The Big Ten Conference is talking about expansion again. Wisconsin AD and former football coach Barry Alvarez is planning to amp up the 11-team conference’s charge to find a 12th member, which would allow the league to split into two divisions and host a championship game.
“We’re irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we’re not playing,” Alvarez said Friday. –ESPN.
Alavarez and proponents of expansion face an uphill battle in bringing another mouth to feed. Notre Dame, with their lucrative football TV deal running through 2015, seems to be out. I’ve heard arguments for Missouri and Pittsburgh being natural fits, but only in a football context. That’s great, but the faculties of the conference’s current member schools won’t care. Fortunately, there’s a better, more mind-blowing option for a 12th school that has a much better chance of making everyone happy.
Vanderbilt.
Is it an ideal fit? Maybe not, but the possibility of Vanderbilt defecting to the north is a conversation that needs to be had. The school has ties to the Big Ten (Ohio State president Gordon Gee most recently held that same post at the Nashville institution), plus a burgeoning academic reputation among the best schools in the nation. Its recent disbanding of its athletic department could indicate that Vandy wants to get away from the hyper-competitiveness of the SEC, and joining a new conference for a change of scenery might be of some appeal.
Geographically, Vanderbilt is not ideal for the Big Ten, nor vice versa. Even as the SEC’s second-northernmost school, the longest Big Ten road trip by bus (Minnesota) would be 13 hours. Which is longer than the 9-1/2 hour bus trip that the women’s basketball team would face heading to Gainesville each season, but still a far cry from the 23-hour road trip that the ACC’s Boston College would take if it drove down to fellow conference member Miami.
Vanderbilt joining the Big Ten is more than simple food for thought. It might be the only school that has a chance of being ratified by the Big Ten’s faculty. And their Nashville TV market wouldn’t upset the Big Ten Network, either. Besides, the football people just need a warm body to beat on for three months. Vandy fits the bill for everyone.
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“We’re irrelevant.” Alvarez said Friday. Barry could have just stopped there.
/Cincinnati is the ONLY logical fit but Dickface Tressel would never allow it. How he has that much power, I do not know.
As an added bonus, Vandy’s departure would enable teams in the Slave State Conference to water down their schedules even more.
I say take Rutgers and finish off the mercy-killing of the Big East. Adds the NY metro market, and with New Jersey fans in the mix Ohio State followers can finally feel superior.
As for Vandy, meh. Aside from inflating the conference’s GPA, they’ve served the SEC only as a schedule-filler and as an excuse to make a biannual trip to Nashville for reasons other than stalking Shania Twain. We’ll steal Georgia Tech, Clemson or Florida State and call it even.
Everything fits excepth the Gorden Gee’s connection. He wasnt that liked when he was there, he tried to change vanderbilt into a residential college system, which works for schools like brown but does not work at Vandy. He was run out of vandy, and will probably leave Ohio State again… because thats what he does. Oh he is morman and his wife smokes pot.
Did Ed Hardy design the Missouri helmets this year?
so who exactly is tennessee going to beat next year then?
Vandy may not be super competitive in the football arena (they’re good for 2 or 3 SEC wins a year, at most), but in the men’s & women’s basketball arena, and in baseball, they’re outstanding, year after year. That’s how they’ve remained in the SEC all these years.
Yep. If it wasn’t for pesky hoops the SEC would have nuked Kentucky decades ago.
Vandy should love this idea. They could actually go to a bowl playing in the Big Televen.
Yay! Someone for Northwestern to beat!
Vandy was a charter member of the SEC and are proud of that fact. They could have bailed well before now. For example, joining the ACC when they expanded would have been a much better fit than either the current SEC or Big 10. They aren’t going anywhere.
“Besides, the football people just need a warm body to beat on for three months. Vandy fits the bill for everyone.”
I thought Indiana had been fulfilling that role for quite some time.
I hadn’t considered Vandy because I didn’t think a southern school would be a fit and I didn’t think a southern school would want to be associated with the big ten. But, hey, I agree with you. Vanderbilt has some potential. Hmmm.
Vandy is a great idea. Makes even better sense if TX and TX A&M are added. Vandy is a such an outlier academically with the rest of the SEC schools, but would fit right in with what would become the best BCS academic conference by far.
Greetings! Purdue grad here. I think adding Vandy — in a 16 team scenario — would be a very appealing idea. If the B10 were to add Nebraska, Missouri, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Vandy, the conference would add considerable sports prowess while adding academic gravitas.
Keep in mind that most sports fans in NYC are PRO fans and few would find it appealing to root for a team from NEW JERSEY (Rutgers)!!! In fact, adding Rutgers would not likely add many more fannies in NYC than adding Syracuse. Extending the B10 reach into the south would net the nation’s #29 TV market (Nashville – 1M+ fannies), open up recruiting in Tennessee, and — most important — set up an alignment where each B10 team would be paired with a natural regional rival (if not historical.) In the case of Vandy, their rival would become Northwestern, another superb private academic school of almost the exact same size as Vandy. The alignment — with teams paired with their rivals — would be as follows:
B10 East
Syracuse
Penn State
Michigan
Ohio State
Notre Dame
Michigan State
Purdue
Indiana
B10 West
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Illinois
Missouri
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Both Vandy and Northwestern would likely be happy to have a rival of comparable demographics while being in a slightly weaker B10 West.
And since Vandy is a member of the all-important AAU, the B10 presidents would likely be very supportive. Considering the Vandy basketball coach — Kevin Stallings — is a Purdue grad, it provides even more ties to the B10.
What’s not to like???
JMHOAU