BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Maybe they’re worried about cost issues going forward if schools are eventually allowed or forced to pay players directly.

 

It was, more or less, a win-win for both sides. The Big Ten got an area full of cable subscribers for its network, two reliable NCAA tournament teams and an easy football win for most of the conference's teams. Maryland, which had been financially mismanaged by the Yow administration, got its lifeboat and its football stadium filled by opposing fans who travel well.

But yeah, I can't help but think Maryland's *extremely* fickle fan base would have been much more excited being in a conference like the ACC as it stands now, with a team like Syracuse as a natural rival to go along with Virginia and Virginia Tech. Selling Iowa or Northwestern or Purdue as a rival just doesn't work.

 

In many/most metrics, FSU is an academic fit for the Big Ten — and it’s a state flagship (though not a land grant) with a large enrollment and R1 doctorate research university. But its lack of AAU membership probably makes it a no-go unless that standard is dropped.

 

If any of these institutions were the academic snobs they try to portray themselves as - I doubt their football teams would be as good as they are.

 

Nebraska wonders what the fuss is about.

 

The old bait-and-switch.

 

Yep. At this point FSU's best bet is to convince Miami and Clemson to go into business together and figure out some potential escape plans. The ACC, as it's currently designed, will have those schools so far behind in money t0 keep up that they might as well be a G5.

 

The B1G would be happy to take Notre Dame, and would make some minor concessions such as phasing them into a combined TV deal to make a deal work, but they passed the point of bending over for them a decade or more ago.

 

Didn’t they pretty much offer Notre Dame everything it wanted and Kevin White/the admin said no? Maybe not everything, but I think it was a good deal for ND.

 

No fan of the SEC but I just don't see what Texas and Oklahoma bring that the SEC doesn't already have. They all have plenty of money and exposure. And if I'm Vandy, MSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Missouri and South Carolina and probably even Auburn, why the hell would I want to add those guys and make a league we already have trouble winning in even tougher? No way does A&M vote to approve admission.

 

It’s the fear of falling behind the Big 10 if they go there instead. I don’t think the SEC would care as much if they went to the PAC, because they aren’t enough to make a weak league strong (or else they’d stay put) and Texas will just wreck that too.

 

Well, the best SEC team in the only sport that really counts already kicks ass on Texas and Oklahoma. That won't change if they jump to the Big Ten.

I suppose Texas would give the Big Ten a team in a state that is actually growing, instead of the Rust Belt/freezing cold/northern hillbilly states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, whose national importance is declining daily. Walton calls the Big Ten a truckstop league, and he's not far off.