Fresno St. Alum wrote:
Quinn, if you think Mizzou isn't good enough, what about the B1G moving now to add Maryland and Rutgers before ND joins the ACC, making it hard to see any school leave after that.
It's not about passing judgement on a school being good enough. All that matters is that in the end, a conference only expands if it improves their value (value determined primarily by revenue, but for the Big Ten, they made it clear academics are a factor...hence they rejected Oklahoma).
I don't see any schools that would 100% for sure prove to give the Big Ten the type of revenue they would need to IMPROVE the per-school payout. Remember, not only do they make a killing on the regular season contract, but they make all that Fox money for the championship game. So that's what, roughly $20 million regular season per school and an additional 2/14th of the $24 million per year from Fox (championship game).
So all that matters is this: can the Big Ten get an additional $40 million per year to pay the 2 new schools AND an additional $7 million per year from Fox...a total of roughly $47 million a year by adding ANY 2 schools available? Notre Dame could make that happen. Just don't think any other schools are a lock to do that...hence the Big Ten being slow on expansion. If something was a lock, they would have done it already, as they are and always will be due to their contracts, in a position of power. As for Maryland, who knows...maybe Maryland isn't a lock to generate the type of money. It's not like when people think college football power, Maryland is the school that comes to mind. And maybe Maryland is best off in the ACC for their own sake (money, relevancy, etc).