SuperHornet wrote:Franks Tanks wrote:
Why would the Big 10 add Youngstown State? About 50 other schools would be more likely Big 10 members.
I think it will be between Missouri, Rutgers, Pitt, and Syracuse. Outside of Northwestern the Big 10 is made of land grant institutions and primary state universities. Rutgers and Missouri best fit that mold.
How does Mizzou make sense for the Big Ten? Their focus is so completely on Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas that a move like this would cause their fans to scream bloody murder. Not going to happen. That was ALSO in the article I saw, and I see nothing to obviate that.
I also can't see them adding Rutgers. They don't need another once-in-a-blue-moon private-school success story a la Northwestern. I'm still not sure why they added Penn State. It took them out of their compact region and opened them up to travel issues. Adding another out-of-region team isn't really going to help unless it's someone relatively close to one of the schools already there. So Pitt makes SOME sense in terms of overall athletic success over the long haul AND close enough to PSU to be a good travel partner. Iowa State has an even better argument should they apply. New York is too far out of the wayas is anybody in Missouri.
Mizzou fits the academic profile and gives them better market penetration in St. Louis (Illinois has decent penetration there) and access to Kansas City. Why would Mizzou leave the Big 12? They might not but a lot of people in the midwest consider the Big 10 to be a step up in overall athletic & academic prestige.
Rutgers is a state university not a private school. They might not have a history of football success but they fit the academic footprint and the Big 10 looks at the entire athletic department not just football.
Penn State is closer to 1/2 the original 10 than Nebraska so I'm not sure how it is outside of their region.
They don't need Iowa State and I don't think Iowa is going to be strong-armed into going to the mat to get them an invite ala Virginia and VA Tech. Having 2 schools from Iowa in 2 strong conferences is a good thing. The same could be said about Pitt. The Big 10 has the Pittsburgh market with Penn St and doesn't need Pitt. I don't know where Penn St would stand on including them.
Syracuse is as close or closer than Lincoln, Nebraska to half of the Big 10.
I don't know enough about West Virginia to know how it fits from an overall athletic and academic perspective. They are a nice fit geographically. Is WVU going to leave its rivalry with Pitt or vice versa?
IMO, the Big 10's wish list in order is:
1) Notre Dame
2) Rutgers
3) Missouri
4) anybody's guess