Tony Barnhart is hearing whispers from conference commissioners indicating that the Big 10 is at least considering expanding to a superconference of 16 teams.
The Big Ten is looking at three plans: Stand pat with 11 teams, add one team (hopefully Notre Dame) or make a blockbuster move and go to 16.
“If they go to 16 and one of them is Notre Dame then we’ve got an entirely new ball game,” a conference commissioner told me confidentially.
According to Barnhart, the Big 10 would potentially add Notre Dame and four other Big East teams. It’s hard to distinguish if he has any leads on who those teams could be, but Barnhart theorizes that the target list may include Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, and UConn.
Of course this opens a whole host of other possibilities….
Where do the other Big East football schools go?
Would some mish-mash of Big East / Conference USA start a new conference?
Would the ACC expand to 16 as well by taking in the Big East leftovers?
Would the SEC expand to 16 to ensure that the conference doesn’t lose its considerable negotiating advantage to the new Big 16? And, as Barnhart ponders, who would the SEC invite?
Does the SEC get aggressive and pick up the phone call Texas? That’s the one school that would move the financial needle to improve the great deal the SEC already has. And if you take Texas, you have to take Texas A&M because of the politics. Does the SEC take another look at Florida State and Miami and see if those schools would be interested in leaving the ACC for a better financial deal?
It’s hard to even imagine an SEC that adds the collective football prominence of Texas, Texas A&M, FSU and Miami. Not to mention its gains in Title IX sports and spring sports such as baseball, track, and golf.
A 16-team Big 10 would definitely be a behemoth, but the ripple effects… *that’s* where superconference expansion would get interesting.
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