he must mean no teams "available". I'd think an LHNless Texas, notre Dame, etc would improve the value. As would Florida, USC...

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It was just 18 months ago that ol' Barry was predicting 16 teams for the Big 10. I always thought he was Delaney's "run it up the flagpole" guy.

it was close. But the Big Ten hired the consultants who were really just financial analysts (versus the kinds of consultants that schools hire to make coaching picks). The money wasn't enough, the options limited. But it would seem smart to approach Maryland as they are having money problems. Maybe even UVA to push further south. Then Rutgers makes sense...if you can get ND too.

That's a 16 worth going for. Missouri, Rutgers, ND and Kansas/Uconn aren't I guess.

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So in a seemingly UN-related story, Notre Dame will announce tomorrow (see other sports thresd - College Hockey)
that their hockey team will join Hockey East.
And of note: WILL NOT be joining the Big Ten Hockey Confernece.

The BTHC is supposedly only an option available if Notre Dame were to join the Big Ten for all sports.
So for the time being, Notre Dame is ruling that out (to nobody's surprise).
This is an indication that right now, Notre Dame feels no urgency to join the Big Ten for all sports.

Hockey East (which does include BC) may position Notre Dame Hockey well,
should Notre Dame feel the need to join a certain conference for all sports (that conference being the ACC...).

I could be reading way too much into this, but certainly one can glean form this that Notre Dame to the Big Ten is NOT imminent.

ESPN talking heads don't know what they're saying. They said that BE needs to get back to 7 to keep its AQ. 7 is the rule for bball AQ, they have 14. 8 is the FBS fb AQ.

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Big Ten and Pac-12 supposedly to agree to more non-conference scheduling against one another, including a "challenge series" in football by 2017:

http://tracking.si.com/2011/12/28/repor ... &eref=sihp
http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... legal-mess

If true, this assures one quality non-conference opponent each season in football, which would be good for both conferences.

As Andy Katz reported this AM on XM Radio, this deal pretty much says no expansion for the Big 10 and Pac 12. The SEC, furthermore, seems set at 14, according to Katz ("what school can you think of which would interest the SEC now?"). And, finally, the ACC will likely stand pat for years at 14. So what action there is will now be concentrated among the Big 12, Big East, MWC and CUSA.

I have a hard time believing that either conference would put language in an OOC scheduling agreement that would restrict them from taking ND or TX/OU, both men seem more savy than that and I have an even harder time figuring out how anything like that would be enforced.

As far as the SEC goes, they only released next years fb schedule so that they have time to review things like expansion, 9 conference games, and permanent rivalries...so they arent 100% committed to the 14 team model yet...may be too messy. As far as other teams the SEC may want they still have TX, OU, and FSU... If either of those three expressed interest like A&M did then the SEC would take another Missouri type filler school like WVU, Clemson, or Miami to get to 16.

The ACC is waiting on ND like the B1G has been for years, if they join then 16 is eminent, if not then they may stand pat as long as they aren't worried about getting poached...

You're right that the Big 12 and Big East will be most likely to expand but they could both stand pat, only the MWC and CUSA will be expanding providing they don't go for the full on merger...

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NYTimes article also discussing Big Ten/Pac 12 scheduling partnership at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/sport ... ref=sports

Think of this as like a college football version of the Big Ten ACC Challenge in college basketball

Actually, it's much bigger than that. Much, much bigger. This is for all sports. This will lead to a bowl game on Pac12 or BTN. This will eventually replace the basketball lineup with the ACC. There will be cross programming on their owned networks. This is much more like a financial merger of sorts, a way to expand to 24 and give access for both conferences to all those new markets. BUT...it keeps things organized and sane by keeping two separate conferences, two bids for everything, two TV networks, etc. So on the outside, things will look the same. But behind the scenes, there will be some huge business ramifications for both conferences, positive ones. All of a sudden, you get the opportunity for UCLA vs Michigan basketball games on Pac-12 network, USC vs Ohio St. hoops games on BTN. Much better quality than say, Northwestern vs Mississippi Valley St. which was on the BTN earlier this year.

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Yeah, when you look how the PAC now extends into Utah and Colorado, and the B1G goes west to Nebraska, this is a 24 team agglomeration that is coast-to-coast.
PA to CA.

This points to even more stratification in terms of revenue between the 5 big conferences and the rest of D-1.

I'm not so sure the PAC and B1G won't ever expand, but it would help if they do it in lock-step with one another.
With USC now having a 9-game conf. schedule and 1 B1G cross-over, they have 10 games "pre-scheduled."

Does this instantly put pressure on Notre Dame to start thinking abouut getting in on hte action ?
They have improved their football product this year, but I sure think in football, they are on the fast track to irrelevace if they don't hook up with the big boys.

Conference movement has paused, but you still see the Big XII and Big East members clamoring to go elsewhere.
If we go to 4 x 16, the B1G and PAC have 4 slots each, and the ACC and SEC currently have 2.
12 slots.

Candidate schools:
Notre Dame
UConn
Rutgers
Louisville
Cincy (?)
West Virginia
BYU
Boise St.
Texas
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State (?)
Baylor (?)
TCU (?)

The better expansion candidates are in the east and midwest. Easy pickin's for ACC and B1G.
If the SEC isn't interested in poaching the ACC or Louisville or WVU, they must go after Big XII teams.
There are some juicy ones, so maybe that is the plan.

Then we come to the PAC. Either they expand into the midwest (big XII) , or settle for BYU, Boise, USAFA, Hawaii, or Nevada schools.
That seems problematic. I think a majority of the PAC Presidents want to keep the PAC epicenter on the West Coast.

One can argue that with this move, it's like both conferences found a way to reap the benefits each wanted when even considering Texas and friends (more P12 than Big Ten) without needing Texas. Which is better for the Big Ten: adding Texas and a subpar academic schools, or adding a partnerhsip with USC, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, Arizona, etc?

But I hear ya on the expansion front. As I see it, only moves that would make sense would be, say, Texas and Oklahoma to Pac-14 and Notre Dame and a northeast school, say even BC, to the Big 12. Don't see it happening, but that 18 school lineup would surpass the SEC, ACC, Big 12, etc in everything that matters (sans CFB titles )

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Just a thought, but PAC 12 plus B1G = 24

SEC (14) plus BIG 12 (10) = 24
ACC (14) plus Big East (10) = 24

or even SEC and ACC (28) with the Southeast, Northeast and East Coast markets and even maybe the BIG 12 and the best of the Big East, Mountain West, C-USA for the entire Southwest and Mountain Time Zone.

Like I said, just initial thoughts.