Expansion for the Sake of Expansion?
Ever since Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1990, not only has the conference title been a misnomer, but every few years the conference has explored expansion, to add a 12th school, bringing in new television markets, and extending the conference season with a championship game. Currently, the ACC, SEC, and Big XII all embody this tradition, with two 6-team conferences and a conference championship in the final week of the NCAA season. The Big East, with 8 teams, and the Pac-10, with it’s 10, each play a round-robin schedule. The Big Ten is the only conference with neither.
A number of schools have been mentioned as potential targets for Big Ten expansion, but as BlackHeartGoldPants notes, if the conference wants to use strictly geographic determinants for designing two divisions, a) a team would need to be added to the West, and b) the football powers would be highly concentrated in the East, with Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State all in that division, especially if the conference seeks to preserve the current rivalries, which it almost certainly would. This alignment allows Ohio State and Michigan, Michigan and Michigan State, Iowa and Minnesota, Purdue and Indiana, Northwestern and Illinois, and…Penn State and Michigan State (Land Grant Trophy FTW!) to play every year.
If the Big Ten would want to add a team to the east of the line, namely, Rutgers, Syracuse, or Pittsburgh, there are two possibilities. First, Purdue or Indiana could flip over to the other side of the line, or the line could simply be redrawn. The ACC has its divisions named the “Atlantic” and the “Coastal,” and geography has obviously played little in determining the make-up of those divisions. Indeed, if Notre Dame, for instance, wanted to join the Big Ten, (even though they clearly have no desire to, they’re still by far the best choice), I doubt geography would cause much of a stir. So with that in mind, I think it becomes clear which team is the best candidates to join the Big Ten.
First, we’ll dismiss a few commonly suggested options:
Syracuse? No. They’re a basketball school with strong traditional rivalries againt Georgetown and UConn, and though they have plenty of football history, they’ve been bad going on a decade now. Even though the Big Ten would probably offer a step up in recruiting, it’s not worth sabotaging the basketball program. They play in an outdated old stadium, in a small TV market, and while New York somewhat cares about Syracuse basketball, that’s only a) when St. John sucks and b) completely limited to basketball season. Trust me on this one, I’m from New York. New York City is not a big college sports town, it’s about baseball and the NFL above all else. Syracuse, in terms of football, would be a perennial bottom dweller, and adding the Orange would be the definition of expansion for the sake of expansion. Then, off the field, while the Communications school might be the best in the country, the rest of the academics are merely average (for the Big Ten, that is), it’s a private school, and I’m not sure who wants to go to upstate New York in the middle of the winter.
Cincinnati? Hell no. First and foremost, it’s more 
or less a commuter school. Academically, they can’t compete with the Big Ten, and while U.S. News & World Report ranked all 11 Big Ten schools in the top 71, Cincinnati was a Tier 3 institution. It’s pretty much a step up from community college. Next, even though the Bearcats have put together two good seasons in a row, winning the Big East in 2008 and 2009, it’s hard to argue that they could compete with the Big Ten schools year-in and year-out, having just joined the Big East from Conference USA a few short years ago. It was only in 1991 that Penn State stomped the Bearcats, 81-0, and I know 18 years is a long time, but I just love referencing that score. Brian Kelly jumped at the chance to go to Notre Dame, and it’s not like that was a hard decision to make. Even after their success the last two years, Cincinnati has just the 53rd ranked recruiting class, as rated by Rivals, and that’s after bringing in the #60 class. They’re already within the footprint of the Big Ten, and Ohio State has the territory marked. Lastly, they play in the smallest and oldest football facility in the Big East. Basketball is better, but pretty much everything else stands out as a glaring no.
Rutgers? Probably the best choice that we’re dismissing, but no. While Rutgers is good academically, and is committed to building athletics, they’re not a good fit for the Big Ten. While the Scarlet Knights football program has had a little bit of sustained success lately under Greg Schiano, recruiting better and reaching bowl games in four of the the past five years, to argue that they have any tradition whatsoever (other than playing in the first ever college football game) is a losing proposition. They’d only ever played in one other bowl game before this streak, and have one season in their 140-year history with more than 8 wins, though, get this, they claim a shared championship 1869 with Princeton, due to the fact that both were 1-1. Of course, they were also the only two teams to play football, but who cares about stuff like that? And even though the football wouldn’t be completely out of place in the Big Ten (and they’d love some new bowl tie-ins, having played in such prestigious games as the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the International Bowl, and coming up, the St. Petersburg Bowl), the other sports are sorely lacking, aside from women’s basketball. Rutgers basketball is the perennial bottom feeder of the Big East, and they finished 92nd in last year’s Director’s Cup. And as we mentioned earlier, though they’d come closer to bringing New York into the Big Ten’s footprint, nobody in New York really cares about Rutgers football. If they were a better football program, perhaps New York City would care, and maybe in a few years they’ll be there. Right now, though, it just doesn’t make sense.
Pittsburgh? Also a decent choice, and under different circumstances, the Panthers would be a solid choice for Big Ten expansion. The football program has plenty of success, historically speaking, and despite struggling over most of the past decade or so, they’ve catapulted themselves back near the top of the Big East. Academically, they’re another good school, just a tick worse than Penn State in that category, and if they were to join the Big Ten, it would immediately revitalize a good old-fashioned bad-blood rivalry with the Lions. While Pitt basketball has been their best sport in recent years, the tradition of Panthers basketball is that of a good-but-not-great program, having never reached a Final Four since 1941. While they have a heated rivalry with West Virginia, that’s really limited to the gridiron as opposed to carrying over to the hardwood. All that said, Pitt is a better choice on paper than when you consider the realities. They play in a rented stadium that they rarely sell out, receive extremely little fan support from outside Pittsburgh, and ranked just 93rd in last year’s Director’s Cup standings. Pittsbugh, already in the footprint, isn’t a big enough media market to make this worth it for the Big Ten, and Joe Paterno might stand in the way of Pittsbugh joining the conference, but if the Big Ten has it’s hearts set on expansion, and our top choice (as listed below) spurns the conference, we could do a lot worse than Pitt.
So we’ve been over the pretenders, let’s see NittanyWhiteOut’s endorsed selection for Big Ten expansion:
Missouri? A really, really, really good choice. First, while the academics aren’t great, Missouri is a member of the AAU, and has similar scholastic achievements as Michigan State and Iowa. Next, they clearly would expand the Big Ten’s footprint, attracting St. Louis, and to a lesser extent, Kansas City. They would bring a built-in rivalry with Illinois, which, though it is scheduled to go on hiatus, has been played on-and-off since 1896. In basketball, they’ve played Illinois every year in the past 30, and Missouri is one of those good-but-not great basketball schools, perhaps the best to never reach a Final Four. From a football standpoint, they’re an improving program that won 12 games in 2007 and 10 in 2008, and though they don’t boast that much history, they would fit in well among the other teams in the proposed Big Ten West. Furthermore, Missouri is another one of those schools which boasts success in all sports, ranking 36th in last year’s Director’s Cup standings. However, Missouri recruits Texas very heavily, and I’m not sure they’d want to give that up in order to join the Big Ten. All things considered, though, if Missouri wants in, I think they’re in.
Releated Posts:
- We’re Talking Expansion: With Frank the Tank
- Talking Expansion With Frank the Tank, Pt. 2
- Joe Paterno on Succession, Big Ten Expansion, and More
- Big Ten Statement on Expansion
- Now, an Accelerated Timetable for the Big Ten
On a side note, the first Penn State football game I ever attended was that referenced 81-0 score. My dad said to me “Don't get used to this.”
Cincinnati won't even show up on the short list of possible candidates. One or two years of success will not be enough to even merit consideration into the oldest conference in the country. There's an interesting article out there that correctly points out the need for this new expansion partner to bring in more than its share of revenue because the conference will then be splitting bowl and television revenue 12 ways instead of 11. None of the candidates mentioned above comes close to being able to carry their own monetary weight. Pitt can't even sell out Heinz Field when they are having success. Expansion isn't happening.
On a side note, the first Penn State football game I ever attended was that referenced 81-0 score. My dad said to me “Don't get used to this.”
Cincinnati won't even show up on the short list of possible candidates. One or two years of success will not be enough to even merit consideration into the oldest conference in the country. There's an interesting article out there that correctly points out the need for this new expansion partner to bring in more than its share of revenue because the conference will then be splitting bowl and television revenue 12 ways instead of 11. None of the candidates mentioned above comes close to being able to carry their own monetary weight. Pitt can't even sell out Heinz Field when they are having success. Expansion isn't happening.
We'd never expand on a strictly east-west line. There would be WAY too much power in the East, if we assume as we must that Michigan will eventually decide to hire a real football coach and will again become a powerhouse.
And anyone who even wants to talk about Cincinnati as a viable Big Ten candidate loses so much credibility that they can't be taken seriously. It's like that congressman who talked about the “Chicago Black Hawk” baseball scandal. Who can ever care what that man ever again says, since he's proven to be a fool?
Any writer venturing to discuss this topic should first read all of Frank The Tank's stuff, to at least educate himself about the issues.