Being a grad of the Univ of Minnesota, my take has been and will continue to be NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
I’m a traditionalist in the sense that these conferences should represent geographical segments of our nation. In the Big 10, we have Penal State, Rutgers and Maryland. These ARE NOT midwestern in nature. They don’t belong in the Big 10 - but the focus is on the money - particularly the DC and NYC media markets. I do get it. It’s all about the $$$$.
Though I know they bailed out for the SEC, a school like Missouri would be a better fit than UCLA for the Big 10. So would Iowa State or Kansas.
If you look at the players when was the last time that was true? When was a Minnesota team mostly Minnesota farm boys who may not have been very fast, but were tough and could make holes big enough for their slowpoke running backs to hobble through?
Most of the top players come from a few states like California, Texas, and Florida which have well developed farm leagues in their high school systems.
As Jerry Seinfeld once said, the only thing that doesn't change much about teams is their uniforms, so basically we're all just cheering for laundry.