[NU Sports] Missouri in the Big Ten?

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> markets) but can't figure
> out what Mizzou would get out of this.  Their

Mizzou would get a lot out of the deal in terms of
academic reputation with the Big Ten (same reason ND's
faculty voted to join the league). Plus, it's the
worst kept secret in conference land that the Big XII
north feels like second class schools in their own
conference. Mizzou would benefit academically,
athletically in most sports as well as in visibility.

> rivalry with Kansas is much
> stronger than with Illinois, so they'd have to find
> a way to preserve that
> going forward.  And this rivalry is much more
> steeped in basketball, a sport
> where a rivalary is even harder to sustain out of
> conference.

Really? I'd think it would be easier. In football, you
only have a limited number of NC games (see PSU and
Pitt dropping their rivalry), but in basketball you
could schedule a huge annual Mizzou-KU game virtually
any time every year.

> I have a better idea.  Put both Missouri and Notre
> Dumb in the Big Ten and 
> drop Penn State.  Believe me, few Penn State fans
> would cry about it.  They 

I'm not so sure. PSU sure fits in the Big Ten better
than OSU and their fans seem to like the arrangement
aside from that stupid school in Maize and Blue who
keeps beating them in football every year.

Joining the Big Ten has certainly been a boost to
PSU's academic and athletic departments and I think
they fit in pretty well. Sure some rivalries died, but
the Big East is such a wildly spread-out conference
and they would suffer from joining that league in
rivary and visibility.

How about the Big Ten just go hog-wild and nearly
double in size? You keep the Big Ten name with two
divisions of ten in the east and west. Everyone plays
everyone in their division and there's a huge title
game at the end of the year. :) Sure, we'd have to
pillage the Big East and Big XII, but who cares?!?!

East: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State,
Cincinnati, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Purdue,
Notre Dame, Syracuse

West: Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas
State

Just kidding, of course, although ...

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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