Big Ten Expansion: Much Ado About Everything

Whatever Internet site surfers peruse concerning the Big East’s football future, very few positives can be found. Big Ten expansion is widely predicted as the demise of the Big East football conference.

Many have the Big Ten taking as many as four Big East teams to grow their conference to 16 football teams. Thus completely demolishing the potential for the Big East to continue as a viable BCS football conference.

Initially, many thought the goal of the Big Ten was to grow to 12 football teams to allow for a conference playoff game. In essence, the Big Ten was to copy the SEC and ACC formula for deciding their conference champion.

The SEC model has worked so well that an SEC member school has won the last four national titles in football.

Big Ten member schools have often complained that there is too long of a break between the final game of the season and the respective BCS bowl appearance, thus causing an unfair advantage to the conference teams that play in a conference championship game. A complaint that, upon further review, is sound.

The Big Ten needs to expand to give its member schools the opportunity to play in a conference championship game. Thus, better preparing the Big Ten conference champion for its automatic BCS game opponent.

Factoring in that the Big Ten has maintained its current member alignment since announcing Penn State as its newest member in December of 1989. Previously, the last member of the Big Ten to join was Michigan State in 1950. Looking back even further still, Ohio State was the most recent school to join the Big Ten after Michigan State, in 1912.

It’s worth mentioning that it took both Michigan State (1953) and Penn State (1993) three years to complete their entrance into the Big Ten conference.

Recently it is surmised that the Big Ten has issued invitations to both Missouri and Nebraska. A revelation that should make John Marinatto, the Big East commissioner, breathe a sigh of relief.

Additionally, the possibility of Notre Dame having already been invited would bring the number of potential Big Ten members to 14. Leaving only two more schools needed to reach the magical 16-member alignment.

Notre Dame simply can’t sit on the sidelines and maintain its independence. Should Notre Dame decide to remove itself from the Big Ten’s expansion plans, the remaining available options are decidedly less attractive financially.

Suddenly, the potential demise of the Big East is tabled. Should the Big Ten expand to a 16-member conference, only two teams would potentially come from the Big East. Easing significantly the job of replacing the departing schools and allowing the Big East to continue as a viable football conference.

There is more, should the alleged invitations to Missouri and Nebraska become fact, the expansion plans of the Big Ten begin to take on a different hue. Apparently, the Big Ten is aligning itself regionally, adding teams that represent potential regional rivalries instead of potential television markets.

With that in mind, Iowa State becomes more attractive as a potential member. Add to the mix the speculation that Colorado will join the Pac-10 and suddenly it is the Big 12 that is being destroyed.

To reach 16-member status, the Big Ten would still need to add one more team. Alas, the Big East would not go unscathed. Following the outlined regional theory Pittsburgh would become the final member in the Big Ten’s great expansion.

Needing only to replace one member school in football, the Big East should survive and maintain its current automatic BCS eligibility. The Big East, with John Marinatto as commissioner and Mike Tranghese and Paul Tagliabue as consultants, will be positioned to outline their football future from a far different perspective.

The loss of Notre Dame in all other Big East sports except football is negligible. Should the Big East simply add two additional teams Notre Dame’s departure will have been addressed.

With the future of the Big 12 destroyed, the SEC would be free to enter the equation and add both Texas and Texas A&M to their conference. Should the SEC choose to follow the Big Ten and move to a 16-member conference, the ACC would not go unburdened by defections.

Georgia Tech and one of the Florida teams could easily jump to the SEC. The natural regional rivalries would be a solid fit. Leaving the ACC in need of additional teams to maintain its conference championship game.

With the Big East standing at seven football members, and the ACC showing ten remaining members drawing the conclusion of a potential merger of the two conferences is a solid theory. The potential regional rivalries that could develop are significant.

Adding to the mix would be the potential the basketball side of the equation presents. Combining the ACC and the Big East would create an unparalleled basketball conference.

However it shakes out, one thing is for certain the coming three years will see significant changes in the alignment of conferences. Perhaps Shakespeare was wrong, in fact it is much ado about everything.