Mailbag question: Big Ten adding another team — Part 2

Posted at 12:00pm — 12/18/2009

Mailbag question: Big Ten adding another team — Part 2

School’s GBMW would like to see considered

1) Notre Dame:

Yes we know that Notre Dame came out and said they are not interested, but still this would be our first choice. We are going by who we believe is the best fit not who will it be.

This is our number one choice for several reasons. Geographically it makes the most sense and would not really increase the expenses of all the programs in the Big Ten because of where Notre Dame is located, that is, directly in the middle of the conference’s geography. Also, the academic standards at Notre Dame are at least on par with many of the Big Ten institutions, if not superior. The undergraduate experience and academic rigor at Notre Dame is of the highest quality. Admission to Notre Dame is very highly selective, on a par with Northwestern. Notre Dame possesses some very prestigious graduate schools, such as the School of Law. Being small, Notre Dame does not possess the depth of graduate and undergraduate programs that 50,000 student public universities enjoy. The media attention of adding Notre Dame to the Big Ten would be a huge factor and once again makes the Irish the obvious number one choice. From a PR standpoint this is an easy number one and by quite a distance.

Yes we know many people do not like Notre Dame and think the university is elitist, both regarding demeanor and maintaining conference independence. But many nationally hold the same perception of Michigan and Northwestern. This as a no-brain conference upgrade and provides the benefit of making the conference better and not just satisfying a need for adding a 12th team for convenience.

Hopefully Notre Dame will send some type of signal during this time period behind the scenes, and maybe with Coach Kelly aboard he might engage others to see the benefits of being a member of the Big Ten. The one thing the Big Ten cannot afford to happen is asking Notre Dame publicly again and being turned down. Officials need to work back channels, just like so many athletic directors do when talking to agents of coaches to determine who may be interested in coaching their football program.

2) Pittsburgh:

This is not the PR fit Notre Dame would bring but no other school would be as well. They would fit in almost every other way. Yes, some will say academically Pitt is not the greatest fit, but this is a misperception. Pitt is a solid academic institution with excellent graduate programs. Pitt should pass muster. The presidents would look at the entire package of what a school like Pittsburgh could bring on board.

Besides being a respectable academic school, Pitt possesses a fairly strong sports program. This would bring another school into the fold that is in a big recruiting area for so many teams in the Big Ten. Another team from Pennsylvania would provide a natural season ending rivalry between Pittsburgh and Penn State. Before Penn State joined the Big Ten, the Pitt/Penn State game was heating up to the level of past decades. A real question is this: to what extent would Penn State support Pitt becoming a Big Ten member?

Pittsburgh is another program that would not greatly increase expenses for most of the Big Ten schools.

3 Cincinnati:

Here is a university that now plays a very good brand of football and basketball and would love to compete with and beat Ohio State in the Big Ten. This school is looked upon in most of the state of Ohio as the forgotten school. In fact, Cincinnati has nearly 40,000 students and is the second largest university in Ohio. Most people look at Cincinnati as being slightly better than many MAC programs in the state, but they have been building better and larger facilities the last ten years. The exception here is a 30,000-seat football stadium. But remember, just five miles sway is a county owned stadium that seats nearly 70,000.

Again UC has some of the same qualifications as Pittsburgh (see above) such as a being a good fit geographically and also getting another in-state rival that could match up with Ohio State. Cincinnati high schools possess great high school football talent. So, again the hypothetical is posited: would Ohio State stand in the way of admission? Here is a university that has owned the state of Ohio since the cows first grazed near High Street over a century ago.

4) Missouri:

Like other candidates, Missouri does not bring to the table the media attention that Notre Dame would. Missouri is also not the best fit geographically for Big Ten programs. But this choice would be a nice fit, with solid athletic programs.

To us this would be adding a team to add a team, and would not make a huge splash, but would satisfy the need to get in the fold another decent program to fill out the Big Ten. Missouri is in the St. Louis area market. Being a city that is host to an NFL franchise, the opportunity would arise for the conference championship game to rotate among three NFL cities, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit. Three domes in three cities is a good battle plan.

5. Syracuse, Rutgers, Virginia, etc

You can lump many teams into this category and we have seen many names on several message boards. Bringing teams like Syracuse and Rutgers onboard would provide access to the much-coveted New York market, but that is about the only thing we see that would be a benefit.

Yes, the schools listed above are very good academic schools, Virginia being one of the nation’s finest. But for the Big Ten athletic programs it would increase travel expenses. That means long bus trips and extra time out of the classroom.

They also, in our opinion, would not garner as much media attention and total benefits of the top three programs already listed. The schools mentioned in choice five would expand geographically the Big Ten footprint and in some ways this is a good thing, but there are so many things that makes us wonder if membership by any of the schools mentioned in choice five would really be a good fit for the Big Ten Conference.

Realistically we only see three good schools that are very good fits for the Big Ten and oppose the idea of adding a team to just have twelve teams, allowing for a championship game.

Written by GBMW Staff

Go Blue — Wear Maize!