Time for "Mid-Majors" to re-align.

vanity | 2016-08-16 | dangus

[sphinx]

I dislike the new arrangements, but given that's the world we're in, Nebraska is ok in the Big 10. Missouri or Kansas would be ok too. The Big Ten is midwestern, and it feels more natural for it to expand to the heartland rather than the east coast. It has gone east, of course, to capture tv markets and a new recruiting base. The way college football works today, the only real question is whether the Big Ten, the ACC, or the SEC will be the first to sign up west coast teams.

Notre Dame would have been a natural for the Big Ten all along, and a better fit than Northwestern (for reasons that speak well of Northwestern), but Notre Dame has a great thing going as the top independent and the flagship Catholic school. But if Notre Dame is going to go the conference route, the Big Ten is the best fit.

[dangus]

Northwestern is in Chicago, and has a student body of 25,000 students. That makes it about twice the size of Notre Dame, and the Big 10’s anchor in Chicago. And it has a long, long, long association with the Big 10. The fact that it never became a power has more to say about their presence of ethics and academic standards than their lack of sufficient student body or market.

Although I would say that if the Big East football conference hadn’t been torn apart by 12-team rule for playoffs, Northwestern may have been a comfortable fit. Of it hadn’t been for their football program, they might have formed a great conference with Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Louisville, Saint Louis, Dayton, Marquette, DePaul, etc.

I’d also suggest they should form a round-robin basketball tournament like the Philly 5 or the Boston Beanpot, with Notre Dame, DePaul, Loyola, Marquette, Northern Illinois, Valparaiso, etc.

[dangus]

>> The way college football works today, the only real question is whether the Big Ten, the ACC, or the SEC will be the first to sign up west coast teams. <<

From the Pac-12? I don’t think so. But the rumors of Texas to the Big Ten would be equally moronic.

[dangus]

BYU would be a good addition, but Memphis?

The Big Ten is for flagship schools, not local branches.

The board of Notre Dame is gradually moving more conservative, although the hippy in Rome isn’t helping things. If the Big 12 were going to bust out of the lower Great Plains enough to add BYU, I think Notre Dame would be the (perhaps unattainable) goal.

If Notre Dame is unattainable, I think Houston would make more sense than Memphis. For now, it has a weaker basketball reputation, but it’s a far better football school. And the entire 70,000-student body of the UH system would think of it as their team.

[scrabblehack]

I looked at attendance as well as competitiveness.
Memphis had 44k a game last year for football, as I recall.

Houston could work though....it’s a bigger potential market,
in terms of city size and student body size..

[scrabblehack]

Either one would be better choices than VCU or Richmond.