in. That and NW should now have a chip on their shoulder. MSU already does....that one never goes away.

That is why Johns Hopkins Univ has been mentioned. Univ. of Chicago is part of the CIC but hasnt particiapted in sports since the 1940s, I think it was an original member of trhe Western Conference/ Big 9/Big 10. Since the Big 10 is trying to get some LaCrosse programs going plus the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, JH would participate there and bring in research $$. Doubt this will ever happen either. I have feeling Delany is pretty dissappointed, and I would not be surprised if Maryland backed out. I suspect 2 more ACC schools were supposed to be on board and it wont happen now, at least for awhile. Has the SEC negotiated a new contract yet? I think the only thing that gets this going again will be Big Ten revenue numbers in 2017 and teh expiration of the Big12 GOR. That was only for 6 years right? And didnt include Long Horn netowrk $$. Hey ND Joe, I remember awhile back (after NU joined) that Swarbrick and Delany mentioned they had talked about hockey, but not ND joning the Big Ten. Was ND trying to join the Big Ten hockey conference?

I would say signing the GOR means they either declined or offer rumors were not true. Remember, when the Big12 put the GOR in place MIssouri didnt sign it and later left for the SEC. Seems like Virginia et. all could have done the same if they had an offer from the Big10 and wanted to go. I guess there is the uncertainty of the $52M exit fee, so not quite the same as the MIssou situation.

AAU+nonGOR=Florida Vanderbilt Missouri and Texas A&M. I don't see Florida or A&M moving to the Big Ten.I don't think the big 10 will take both Vanderbilt and Missouri for 15 and 16 unless they plan on going beyond 16. maybe one of them with a marquee option like Notre Dame or Texas.

As a life long Big Ten fan, I was exicted by the PSU and NU additions. Maryland and Rutgers not so much, but I figured there was a plan in that move to flush some bigger fish or at least one with a mid-tier partner. I really hate beign stuck at 14 with 7 per division. Dont play each other enough. Nine games fit very well with the 16 team pod system, but not with 14. Also you can forget about any non-AAU schools outside of FSU, ND and maybe OU. I probably shouldn't include OU as part of that group. FSU is there only because I have heard they are working toward applying for AAU membership. I think we are stuck for awhile Seems to me if any of the rumors were true about Virginia, GT and NC they just dissed the Big Ten. Or maybe the rumors were false, which is more likely the case.

Interesting article by the sporting news. ACC deal makes Big Ten expansion unlikely, Jim Delany says http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2013-04-23/big-ten-expansion-unlikely-jim-delany-acc-grant-of-rights

I love the 24 hour pivot from "The GOR locks schools down forever" to "all contracts are breakable." The same people reversed themselves based on a change in parties. For your buddy, if UT's Big house was on fire, they would certainly sign a contract with the fire department that would last until the house was rebuilt. It was not my buddy, it was quote from omaha.com. The author was Lee Barkfknecht. I guess it was his buddy. I thought it was funny. I doubt it was meant to be serious.

Read this comment with regard to how binding the GORs are.... As one buddy with a wicked sense of humor said, “Do you really think Texas would sign up for something it couldn’t get out of?”

Sounds like ND is number 15 (sort of), so they just need to pick up UConn and the ACC is done.

Cincinnati and BYU haven't signed a GOR yet Ha. I posted that before the GOR. Time will tell if the GOR means anything. Oh, and you forgot that ND and Missouri are stil out there as a last resort if it does. for better or for worse, we signed the GOR as well. In fact the ACC now is listing us as one of its members Really?! I had not heard that yet. How does that work with your new NBC contract?

I agree that 14 stinks. I would rather be 12 or 16.

Cincinnati and BYU haven't signed a GOR yet Ha. I posted that before the GOR. Time will tell if the GOR means anything. Oh, and you forgot that ND and Missouri are stil out there as a last resort if it does.

I suspect schedules will still be unbalanced a bit, since the B1G will want Big Red to play Mich, Ohio and PSU as much as possible for a couple years. We will be at 16 and the pod system by 2017, anyway.

This is against NCAA rules. For those conferences that follow the rules (read: every one but SEC) a CCG must match the winners of two divisions with at least 6 members each. Really. I didnt realize....So how does the pod system work out then? I must not understand the scheduling of a pod system, Below is what I used for one example in another post. I guess the problem with this is the CCG criteria? Or can you just rotate 'divisions' every year by matching different pods, and then still play everyone every two years? I guess I dont want to go to 18, and dilute the schedule. .............................. West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St. East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers. Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia repeat...

I read something about A&M trying to block Texas from the SEC (similar to Florida with FSU, SC with Clemson) and then the Big10 would be next in line. Doubt it, but anything is possible I guess. Even though Texas and ND are the big prizes out there, not sure I want Texas in the Big10 (disclosure, Michigan fan). Seems like they would be a pain. ND can always put their non-football teams in the New Big East. Still a good hoops conference and lots of Catholic schools. I think Virginia and GT are a given unless Maryland has to pay the 52M. FSU is possbile especially if they get AAU status. Something has me doubting NC will come aboard. Wouldn't it be nice if OU was an AAU school, to get that rivalry going again.

I mentioned that I disliked the idea of going to 18 teams when I posted the 16 team pod idea over on the 'New Divisions' topic. However I had an idea the other night I kind of liked. One which would allow a team to play every other Big Ten team every two years with 18 teams and a 10 game conference schedule. I am sure there might be issues with this, but wondered what you guys thought. My motivation is to play other Big ten teams more often, keep traditional rivalries, create marquee matchups every year and have some guaranteed regional games every year. The simple idea.....no divisions. Each team has 3 protected games on a schedule each year and plays 7 of the 14 remaining teams in year one. Then plays the other 7 of 14 unprotected teams in the second year. CCG participants are the best two teams given a certain criteria; conf record, overall record, head to head, etc. Example: Assume GT,NC,FSU (soon to be AAU) and Virginia join to make 18 teams (interesting that with these additions the Big Ten would be in contiguous states from Nebraska to Florida in a jerrymander sort of way). NUs protected teams: Iowa, Wisc. FSU (or keep PSU if you like). Iowa and Wisc make for good road trips and FSU is a marquee matchup every year. Year One Schedule: Iowa, Wisc,FSU,NW, Indy, MSU, Mich, Virginia, NC,Rutgers Year Two Schedule: Iowa, Wisc,FSU,Minn, Illini, Purdue, OSU, PSU, Maryland,GT (alternate home-away over 4 years and you hit every stadium in 4 years) Three protected games work well for keeping rivalries/tradition. For example, Michigan would always play OSU, MSU and Minn (Little Brown Jug). Wisconsin would have NU, Minn, and Iowa. PSU: OSU, Rutgers, Maryland(I guess they have a history). FSU: GT, NC, and NU. Maybe GT could play FSU, NC and Purdue (the Nerd Trophy), to try and integrate some of the new teams with older Big Ten teams. One flaw could be that selecting the two best teams might lead to some controversy, unless the selection criteria is well thought out and well known. But you'll notice I tried to balance out NUs SOS between the two years. That would have to happen for everyone. So, any thoughts?

Ocean, I would love 10 games and 2 good non-conference games, but I think the big boys (OSU,PSU,Mich and NU) are going to want 2 guaranteed home games out of the 3 non-conference games for revenue sake. I would be surprised if they went to 10 games. I see some potential cross-overs. Indiana-Purdue, Mich-Minn, and NU-PSU, but most of the rivalries are within the pods. Not sure how a rotation would work with 4 games every year against the same teams, and the 6 additional spread out over the remaining 11 teams. I do think a 10 game schedule works OK for 14 teams. 6 divisional, 1 crossover and 3 games to rotate across the remaining 6 teams. Unfortunately some crossovers feel a bit contrived, but maybe giving the western teams a chance to go out east every year would be desirable for recruiting? Indiana-Purdue Mich-Minn NU-PSU Illini-OSU MSU-NW Wis-Maryland Iowa-Rutgers I would rather have Wis-MSU play every year and send NW out east. BTW, I think the Commish is on to something...having Indiana, Rutgers and Maryland, plus a potentially injured PSU in the same division doesn't sound too strong. Michigan is not back yet, and I haven't bought into MSU remaining strong either. Not sure how I feel about Rutgers and Maryland joining anyway. Feels like the Big10 is playing chess against the ACC and SEC. If we dont go to 16 with 2 good additions, I will be disappointed and want to retreat back to 12 teams. 18 or 20 is too much dilution, unless its 4-6 great teams. Too bad OU isn't on the radar. It would be sweet to add them with ND.

Have been reading this thread and wanted to respond to concerns with the potential West division being like the Big 12 North. I am long time Big Ten fan, Michigan first, Penn State second. Love having Big Red aboard, and have enjoyed (and will miss) the short lived annual NU-Michigan game. I do not think the Big Ten will be at 14 teams for long, if at all. The Big Ten will go to 16 teams and adopt the 4x4 team pod format. I love this idea. You can play every Big Ten team in two years with a 9 game schedule. As an example, lets assume the Big Ten gets the team they really want, ND, and picks up Virginia. Very unlikely I know. Here are some example Pods. West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St. East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers. Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia repeat... What do you think? You can mix and match the pods to your liking.