Big 10 expansion
The Big 10 is talking expansion to a twelfth team so I thought I’d throw my two cents into the speculation.
At first the only reasonable plan I could see was to somehow talk Notre Dame into joining. The problem with adding Notre Dame is that there is no way to divide into two divisions. The best option is…
Big 10 East: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan St, Notre Dame, Ohio St, Penn St
Big 10 West: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
Maybe you could switch Purdue and Notre Dame, but I still don’t like it.
Then a new plan occurred to me that I love. Add Iowa State. That’s right, Iowa State. If the Big 10 added Iowa St the divisions are easy:
Big 10 East: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan St, Ohio St, Purdue, Penn St
Big 10 West: Illinois, Iowa, Iowa St, Minnesota, Northwestern, Wisconsin
I love it! It’s balanced for football and basketball, it makes sense geographically, it’s perfect.
You may ask, what does the Big XII do now that it only has 11 teams. Great question. The Big XII adds Boise St, Colorado St, Houston, Texas Christian and Tulsa, to become the Big 16.
Big 16 North: Boise St, Colorado, Colorado St, Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, Nebraska, Tulsa
Big 16 South: Baylor, Houston, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech
In football each team plays it’s divisional opponents and then two opponents from the other division, leaving three non-conference games. This way each team would play all the other teams at least once every four years, but Boise St only has to travel to Houston (and vice-versa) once every eight years.
In basketball each team play it’s divisional opponents twice and the other division once for a total of 22 conference games. It’s a lot, but it still leaves 9 non-conference games.
I think it creates two stronger conferences.
