[NU Sports] Big Ten Expansion this week?

[Sportsbiz]

Mike,
I think you're right about the super conferences and I also think there will
probably be five or six when all is said and done.  However, we will still
have BCS automatic qualifiers and non-qualifiers since the money and power
are divided that way and I don't see the current six relinquishing that
without a fight.

There is another possibility which could lead to more equity among the
resulting super conferences, including the non automatic qualifiers.  Once
the realignment is complete and what used to be called Division I-A  has
completed all the movement, the remaining supers conferences could withdraw
from the NCAA and together form a new governing organization.  The only
downside to that move that I see would be the loss of basketball
championship money and the demise of the basketball tournament.  However, if
all current Division I-A schools  are included in the new organization there
may be enough Cinderella factor to overcome the loss of the George Masons
and Gonzagas and the money and control that could be gained may well be
worth it.  The schools would no longer be held hostage to the smaller
schools and could draw up their rules on everything from recruiting to team
size and media rights.

Although you're a great deal closer to UNL than I am, I can't but think that
it is farther along with the Big Ten than they would have us believe by
what's publicly known.  Otherwise there would not have been an ultimatum as
UNL would not have given the Big XII reason to question its desire to stay
in the conference.
Mark

Mark S. Ament
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On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 10:42 AM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

> A number of sources are suggesting that the Big Ten could offer Nebraska
> a seat at the table as early as this Friday.  (Last week's Big XII meetings
> may have set that as a deadline for Big XII schools to commit to the future
> of the conference for something like six years.)
>
> I still think Notre Dame is the big prize, but offering Nebraska an
> invitation might be what it takes for the Irish to commit as well, since
> Nebraska leaving the Big XII is likely to snowball as the other teams in
> the Big XII start looking for good homes.
>
> Some writers have gone so far as to blame Nebraska for this mess,
> forecasting
> the end of the Big XII and the Big East as well as the BCS itself.
>
> The six BCS conferences could realign themselves into four superconferences
> of 16 teams each.  However, that would only include 64 teams and the BCS
> schools (plus Notre Dame) current have 66 schools in football.
>
>
> ACC        12
> Big Ten    11
> Big East    8 (in football)
> Pac 10     10
> SEC        12
> Big XII    12
> Notre Dame  1
>           --
>           66
>
> (The Big East has a total of 17 schools in basketball, but only 8 of
> those play Division I football.)
>
> So, unless some conferences decide to go to something larger than 16
> schools in football, it looks like two schools could be left out of
> the four superconferences.
>
> My guess:  Baylor and Iowa State.  That will not make for happy campers
> in either Texas or Iowa, not to mention the states like Utah where having
> their major football teams be non-BCS members is already a political
> hot potato.
>
> So, another possibility is that the final mix has five or six
> superconferences, which means that the CUSA, MAC, Mountain West, Sunbelt
> and WAC conferences could get reshuffled as well.
> --
> Mike Nolan
>
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