College Football '10 - Conference switching chaos!!

[Drake Tungsten]

At this point, my favored Big Ten expansion plan (out of those that seem like they could actually happen) is seeing the Big Ten add Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Maryland and Rutgers. All five schools are flagship public universities and AAU members. All have more than $200 million in annual R&D expenditures. Taking Missouri, Maryland and Rutgers get the Big Ten Network onto cable systems in Missouri, Baltimore/DC and possibly NYC, while taking Nebraska and Kansas gets the Big Ten two marquee programs to increase viewership and ad rates for both Big Ten football and basketball. Overall, this combination seems like the best plausible fit for the Big Ten in terms of athletics, academics and culture.

[Drake Tungsten]

Big Ten expansion news is really picking up now...

At this point, you won't find anyone tied to expansion talks who believe the conference will not inflate to 14 or 16 teams.

This much we know, though: The league has yet to contact its expansion targets. A top administrator from a prominent Big East school confirmed that to the Tribune on Monday.

But that could change soon, after Delany meets with fellow conference commissioners in Scottsdale this week. At that time, Delany is expected to inform the commissioners of the affected leagues.

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/04/source-big-ten-has-yet-to-contact-expansion-candidates.html

[Drake Tungsten]

I've seen the combination of Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut (and sometimes Missouri) mentioned in two places now. I really hope that isn't what the Big Ten ends up doing, as that's a pretty sad lineup of teams...

[Guynemer]

I'm sure that's not Plan A, but if Nebraska, Kansas, Notre Dame don't want to play ball...

[Ming]

If those four teams are plan A... they shouldn't bother to expand, but wait until some real teams become available.

As Guy points out, Nebraska, Kansas, ND... now that would be exciting... Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut... "maybe" interesting for basketball, but football?????

[Drake Tungsten]

I'm sure that's not Plan A, but if Nebraska, Kansas, Notre Dame don't want to play ball...

I'm not seeing Kansas brought up nearly as much as Nebraska or Missouri, which worries me. I think Kansas is a better choice than Missouri (a top-five basketball school vs the worst athletic program in the Big 12? It's not even close.) and I would really feel bad if Nebraska gets to escape to the greener pastures of the Big Ten while Kansas gets left behind in a dying Big 12.

[Drake Tungsten]

Just as the Big Ten's timetable has changed considerably since December (when it laid out a 12-to-18 month process that now appears to be six), so has my initial skepticism. Back then, I said of expansion: "I'll believe it when I see it," but it's become clear over the past several months in talking with parties across college sports that the Big Ten is dead serious about adding multiple teams. Consider it one last shot across the bow from perennial power broker Delany.

Still, I just can't imagine the Big Ten solely adding a bunch of middle-of-the-road programs, no matter how many cable homes they'd provide. Making such a drastic move would require some grander payoff. Surely Delany has something up his sleeve, some crown jewel in his sights that will make expansion worthwhile. If it's not Notre Dame, then I'm going to stick with my original guess from December: Nebraska. The school has never truly gotten along with the Texas contingent since the SWC-Big 8 merger and would stand to possibly double its annual TV revenue by joining the Big Ten.

Were the Big Ten to package the nationally revered Huskers with Missouri and one of the New York-area teams, it might as well start printing money. But that's just one man's guess -- the first of probably many to follow between now and July 1.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/04/20/expansion-faqs/index.html#ixzz0lgHgbatJ

Throw in Kansas and another East Coast team and I think the Big Ten has a very profitable mix of 16 teams.

[MRT144]

If those four teams are plan A... they shouldn't bother to expand, but wait until some real teams become available.

As Guy points out, Nebraska, Kansas, ND... now that would be exciting... Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut... "maybe" interesting for basketball, but football?????

That'd actually be ideal in preserving the football status quo.

[Guynemer]

Missouri is the worst athletic program in the Big 12? Really? Worse than Iowa State?

Mizzou really is the most logical choice of all the Big 12 from a geographic and academic standpoint.

[Drake Tungsten]

Missouri is the worst athletic program in the Big 12? Really? Worse than Iowa State?

Yes. Iowa State is consistently better in both men's basketball and wrestling, and both schools are mediocre to bad at football, with rare periods of competitiveness. Some people seem to think Mizzou is a better football school because they happen to be better right now, but five years ago the situations were reversed.

Evidence...

Big 12 Conference titles by school

As of 27 Mar. 2010. List includes both regular-season and tournament titles.

North Division

* Nebraska - 67
* Colorado - 27
* Kansas - 22
* Iowa State - 11
* Kansas State - 7
* Missouri - 6

South Division

* Texas - 102
* Texas A&M - 40
* Oklahoma - 37
* Baylor - 34
* Oklahoma State - 33
* Texas Tech - 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_12_Conference

[MRT144]

Missouri is the worst athletic program in the Big 12? Really? Worse than Iowa State?

Yes. Iowa State is consistently better in both men's basketball and wrestling, and both schools are mediocre to bad at football, with rare periods of competitiveness. Some people seem to think Mizzou is a better football school because they happen to be better right now, but five years ago the situations were reversed.

Evidence...

Big 12 Conference titles by school

As of 27 Mar. 2010. List includes both regular-season and tournament titles.

North Division

* Nebraska - 67
* Colorado - 27
* Kansas - 22
* Iowa State - 11
* Kansas State - 7
* Missouri - 6

South Division

* Texas - 102
* Texas A&M - 40
* Oklahoma - 37
* Baylor - 34
* Oklahoma State - 33
* Texas Tech - 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_12_Conference

Exactly. Missouri almost always has had a terrible football team.

[Drake Tungsten]

More evidence...

Number of baseball titles by school

Texas: 9 (5 regular-season, 4 tournament)
Nebraska: 7 (3 regular-season, 4 tournament)
Missouri: 0
Iowa State: 0

Number of men's basketball titles by school

Kansas: 17 (10 regular-season, 7 tournament)
Iowa State: 3 (2 regular-season, 1 tournament)
Missouri: 1 (0 regular-season, 1 tournament)
Nebraska: 0

Number of football titles by school

Oklahoma: 6 (7 South Division)
Nebraska: 2 (8 North Division)
Missouri: 0 (2 North Division)
Iowa State: 0 (1 North Division)

Number of wrestling titles by school

Oklahoma State: 8
Iowa State: 3
Nebraska: 1
Missouri: 0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Big_12_Conference_champions

Listed are the #1 school in each category, plus Iowa State, Nebraska and Missouri. Click on the link for the full lists.

[Guynemer]

I stand educated. Thank you.

[Drake Tungsten]

I stand educated. Thank you.

Please spread the word. Far too many Big Ten fans seem to think Missouri is a strong athletic program and not the Purdue of the Big 12...

[Drake Tungsten]

Mizzou really is the most logical choice of all the Big 12 from a geographic and academic standpoint.

I missed this the first time, but I have to point out that Nebraska is academically superior to Missouri and Kansas is equivalent. You're right on geography, but Lincoln and Lawrence aren't much farther west than Columbia.

The NSF survey of university R&D expenditures for 2008 has been out for a couple of weeks, btw. Here are the rankings/numbers for the most talked about Big Ten expansion candidates...

17. Pittsburgh ~$596 million (~$478 million average from 2001-2008)

52. Nebraska ~$349 million (~$300 million average)

58. Rutgers ~$323 million (~$290 million average)

77. Missouri ~$245 million (~$210 million average)

80. UConn ~$226 million (~$203 million average)

82. Kansas ~$215 million (~$186 million average)

188. Syracuse ~$38 million (~$46 million average)

http://frankthetank.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/getting-krunk-on-expansion-news-or-lack-thereof/#comment-62040