Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska

N

Nexus

All-American
Via Tom Dienhart's twitter.

Latest Big Ten expansion buzz has the league focusing on Notre Dame, Texas, Nebraska.
Big Ten, Texas, ND are discussing a special rule to accommodate both schools. Instead of playing 8 league games, both would play 7.

And it sounds like the Big East may be pushing ND to discussions with the Big Ten. Play football in the Big East--or get out.

If ND joins the Big Ten, there is talk the league wouldn't take any other Big East schools.

If Texas and ND joined the Big Ten, the thought is they would request to play each other every year.

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From a prestige standpoint, this makes a lot of sense. Geographically it doesn't, but $$ talks. Delany's thinking BIG and wants to round out his conference to include the Top 6 winningest football programs in the land. ND and NU are national brands while UT brings a whole state with it in terms of TV markets.

 
I doubt it. It's far more likely they expand to 16 teams, meaning Nebraska, Notre Dame, Texas, Missouri and one of Rutgers/Syracuse.

 
For some reason I can't help but think the following quote is in reference to Texas. Especially after Dienhart posted his latest speculation this morning.

It's a stickier wicket, suddenly. And none of the athletic directors, football coaches or men's basketball coaches passing through the lobby were willing to name names or drop hints. All except Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, who, when asked about the Sun Belt demographic being most important, said, "You're on track with the thought process."
Does that mean that the Big Ten is now looking south?

"I'm trying to give you a hint," Smith said.

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Nexus said:
For some reason I can't help but think the following quote is in reference to Texas. Especially after Dienhart posted his latest speculation this morning.

It's a stickier wicket, suddenly. And none of the athletic directors, football coaches or men's basketball coaches passing through the lobby were willing to name names or drop hints. All except Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, who, when asked about the Sun Belt demographic being most important, said, "You're on track with the thought process."
Does that mean that the Big Ten is now looking south?

"I'm trying to give you a hint," Smith said.

LINK
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
That quote has been haunting me. It seems to indicate much bigger fish are being fried than previously thought.

 
Nexus said:
For some reason I can't help but think the following quote is in reference to Texas. Especially after Dienhart posted his latest speculation this morning.

It's a stickier wicket, suddenly. And none of the athletic directors, football coaches or men's basketball coaches passing through the lobby were willing to name names or drop hints. All except Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, who, when asked about the Sun Belt demographic being most important, said, "You're on track with the thought process."
Does that mean that the Big Ten is now looking south?

"I'm trying to give you a hint," Smith said.

LINK
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Texas and Texas A&M come to mind, both are AAU members. Interesting.

 
And the smoke continues to billow.

The Big Ten office
On a message board called the Wildcat Report on May 8, 2010, a poster put a message up. He claimed to have been with someone from the Big Ten office who gave him information on the expansion efforts.

Not a big deal, people go on message boards all the time and say things. What made this a big deal was the reaction of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. According to my source that works at the Big Ten who spoke to Spartan Nation on the condition of anonymity because of Delany’s comments in this meeting, “The Commissioner was livid. He called a staff meeting for the office and that isn’t normal at all. In fact, it is a rare thing. He likes to meet in small groups if he meets at all. He cited this post and said if he found out who it was he would fire the person for talking or anyone else for speaking. All of us walked out and wanted to read the post because as angry as he was it had to hit home. One of my coworkers even said to me 15 seconds after we left the room, I can’t wait to read it.” The source went on to add, “There has been so much S***(fecal matter) thrown around about expansion and he didn’t really get to fired up until this. This one hit home. Clearly, Notre Dame and Texas are in play.” I have hence heard about the Delany meeting from three other sources with knowledge of it, and all of their accounts match the above.

Here is the thread that set the commissioner off.

I just had a few beers tonight with a friend who works for the Big Ten here in Chicago. According to him, the Big Ten has focused their efforts on and is getting hot with three schools: Notre Dame, Texas, and Nebraska.

 

A few things stood out about what he told me. First, contrary to my understanding of the benefits of expansion, the Big Ten is NOT pursuing a playoff system in football. Instead of a playoff, the football teams would all be required to add an additional one or two out of conference game, which would push the regular season back one week or two. The Big Ten wants to maintain the end of season rivalry games at the end of the football season as opposed to adding a playoff.

 

Second, the Big Ten, Texas and Notre Dame are discussing a special rule to accommodate both of those schools. Instead of playing 8 games, both Texas and ND would play 7 to enable each school to play 6 out of conference games. That's apparently the caveat that brought both to the table, and Texas and ND also want to play each other every year. The tradeoff is that an 8-0 Big Ten team would always trump a 7-0 ND/Texas as conference champion, which is a potential logistical sticking point for the Big Ten and these teams. But apparently ND and Texas value the extra OOC game more than the conference championship potential, and ND and Texas want to play each other every year making the tie between two 7-0 teams impossible. They're also looking at potentially giving a automatic BCS slot for a 7-0 ND/Texas Big Ten team that loses the conference championship to an 8-0 team as a carrot, where the 8-0 team could still get the at-large but isn't guaranteed.

 

Finally, the Big East is essentially pushing ND to discussions with the Big Ten. The Big East has presented an ultimatum to ND to play football or get out of the conference for the other sports in order to protect the integrity of the remainder of the conference. Apparently discussions have taken place between the Big Ten and the Big East, and the current understanding is that the Big Ten will not accept any other Big East schools if ND joins the Big Ten. ND also will retain a national schedule, particularly with Texas joining, where it would have the ability to schedule 6 OOC games plus one game with Texas. This means they're picking up only three additional games with Big Ten schools while playing in the conference.

 

Very cool to hear the details from the inside tonight.

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If both Texas and Notre Dame are barking out request and demands then I don't want to go to the Big 10 at all but I'm not Nebraska so I can't make that call.

 
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Wow! Still mad about the deal they are making to get Texas but here is my question. Let's say they add Texas. ND, and Nebraska. Does the expansion stop at 14? They could add Mizzou but who else since they wouldn't take anymore Big East schools?

 
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