Michigan Football: Another team shows interest in the Big Ten

Things are moving rapidly when it comes to conference realignment and here’s the latest surrounding the Big Ten. 

Michigan football fans should be used to realignment. It’s happened a couple of times over the past few decades and had a big impact on the Wolverines.

Plenty of Michigan football fans will remember when the Big Ten added an 11th team in Penn State, which was an independent just like Notre Dame for a long time.

That proved to be a good move and the Nittany Lions were a big brand in college football and they still are. That addition set the stage for Nebraska to join the conference, followed by Maryland and Rutgers to eventually push the total to 14.

Nebraska was still a big name at the time and even though the Huskers have struggled, they still have a name and their following is still pretty large because let’s face it, there isn’t much else to do in Nebraska but follow the Huskers.

Now with Texas and Oklahoma likely headed to the SEC, the Big Ten is once again looking at adding teams, or at least schools from the Big 12 are reaching out to discuss the possibility.

Kansas was the first school and reach out to the Big Ten and as I said Friday, the Kansas basketball brand is one of the strongest available. It also makes geographic sense as does the addition of Iowa State — another school that has talked with the Big Ten.

On Saturday, it was reported by Dylan Buckingham, a local sports reporter in Oklahoma City that Oklahoma State has also talked to the Big Ten and there appears to be some mutual interest.

Oklahoma State would certainly be a better brand than Kansas would be on the football field and just like Iowa State, the Cowboys are solid in basketball too.

A Big 18?

The SEC is already on a path towards a 16-team conference, but will it end there? Or is college football going to go even bigger and move to 18 or even 20-team leagues?

Would the Big Ten add Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Iowa State? Certainly, the Big Ten would like to add Notre Dame but that seems unlikely.

Cincinnati is also a logical school to consider but none of the Big 12 additions or the Bearcats really move the needle either — outside of Kansas in hoops.

So unless the objective is just to get bigger, I don’t know what the Big Ten is really going to achieve by any of these additions. And Oklahoma State just doesn’t seem like a natural fit.

Yet, in this new world of college football, everything is on the table.