Your Daily J: 12/15

(Wisconsin AD Alvarez courtesy of jsonline.com)

Friday, Wisconsin Athletic Dirctor, Barry Alvarez, discussed with the athletic board at the University of Wisconsin the possibility of the Big Ten expanding and adding another school.  Now, this has been a relatively hot topic around the midwest for some time now. It comes and it goes and teams are rarely added to the conference.  Back in '89, the Big Ten had to start working on a fancy new logo revealing an 11 in the center as Penn State was thrown into the mix (and thus giving the conference one of the least fitting names in the country).  Since then, the discussion of adding more schools hasn't really caught fire, but most talks centered around Notre Dame (gee, I wonder what our opinions on that would be) and have fizzled out quickly as the Irish faithful point out that they have their own TV contract and "don't need the Big Ten." (that's right, they just play half our conference every year, but they don't "need" us - just like they didn't "need" the Big East in basketball a few years back).  But with renewed talks of expansion, there are two major things that have been racking our brains:  Who would be the expansion school?  And, since we couldn't possibly pull off the Big Ten name any longer, what would we call ourselves?  As always, these are just our thoughts.  Be sure to let us know how stupid we are and how much better your thoughts are.

Jonah:

I would like to start by addressing the latter of the two thoughts, because I think it is not an if, but a when with regards to the Big Ten expanding.  It's hard to think about the conference including anyone else, but let's be real, the conference is a business and any decent business is always looking for ways to make more money.  In the case of college sports, one easy way to make more money is to expand.  Expand the number of schools in your conference and instantly, you have expanded the number of people that truly care about your conference (i.e. you instantaneously get millions more people that want to tune in to the Big Ten Network or buy team gear or go to your games).  So, from a business standpoint, it is obvious the Big Ten will, at some point, add one, maybe more, teams to the conference.  But how could they possibly keep the name "The Big Ten?"  I mean, it's already a bad name with 11 teams, it would only be worse with 12 teams.  Now, the obvious name change is to "The Big Twelve."  See a problem?  I think maybe they move to something more of a location-themed title.  Maybe the Midwest Conference.  Of course, if we want to be accepted by all the other big boys, we'll have to have some sort of an acronym or at least a shorter version.  So maybe the Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC), but then how many fans would get us confused with the other MAC?  Maybe they could try to out do the Big 12.  Maybe we call ourselves the Giant 12 or the Super 12 (anyone sensing some sarcasm here?).  I think a couple other possibilities would include North Central Conference (NCC), Central Athletic Conference (CAC) and that good ol' MidWest Conference (MWC) - not to be confused with the Mountain West Conference (MWC).  Honestly, I don't think Mr. Alvarez has put enough thought into this.  As great as I think it would be to add another school, I just don't know how I would handle A) a twelve-team Big Ten B) sharing an acronym with a mid-major conference or C) a name change in general. 

(courtesy of eastlansingbars.com)

But enough with that.  We can figure out the details after we've got a suitor.  Back to the first question posed: Who would be the school added to the conference?  The most obvious answer, which has been thrown around for years, is Notre Dame.  The problem here is that most of Irish Nation perceive this as a one-sided deal.  They claim they get good enough TV ratings and bring in enough money that they have no need to join a conference and would do nothing but share their profits with other schools if they did join up.  From the Big Ten's perspective, they do get to bring in a big name and a team that does draw good TV audiences.  They get what used to be a football power and what is a solid basketball program.  Not to mention the fact that ND is right in the heart of Big Ten country.  However, I think there is some benefit to joining for Notre Dame.  They would basically keep a third of their current schedule (they have averaged four Big Ten opponents per year over the last five years) and pick up some extra cash when those teams make bowl games.  Now, I understand that Notre Dame is special and gets special privileges when it comes to bowl games, but let's be honest with ourselves here, everyone has seen the decline on the horizon and those huge payouts are not gauranteed anymore.

(courtesy of herohill.com)

I have heard some rumblings about a couple different Big Twelve teams that could join up (would we just switch names then?), but I think that would be a tough one to sell.  Mizzou, Nebraska, and Iowa State have all been thrown around on ESPN, but I'm hard pressed to really convince anyone (myself included) that there's a lot of benefit in switching from the Big 12 to the Big, well, 12.  Basically, the whole point of the expansion, other than making more $$$, is to create the possibility of a championship game at the end of the football season, much like the other big boys have.  This would mean splitting the Big 10 into two divisions (presumably an East and a West).  The obvious problem for me is drawing the line and the unbalance that could cause (although I think it looks pretty good for Hawkeye fans).  Basically, you get OSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Indiana and Purdue in the East and you get Wisconsin, Norhwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Team X from above in the West.  This seems to me like we'd end up with what is going on in the Big 12 where we have 1-2 teams in one division that battle it out for the conference title and whoever is least bad in the other division is a punching bag on national TV to help promote the other division winner as a National Title contender (although I would contend that Iowa could compete with PSU, OSU, MSU and Michigan going forward).  Moving a Big 12 North team to the, well, Big 12 West would put them in the same situation they are in now facing Oklahoma or Texas in a title game every year (granted, Nebraska put up a fight this year).  So I have to believe a Big 12 team is not an option.

(courtesy of collegefootballinsiders.com)

Moving down the list, I see two great prospects back to the east.  This might mess with the alignment of divisions a bit, but that may be good too.  I think Cincinnatti and Pitt both would make pretty good fits in the Big 10.  Cincy is obviously on the rise and would bring a nice spark to the conference in football.  They are in Big Ten country and would have an instant rivalry game with OSU.  Being from a "smaller" conference, they would benefit from the fan exposure.  Only problem is they may need to upgrade facilities to hold enough fans.  Pitt, on the other hand, has great facilities and would add a great deal of talent in both football and basketball.  Pitt is my favorite because of their national recognition for both major sports, as well as their location (again, instant rivalry game with PSU).  Throw in the fact they've scheduled a Big Ten team 3 of the past 5 seasons and I think we have got the beginnings of a good relationship.  I think they, by far, make the most sense and I think we would have a legitimate chance at nabbing them.  Now, what to do about that conference name?  Be sure to leave your thoughts!