20 teams would be a game changer
O.K., I'll play. If the Big Ten is going to 20:
1. I assume they don't go after Mizzou or Kansas. Just too much trouble getting them out of where they are with too little reward, which means it's entirely to move along the East Coast.
2. Two ten team divisions. Ohio State and Penn State join the eight newbies (including RU and Md in that). You have a clean geographic break, and keep Michigan and Ohio State in seperate conferences.
3. I assume no Notre Dame, but really, who knows. Obviously, the Irish can join if they want to.
4. So that leaves six more slots, with the goal being to dominate the Northeast in a way that makes the sport more popular in the Northeast, and then go as far down south as you can add viable markets without just wasting energy fighting the SEC. Under that scenario, I think you start with Syracuse, UConn, UVA and UNC. You then take two more from any of BC, Pitt, Duke, Georgia Tech or Miami. All good academic schools, the Big Ten becomes a dominant #1 in hoops, can make some TV money in chicks hoops and, if they take BC, hockey, and become the only football conference that counts from the industrial midwest through the Northeast and down into Tobacco Road (and maybe with a jump to SoFla which is a different market than the rest of the state). If ND wants in, I'm less certain of us but there is still room. I certainly think, for example, that we give the Big Ten more that fits their model than our other Northeast competitors (but I've thought that before and been wrong). But I do believe that, for Delaney to do this and not dilute the revenue to the core midwestern schools, he needs to build CFB in New York and that means both us and Syracuse should be joining RU so the midwestern teams play in greater NY more often.
