It Is Time For The Big Ten To Expand

It is Thanksgiving Weekend and there are no Big Ten Games to Talk about. 

All are waiting to see what other conferences do and whether Penn State or Iowa will get a second BCS bowl bid.  The spotlight is on other regions and other teams and this is a huge problem for the Big Ten Conference. 

It is time for the Big Ten to expand, create a championship game, and recapture its position as one of the top three conferences in the nation.  There has been allot of talk since Notre Dame rejected a Big Ten conference offer a few years ago about Big Ten Expansion. 

The Big Ten faces some challenges that other conferences do not.  Three of their top markets,  Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are being decimated by the current economic slow down.  The fact is that the state of Michigan may never recover from this downturn and that means that Michigan and Michigan State are going to face funding cuts and alumni whose pocketbooks are depleated. 

Ohio State and Penn State have avoided these problems but they may in the future. The general pall over the conference makes it tough to recruit top players in places like Texas and Florida and the loss of the Midwest's top prospect, Mark Ingram to Alabama illustrates this.

Will the Big Ten continue to decline? 

The conference in Football is divided into three groups.  The elite,  Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State.  The solid, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State and sometimes Purdue,  and the upstarts,  Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota. 

This bodes well for the future but for the Big Ten to grow and prosper it needs more of a spotlight in the post season and the solution is expansion, divisions, and a championship game.  There has been allot of talk about who should be the 12th team.

First it was Notre Dame but really ND is not a good fit in a conference that already has a small private school, Northwestern. The SEC for example has Vanderbilt but the rest of the conference is made up of large state schools as is the Big Ten and that is where they ought to go to get a twelfth team. 

What expansion schools make sense for the Big Ten?

1) Rutgers: Having lived in the New York area for years in the past the one thing that is surprising are the number of Big Ten Alums in that region.  Mostly from Michigan, Wisconsin and Northwestern but from other schools as well.  Having a Big Ten School in New Jersey seems like a good way to reconnect with them.

Rutgers is academically similar to Big Ten schools and it opens up the huge New Jersey and New York markets to our games and would be a good fit.  Plus Rutgers could expand their stadium to accomodate all those Northeast fans who want to see their alma mater on the road.

2) Syracuse: While weak in Football recently they have a great history and in Basketball they are incredible. This would open up the New York area as well and they fit into the large school scenario.

3) Pittsburgh: While they are a fine school does Penn State want an in state rival? Maybe but we have that market.

4) Missouri: Allot has been written about Mizzou in the Big Ten the problem is that the Missouri market is more of the same for the conference and does not open up any new TV's for us.

5) Louisville: Another great roundball school, close to our markets and gets us into the upper south.

6) U Conn: A sleeper here. Gets us the other side of the New York market and a great BB school might be a good fit and would move us into New England and New York area.

The point is that there are at least 6 and maybe 7 if you include Notre Dame candidates for expansion and if this were to happen you could create the following divisions;

Big Ten North

Michigan

Michigan State

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Iowa

Northwestern

Big Ten South

Ohio State

Penn State

Illinois

Indiana

Purdue

Expansion School

With this expansion you set up a Big Ten Title game that rotates between the new Giant's Stadium in New York and Soldier Field in Chicago guaranteeing that each year in December the Big Ten is the focus of a major media market.  The result of this expansion would also be to open up the northeast to the Big Ten network and reconnect with millions of orphaned Big Ten Alums in the Northeast whose closest potential Big Ten Campus is Penn State which is 5 hours from New York and 8 hours from Boston. 

It appears a no brainer to me and it would end the SEC/Big 12 dominance of December and add new revenue to schools that are challenged in this economy.  It would also open up the North east as a major recruiting area and add media focus to the conference.