Michigan football: Latest rumors about Big Ten conference expansion

Could Michigan football and the rest of the Big Ten have some new members joining the Big Ten conference? Here’s more on the latest expansion rumors. 

With so many reports and rumors continuously coming out about the SEC and Big 10’s intentions of an expanded conference, it has started to become hard to keep track of what’s real and what’s fake.

One thing is for sure though, and that is that college football is changing forever, for better or for worse.

In regards to the Big Ten, the league is looking to add some teams, with names like Iowa State, Kansas, and Oklahoma State all coming up at some point or another.

All of these teams (except for Kansas in football) would be great to add to the Big Ten. All of those teams being a different style of football than what the Big 10 is known for (being tough and hard-nosed on defense, and with great o-lines and receivers on offense).

One report might put a damper in Big Ten fans dreams of adding some of these teams though. According to accredited and known college football journalist Adam Rittenberg, the Big Ten is only looking to add certain schools to the conference, only schools that are in the AAU (American Association of Universities). Here is the tweet:

Basically, the AAU is just an association of colleges with higher academic standards than the average to a little above-average Power Five school. Obviously, pretty much all of the Big Ten schools are like this, especially Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, and Northwestern. They are just a few notches below an Ivy League school.

As mentioned in the tweet, a lot of PAC-12 schools are mentioned as part of the AAU. It wouldn’t make sense for the Big Ten to add any of those schools though.

Geographically, they are too far away. The only reason I could see a few joining the Big Ten is because of their strong academic standards (like USC, Stanford, UCLA) and their very large following and popular brand nationwide (USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Stanford come to mind).

The popular following and brand would definitely be a huge revenue booster to the Big Ten (as if they really need any more anyway) with Ohio State, Michigan football, Penn State, and others having huge followings.

If we look at a few schools that are geographically closer to the Big Ten that is in the AAU, schools like Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Missouri all come to mind.

Ultimately though, a school like Oklahoma State is out of the picture for the Big Ten if that report is true. Iowa State and Kansas are part of the AAU and would be welcome additions to the Big Ten.