Is one of distance. You mention PSU, but if we consider the rough midpoint of the Big 10 to be Chicago… PSU is the farthest away at 581 miles. After that is Minny at 410 and OSU at 350. All other schools are somewhere in the 100-300 range, with Northwestern being like 10 miles away.

Of the schools you’ve proposed, Boise State is 1,695 miles away, Utah is 1,399 miles away, Air Force is 1,074, and TCU is 992. So, the only school on that list that would be remotely close is TCU and they are nearly double the distance from us as PSU is.

Besides Notre Dame, I think an argument could be made for Temple (758)… though they aren’t usually very good, or Memphis (531). The only problem with Memphis is that they aren’t very good at football and would crush us in basketball….

Central Michigan has quietly built a solid program. Brian Kelly (now coaching Cincinnati) took the program from nowhere to the top of the MAC. They won conference titles in 06 and 07, and are looking good to take the title this year as well. That could come down to a MAC championship game in Detroit against…

Temple, who is all of a sudden a decent football team. They’re destroying the MAC East this year, and they beat Navy a week before Navy beat a certain team that plays in South Bend. I think that addition could make sense. It’s crazy that I’m saying that about a team that just turned D1-A a few years ago. (I still can’t bring myself to use the FBS/FCS acronyms.)

I think that while the quality of these teams is certainly nowhere near Boise State/TCU/Utah, they would make much more sense from a geographic and travel standpoint.

Then again, as a Badger fan, I don’t know if I could support admitting CMU to the Big 10. That’s just way too much maroon and gold for me.

But none of these schools is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. Every school on the current Big Ten roster is.

I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

Then how do we split the conference up?

Do we do a north south, east west, or just a draft. Oh the debate that would ensue.

I like 11 teams. Just wish we played all 10 others in football, with 2 cupcakes early in the year. But money would never allow this either. Sad.

I think an eastern tean with acess to the new york media market would be a huge plus. Helps with recruiting and revenue.

This is whom we discussed adding…

This is what a 12 team B10 would look like…

I posted this over at WWAHT and my now defunct blog The Purple Buckeye. It’s long, it’s got several options on teams, most of which are in the AAU, and it was developed with a buddy of mine…a Michigan fan, so it’s bi-partisan!! And it only costs $850 billion over 10 years…wait, wrong plan. Anyways, enjoy:

So, who should the Big 10 add? I think the most natural answer, both from a geographic standpoint and rivalry standpoint, is Notre Dame. Adding Notre Dame makes perfect sense. They add to an already rich history, the addition is mutually beneficial for both the school and the conference, and they have natural rivalrieas already set up with Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. And when setting up the divisions, let’s be more creative than North/South or East/West. I think the conference should be split geographically along an East West orientation, but let’s call the divisions the Great Lakes and the Great Plains Division, because it’s cool.

So, breaking down the divisions would look something like this:

Great Plains (West):
Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois
Notre Dame

Great Lakes (East):
Michigan
Micigan State
Purdue
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State

In the Great Plains, you keep natural/trophy/historic rivals MN-IA, MN-WI, IA-WI and NU-IL. In the Great Lakes, you keep natural/historic/trophy games with UM-MSU, IN-MSU, MSU-PSU, The Game, and PU-IN. Notre Dame still keeps their MSU and UM rivalry games because they can still play them every year, and then rotate between the remaining four teams in the division. The only real rival/trophy games that stands out as one that is in yearly jeopardy is the UM-MN game for the Little Brown Jug, but you can easily schedule a UM-MN game on a yearly basis. And really, when one team wins the trophy once every 20-25 years, how much of a rivalry is it? The OSU-IL game for the Illibuck isn’t a yearly game anymore, either, and there’s no real rivalry there, as much as Illinois might think so.

I think Notre Dame is the obvious answer, but they do align with the Big East in other major sports like basketball, so I could see them going to the Big East if they abandon their independent status. If not Notre Dame, I think there are a few possibilities that would be intriguing, and somewhat out of the box. Keeping in mind that a new entry into the Big 10 must be a school that borders a current Big 10 state (Big 10 rule), the pick would come from the Big East or Big XII North. I think Pitt, Cincinnati, or West Virginia would be prime candidates to join. Pitt has an up and coming team, and could renew an historic rivalry with Penn State. Cincinnati football has been revived under Brian Kelly, and they would play a perfect New Jersey Generals to Ohio State’s Harlem Globetrotters on a yearly basis. West Virginia fans are still bitter about Rich Rodriguez going to Michigan, so if RichRod can be successful in Ann Arbor, that makes for great theater, and a great rivalry. So let’s replace Nore Dame with one of these three teams. Division breakdown looks something like this:

Great Lakes (East):
Penn State
Pitt or Cincy or WVU
OSU
UM
MSU
Indiana

Great Plains (West):
Purdue
NU
IL
WI
MN
IA

Again, most rivalry/trophy games of meaning are left intact, with the main exception of the Old Oaken Bucket game. But again, on a case by case basis, you can schedule natural rivals in different division every year, and rotate the remaining teams through the schedule. But with Pitt in, you would revive a great Pitt-PSU rivalry, and there would be a natural geographical rivalry with OSU. And with kids growing up in Northern Ohio hating the Steelers, it might help recruiting…who knows? Cincinnati has a natural rivalry with OSU, West Virginia with OSU, Michigan, and Penn State.

Let’s look west. The Big XII has taken a decidedly southern flavor in recent years, and that’s okay…for some. For the old Big 8 crowd, it isn’t sitting well. Big XII headquarters was moved from Kansas City to Dallas, and the conference championship game is going there as well, thanks to Jerry Jones and his billion dollar playground. From the Big XII, I see two possibilities, Missouri and Nebraska. Mizzou is a longshot, though, because they have a rivalry in Kansas that is every bit as bitter as OSU-UM. Even though they have a budding rivalry with Illinois, I don’t see them giving up over 100 years of the Border War for the Arch rivalry.

So that leaves…wait for it…Nebraska. Yeah, Nebraska. Another powerhouse program on the way to redemption, with only a faded rivalry with Oklahoma keeping them where they are now. And the ruination of the grat Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry was the prime reason that I feel you need to keep OSU-UM in the same division. They only play every few years now, and at one time it was one of the top three rivalries in the country. So if you can add Nebraska, it would look something like this:

Great Plains (West):
Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois
Nebraska

Great Lakes (East):
Michigan
Micigan State
Purdue
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State

The only drawback is that there aren’t any rivalries that jump out for Nebraska in the Big 10, but Iowa and Wisconsin, the two strongest programs in that division, would quickly become top rivals with the Cornhuskers.

Now, for the conference championship game. It could be rotated throughout the Midwest, and there are some great facilities that can host it. Lucas Oil Field in Indianapolis, Soldier Field, Ford Field in Dertoit, even the new Vikings stadium, if they ever build the damn thing. But how about, at least in the inagural championship game, you go to Lambeau Field?

You have the Mecca of football (and God I hate to say that as a Vikes fan) hosting one of the most historic games in college fottbal history. It would make great theater.