West Division
Might Include Notre Dame, Gophers
Who are the five schools that may expand
the conference to 16 teams? In addition to Notre Dame, Nebraska and
Missouri might leave the Big 12 for the Big Ten where the TV revenues
will be richer. The Midwest seems like a better fit geographically for
Nebraska and Missouri than the Big 12 with its Texas roots.
The other two expansion teams may well be
Rutgers and either Syracuse or Pittsburgh. Rutgers has academic swagger
and a much improved football product, and most importantly commands
attention in nearby New York City with the area’s 19 to 20 million
people.
Syracuse, particularly its men’s basketball team, is a college favorite
in the state including New York City. Rutgers and the Orange could make
the Big Ten powerful in the New York-New Jersey TV market that is so
important to advertisers. Pittsburgh is an alternative, although the
state of Pennsylvania already is pretty much Big Ten football territory
because of Penn State.
Rutgers, Syracuse and Pitt, like Notre
Dame, are all members
of the Big East Conference. It seems likely that the Big 12 and Big
East must now consider major strategic planning in reaction to the Big
Ten.
As for Notre Dame and Minnesota, the two
schools could be aligned in the same division after expansion. A West
Division might look like this: Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Wisconsin. The East Division
could be: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Ohio
State, Rutgers and Syracuse/Pitt.
The expansion will set up a much
anticipated conference championship game in football between the winners
of the West and East Divisions. The event will potentially put the
conference even or ahead in popularity of any other similar games
including the SEC title game.
There might be another benefit in
football, too, and that is expansion of league games. Instead of eight
conference games per school each year the number might become nine or
10. League games result in increased attendance, more TV viewership.
Translation: increased interest, more money.
Expanding to 16 teams perhaps could stir talk of a Big Ten hockey league. With Notre Dame, the league
hockey schools would also include Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan Sate,
Ohio State and Wisconsin. A six team league may seem small, but the
National Hockey League once thrived with the same number of teams.
Whatever changes come out of Big Ten
expansion, this much is probable: the league and other parts of American
college athletics will look dramatically different. And don’t
count out a return of the Fighting Irish to the Gophers’ schedule.
