The Fighting Irish football team hasn’t played the Gophers in Minneapolis since 1937 but that could change within several years.  Athletic departments and media throughout the country are speculating about what the Big Ten Conference membership will look like in the near future.

Conference commissioner Jim Delany and others in the Big Ten are considering  expanding the 11 team league.  Nothing is expected to be announced for awhile but Sports Headliners believes Delany wants an expansion that establishes his conference as by far the most watched and wealthy in the country.

That goal is best achieved with an expansion that increases membership not by two or three schools but with five.  Key to expansion and a five team addition is inclusion of storied Notre Dame, still a football independent but a member of the Big East Conference in other sports.

Delany is likely to use all his intelligence and charm to bring Notre Dame into the Big Ten family.  He’s probably willing to wait awhile longer on completing the expansion project if it means delivering the grand prize, the Fighting Irish football program along with the school’s other sports teams.  Notre Dame brings a national following including its “subway alumni” in New York.

It’s a good guess, though, that Delany won’t wait more than three years for the Irish who have a deep and historic commitment as an independent that schedules a cross section of the nation’s better football teams.  It will be Delany’s task to convince Notre Dame leaders that the Fighting Irish is better off in the Big Ten for reasons that include TV revenues.

A 16 team Big Ten will presumably command record TV revenues for a college conference.  The league’s huge TV audiences, expected to include New York, Chicago and numerous other top 50 TV markets, could generate so much revenue that Notre Dame might well receive more as a member of the Big Ten than with its own TV football deal.

A Big Ten expansion is a big boost to the Big Ten Network, ABC/ESPN and CBS, the TV entities the league relies on for television exposure and revenues.  More eyeballs watching conference games, particularly football and men’s basketball, means increased cable fees for the Big Ten Network, and more advertising revenues in the future for the Big Ten Network and other TV partners.

The Gophers and other members of the Big Ten receive about $22 million each per year from TV revenues and conference monies from sources such as bowl games, according to Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi.  Without that $22 million (much of it TV money), the Gophers wouldn’t be able to maintain a total of 25 men’s and women’s sports, nearly all of them financial losers.

Maturi and others who head up athletic departments in the league will want assurances that conference expansion will increase their share of the revenue pie, not lessen it.  There doesn’t seem much doubt, though, that Delany, who was visionary enough to help develop the already powerful Big Ten Network, will have the dollars figured out, along with the other details needed to accomplish a successful expansion.

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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.

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Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi will be with basketball coach Tubby Smith tomorrow when the Jimmy Williams trial begins in front of Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu.  Maturi said he’s set aside the remainder of this week and all of next for the jury trial involving Williams’ contention that he was offered an assistant coaching job with the Gophers in 2007.

USA Today Sports Weekly lists the top prospects for the 2011 NFL draft in its May 5-11 issue.  Wisconsin offensive tackle Gabe Carimi is No. 3 and Iowa linebacker Adrian Clayborn No. 4.  Other Big Ten players in the top 32 are Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones (No. 13), Penn State running back Evan Royster (No. 16) and Penn State center Stefen Wisniewski (No. 29).

ESPN.com’s simulated series between all-time Yankees and Red Sox teams resulted in New York winning in six games.  The players include several with local ties such as Red Sox legend Ted Williams who played minor league baseball in Minneapolis.  Also on the Red Sox roster are former Minneapolis minor leaguers Carl Yastrzemksi and Dick Radatz.  Former Twins David Ortiz and Luis Tiant are also on the Red Sox all-time team.  Former Twin Graig Nettles is on the Yankees roster as is Hibbing, Minnesota born Roger Maris. https://espn.go.com/new-york/rivalry/_/id/5167822/

Twins relief pitchers have a 2.16 ERA during the last eight home games.

Two months ago Roy Smalley had “no inkling” he would be in the restaurant business but “Smalley’s 87 Club” in Butler Square is drawing large crowds and media attention since opening earlier this year.  Smalley is a partner in the restaurant after being approached about using his name and fame as a member of the 1987 World Series champion Twins.  Located in the former Champp’s space, the restaurant is more than a sports bar, according to Smalley, who said the menu has gluten free items and includes fish and salads.  “The variety and quality has exceeded my expectations,” Smalley said.

KFAN’s Paul Allen, hoping to bring the Wolves good luck, will accompany club executive David Kahn to Secaucus, New Jersey for the May 18 NBA draft lottery.  The radio station talk host impressed Kahn by predicting Super Saver would win the Kentucky Derby.  At the time, Allen told Kahn that if his prediction came true he would like to bring the Wolves good fortune by attending the lottery to determine the draft order of NBA teams that didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

Star Tribune and Canterbury Park handicapper Kevin Gorg said on KFAN yesterday that Super Saver may win the Triple Crown this spring.  The Preakness Stakes is Saturday, with the Belmont Stakes on June 5.  Canterbury Park opens its live racing season on Friday night.

Gophers baseball coach John Anderson is the speaker at tomorrow’s CORES luncheon in Bloomington.  CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, retired reporters, educators and sports fans.  Board members include former Henry High football coach Jim Dotseth and Gophers public address announcer Dick Jonckowski.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has three schools, Minnesota State, Winona State and St. Cloud State, among the 48 selected for the NCAA Division II baseball tournament. The NSIC schools are three of the six teams in the Central Region tournament that begins tomorrow in Farmington, New Mexico.  Minnesota State, the NSIC regular season and tournament champions, is the second seed, while Winona State is fourth and St. Cloud State sixth in the double elimination tournament.

Marta Radcliffe, a senior pitcher for St. Thomas from Lakeville, Minn., allowed one run, five hits and three walks while producing 23 strikeouts in 18 innings last weekend during the MIAC Softball Playoffs.  The Tommies won the tournament and Radcliffe was named tournament MVP.

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