Big Ten Commish Mum on Expansion and Notre Dame

Boca Raton—A tight-mouthed Jim Delany was asked about Big Ten expansion on Colin Cowherd's "The Herd" radio show this morning and offered little except to say, "In three to four months we'll have an idea what the next step will be, if any."

Delany has been the conference's chief exec since 1989 and was responsible for the bringing on board of then-independent Penn State to increase membership from 10 to 11 teams.

Cowherd tried to get the commissioner to talk about the rumored Big Ten expansion but Delany insisted "we haven't talked to any institution."

Cowherd brought up the name Rutgers and Delany once again explained that it's still too early to discuss the situation with any degree of certainty.

When the host bluntly asked Delany, "Is Notre Dame still on the table," Delany responded, "They're a proud member of the Big East."

Delany went on to say that in the late 90's, they wanted to be a member of the Big East and they still maintain a good relationship.

The closest thing to a definitive comment on Notre Dame was the disclosure, "I don't expect any movement there."

Delany went on to tell Cowherd that the Big Ten Network has been a success and is now available to 73 million homes.  Delany explained that it is "an opportunity to expand and control your brand."  He went on to say that ratings were good.

Delany touched on the high academic standards of the Big Ten members and was proud of the balance between sports and education.  He reminded Cowherd that the Big Ten wants to win by playing within the rules.

There has been a steady stream of smoke coming out of the Big Ten after it was documented a couple of months ago that they were going to explore the idea of expanding.

At first it was thought that they were interested in looking for a 12th member to insure they'd be eligible to stage a conference championship game.  Joe Paterno had made it clear that the conference wasn't helping their BCS bowl entrants by stopping regular season play weeks before other conferences ended theirs.

More recently it has been speculated that an expansion to 14, or even 16 teams, was a possibility.

The Big Ten has the largest television contract of any conference in the country.  It would be hard for any team to turn down an invitation. 

Expanding to 14 or 16 could cause problems within, if members felt it would not be beneficial to split the pot in too many shares.