Big East Expansion or Collapse?

Expansion, every one is talking about it, so it's our turn now, even though there isn't much to report except to speculate and dream what could be.

By now, everyone has heard that the Big Ten wants to expand, create an East and West division and have a championship game, like the ACC, Big 12, and SEC already have. An expansion would mean more revenue, more televised games, more exposure, everything the Big Ten already has and wants more of. The Big Ten already brings in millions with its tv contracts, websites, and marquee games on the major cable networks. Big Ten officials have only mentioned they are in discussion for expansion, according to records, no school has been contacted, only media and fan speculation is running around, but one has to think, where there is smoke, there is fire.

So how will the Big Ten expand? The first team they would take is Notre Dame. Right now ND is in the Big East for basketball and Independent for its football team. They have a massive contract with CBS and Adidas and drawn large revenue sums, look at how much they paid Charlie Weiss to win 6 games a year. Notre Dame would not only draw huge revenues for the Big Ten, but also increase their prestige and chances for the big paying BCS bowls at the end of the season. The TV contracts would be huge, the matchups, like Ohio State and Notre Dame would draw large audiences and bring in even more revenue. There is just one problem, ND doesn't want to move. ND has huge revenue shares now and all of the media to follow them, there is no gain for them to move to the conference or to bog down their schedule with conference games, they can currently schedule whomever they wish. They also gain large tv revenues from being in the Big East basketball league, the Big Ten does not draw nearly as much fan fare or revenue. Notre Dame would have to be pushed into the Big Ten or it will simply remain as it is now. An interesting factor is the Big East. They have stated, in the football realm, that ND should either join the Big East or leave completely, not having one sport in the league and not football. This was Randy Edsall of UConn and other Big East teams calling out to ND, hoping the money making giant would join the Big East football, but it is left to be seen if this will even be an option.

The Big East may not have to worry about ND, instead, they should pay attention to their own teams. Rumor has it that Pittsburgh and Rutgers, maybe others, could leave to the Big Ten, killing the Big East. The Big East would have to bring teams from Conference-USA, maybe ECU and UCF, to salvage the conference and then their automatic bid to the BCS Bowl games would be in great doubt. Teams like USF and Cincinnati would be in trouble and the growing programs could loose large profits as well as top recruits that could go to larger teams in their respective areas.

Another scenario, is the Big Ten taking teams from the Big 12, such as Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma or even Texas. These big teams would bring in large revenue and create the mid-west rivalries that the fans love to see. But will the Big-12, which is a power, BCS conference, allow this to happen, or will they attempt to expand? They currently do not have the same revenue and do not have the right teams in the area to expand too, this could be a major problem.

So this should get the conversation started about the expansion rumors, until someone says more, they are all rumors. This season, no team will change conference, but next year, it could get interesting.