Big 10 officials move forward with talks of expansion.

[suh_fan93]

Updated: April 18, 2010, 3:26 PM ET

 

Report: Expansion talks accelerate

By Adam Rittenberg

ESPN.com

 

 

The Big Ten expansion process will accelerate this week in Washington, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

 

Sources tell the Tribune top Big Ten officials will discuss expansion Sunday in Washington, the site of the Association of American Universities meetings.

 

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany confirmed in a text message to ESPN.com he will be attending the AAU meetings. The Tribune reported Northwestern president Morton Schapiro and University of Illinois interim chancellor Robert Easter also will be attending.

 

Delany had no other comment to ESPN.com, saying he's still "in a silent phase" regarding expansion.

 

Michigan State president Lou Anna K. Simon and Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman also are attending the AAU meetings, school spokespersons confirmed to ESPN.com on Sunday. Simon is the chair of the Big Ten's Council of Presidents/Chancellors, which decided in December to push forward with an expansion study.

 

According to a Dec. 15 statement on expansion issued by the Council of Presidents/Chancellors, if the league determines that formal discussions on expansion must begin with institutions from other leagues, Delany will inform Simon before contacting commissioners from the affected conferences.

 

The Big Ten said in December its expansion study was expected to take 12-18 months.

 

The BCS meetings take place next week in Phoenix, so the Big Ten could notify other leagues at that time. The Big Ten holds its meetings of coaches and athletics directions May 17-19 in Chicago, and the league's presidents and chancellors meet two weeks later in Chicago.

 

A Big Ten athletic director told ESPN.com on Thursday that the league's athletics directors hadn't had formal discussions about expansion with Delany or other top officials.

 

Adam Rittenberg covers Big Ten football for ESPN.com. He can be reached at espnritt@gmail.com.

[kansas husker]

Sounds like the formation of the little 12 is going to take place, its about time that they actually crowned a true champion.

[Judoka]

Sounds like the formation of the little 12 is going to take place, its about time that they actually crowned a true champion.

Depending on whom you listen, it could also be the Big 14 or 16.

[CornHOLIO]

AND NOW A WORD FROM THE ACC COMMISSIONER

by Spencer Hall on Apr 27, 2010 1:53 PM EDT 23 comments

 

Hey, Big Ten. John Swofford of the ACC here. As a fellow participant in the grand game of college athletics, I understand just how important the conference system is, and how difficult is to keep pace with the ever-changing financial and administrative demands of college sports in the 21st century. It's a struggle we can all identify with here in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

 

Recently it has come to light that you are considering expanding the Big Ten conference to 14 or perhaps even 16 teams. This is certainly exciting news for college sports fans everywhere, and especially to college football fans. As the head of a conference who recently went through an expansion like this, I'd like to offer you something.

 

That something? BOSTON COLLEGE AND WAKE FOREST.

 

 

 

Why dicker around with Syracuse and Pitt when you can secure the lucrative Boston market, home of the greatest sports fans in the greatest sports town of all? Why turn down the opportunity to pick up the Research Triangle*, one of America's fastest growing markets and a hotbed of collegiate sports fandom? Why miss picking up both for the low, low price of--brace yourself---FREE.

 

 

That's right: we'll just give them to you, two academically prestigious schools with fine sporting traditions in markets just poised for takeoff, Big Ten. For the low cost of two pennies minus two pennies, they are yours. We can fax the papers over today. It could happen that quickly. We're here to help.

 

Why, you ask, would we want to see them go when they mean so much to this conference? Unfortunately, the recession has taken a chunk out of our budget, and we have determined that in order to survive in this market we must cut two members to save on postage and um, er...stationery.

 

Yes. Stationery. Quite expensive these days.

 

Please consider our offer, which must remain confidential for the moment. Okay, feel free to hint at it, but then not to do anything for months on end in order to keep the media spotlight. You're going to do it anyway, after all, so I might as well grant you permission to do it and make us both happy from the start.

 

But seriously: we will toss these at you like puppies in a sack thrown from a moving car window into a river. Just say the word.

 

Yours,

 

John Swofford

 

ACC Commissioner

 

*Please don't check a map. We didn't.