[NU Sports] Big Ten Expansion

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

First off, thanks for correcting the subject line - that had been bugging Medilldos everywhere.:)

> I generally like the list. It would take me a long time to
> accept Duke, but they do meet the academic profile. I would

SC would be the hard one for me to swallow.:)

But I like the idea of going big - which is why I kind of warmed to the Texas rumors and also why I think Maryland might be an intriguing fit.

Mizzou? Rutgers? Cincy? Pitt? Sorry - just don't see them as having that "wow" factor.

As for travel, I don't think it's as big of a deal if we're smart and do the "buddy" system like the Pac 10. Football is really the only sport with solo trips, right? And the money brought in by a football mega-league would easily take care of that.

But for basketball and all the other sports, we'd need to get the two-fer plan the Pac 10 uses -- pair up Texas with another school down south (Baylor?) ... pair Cal/Stanford ... pair Duke and UNC (another high-quality state institution) ... do that and we're fine.

Even with Penn State's addition, the Big Ten is not nearly as spread out as the other leagues, so we could add a little distance (maybe not Cal/Stanford distance - but they would be nice fits in the league!) if we do it the right way.

As for football travel and cannibalizing bowl games, as long as the trip is a "destination," it will still do well. Austin, the Bay Area, metro D.C., South Bend ... all great destinations for a pigskin weekend and more. Columbia? Cincinnati? Pittsburgh? Piscatatawney or whatever it is? Not so much (yes, NYC is near, I know, I just like mixing up Piscataway and Punxatawney :) ... plus, NYC is not a college sports town).

I was talking to my friend from Wisconsin the other day and we were talking expansion and he threw out an idea I hadn't heard before ...

Which league has the perfect scheduling format? NFL. You know who you play every year, you have a nice rotation where you're guaranteed to see "Team X" at least once every three years, it's easy and brilliant ...

So if the Big Ten is worried about division balance, why not expand to 16 and go with the NFL's format of four 4-team divisions? Example using the most common names:

Big Ten East (I'd rather see BC or Maryland than Rutgers)
- Penn State
- Pittsburgh
- Syracuse
- Rutgers

Big Ten North (The 'AL East' or 'NFC East' division ... loaded!)
- Michigan
- Michigan State
- Ohio State
- Notre Dame

Big Ten West (We fit more here with our real rivals)
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- Iowa
- Northwestern

Big Ten South (The basketball division?)
- Missouri
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Purdue

So you'd always have three games against your division ... four other games would rotate between the three divisions and the last two could be one team from each division based on placement the year before (or if there's an uproar about nine league games, cut that in half).

End before Thanksgiving as always, with semifinal games the weekend after Thanksgiving in St. Louis and Detroit ... then the league title game in Indianapolis the same weekend as the other league title games.

Works well for hoops as well with two games against the division, one against each other league foe for 18 games.

Just throwing it out there ... :)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
==========================