Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Conference Shakedowns

As I wrote about in mid-December (click HERE for that post), there's talk out there about the Big 10[11] expanding, and that speculation is being discussed here in Big 10 country. As I dropped off the kids this morning, two pundits on 670 The Score out of Chicago were talking about expansion possibilities.

Apparently, a Kansas City radio station reported (maybe yesterday) that the Big 10 offered membership to Notre Dame (they still can't let it go, can they?), Rutgers, Nebraska, and Mizzou.

To me at least, Nebraska and Mizzou make sense geographically, but the Big 12 has to angry as hell. Throwing in the Kansas schools would make some sense here if you consider geography. Rutgers makes little sense to me, especially since Pitt would be a better fit.

The guys on The Score also floated a rumor about SEC expansion by saying that "reportedly" the SEC is interested in adding Florida State, Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech to make the conference a sixteen-school league.

While I'm fine with the SEC as it is, those four schools are attractive because all of them would have natural rivals within the conference: Clemson and South Carolina; Georgia Tech and Georgia; and Florida State, Miami, and Florida.

Whatever may eventually happen, the people within the higher echelons of the Big 12 and ACC have to be some grumpy and paranoid folks right now.

2 comments:

travolta said...

Whatever may eventually happen, the people within the higher echelons of the Big 12 and ACC have to be some grumpy and paranoid folks right now.

I don't know about the ACC, but the Big 12 honchos have no one to blame but themselves. The revenue sharing is heavily tilted towards Texas and Oklahoma and the B12 North is clearly treated as the lesser half. Witness how Mizzou has gotten passed over by bowls the last 2 years.

The more I look into it the more I believe that the only reason Mizzou has for staying in the Big 12 is to keep the Kansas rivalry. And I'm sure that both football and basketball would have no trouble scheduling KU each year in a non-conference game.

Quintilian B. Nasty said...

I totally agree about Mizzou getting screwed in the bowls the past two years. I read a column in the Omaha paper a couple of days ago who had very good reasons why Nebraska should go to the Big 10, and those same reasons would work for Mizzou. Like you, the tipping point from my perspective is that the Big 12 doesn't equally share bowl revenue like the SEC does. In the SEC and I presume the Big 10, the bowl money all goes into one pot, and then the money gets divided equally. In the Big !2, certain schools have been getting more money for years (Texas & Oklahoma), which has to really antagonize the Big 8 schools.

You're right about the KU-Mizzou rivalry. Every season South Carolina plays Clemson, Georgia plays Georgia Tech, and Florida plays Florida State, so traditional rivalries don't have to be in the same conference although I'd like to see all three of those schools in the SEC.

If Nebraska, and Mizzou get invites, why not Iowa State and K State?

But Rutgers? Flippin' Rutgers?!? Does that school really have the NY market? C'mon.