Thanks, good food for thought as I never thought of looking at the XII from Kansas's viewpoint and I did not know that Oklahoma has AAU dreams, though, they may want to ask Nebraska how much help the B1G has been with their nor ex AAU status.
General question for you, politically, how tied are the 3 'big' XII (Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas) to their little sisters (Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Texas Tech)? Can the three move to the B1G or another conference without them or so they need to come along, too, or at the very least, have a safe landing place (PAC)?
Another question, would the addition of Texas (and Oklahoma) make the B1G attractive to ND?
Lastly, unless the B1G breaks from their model, i.e. large, state flagship universities, UConn appears to be more of a fit than BC. The B1G already has BC 'type' school that is higher rated academically, has more history with football, is successful in other sports, and does not carry any religious 'baggage.' BC would only add hockey and a new market, Boston, that UConn can also provide.
Thank you for your interest. I gave my thoughts on KU-KSU and OU-OSU just upthread.
As for Texas-TT (or BU or TCU), you can easily find scads of Texas folks that will vehemently disagree with what I think about the Texas situation. But here goes:
I don't think Texas needs to worry about TT any more than Texas A&M had to worry about TT when the aggy migrated to the SEC.
Yea, Texas hopes that TT can become the third great public university in Texas. Yea, Texas hopes TT can find a soft landing place. But no, I don't think TT would be the "Great Wall of Texas", keeping Texas forever handcuffed to TT -- not if Oklahoma migrated out of the B12. Oklahoma's the key for Texas, not TT.
And really, I've never seen TT as the albatross that Texas has claimed TT is in the past during prior expansion discussions with, say, the ACC and B1G. I think Texas uses TT as a convenient excuse to test the expansion waters, and then we say, "well, we've got a Tech problem" when the waters get too deep. TT is a very convenient excuse for Texas to politely back out of committing to joining another league because we know nobody else wants TT.
Look, when people say "but politics!" with respect to Texas bailing out on TT, what they really mean is the "PUF", which represents a huge amount of money Texas and Texas A&M are paid from oil revenues, which is grounded in the 1800s when a guy willed a bunch of "worthless, West Texas desert land" to Texas that happened later to produce ungodly amounts of oil. TT and other schools want to get a portion of that PUF money, and they think that if Texas leaves the B12, angering some of the politicians, maybe that will give them an opening to get a share of the PUF money from the Texas Legislature.
Just one little problem with that thinking: Texas A&M is already gone to the SEC. If the PUF money were attacked by TT politicos (forget the private schools because they can't get the money anyway, being private schools), well ... so what? TT can't out-vote the politicians of Texas
and Texas A&M
combined.
And while the aggy would hate like hell to have to come to Texas' aid, A&M would have to come to Texas aid or get their own ox gored. Ironically, it would be the aggy that would allow Texas to do whatever it wants to do with respect to expansion, if push came to shove with OU leaving the B12.
I think "politics" is grossly overrated when it comes to Texas leaving TT behind on their own. Besides, Tech hates Texas anyhow, so most of us could personally care less about Texas Tech. For example, TT refused to allow one of their crappy OOC games to be televised over the LHN even though the game would not otherwise be televised. TT actually turned down making more money just to spite Texas, and TT played the game non-televised. Can you imagine?
I don't think TT has the clout to go to the PAC, nor do I think TT has the clout to go to the SEC. But I also don't think there's any way TT can stop Texas from leaving the B12 if Oklahoma bailed on the B12. And Texas would have no choice but to leave TT behind if Oklahoma bailed on the B12 because the B12 is not viable without the Sooners in the league.
Don't get me wrong -- Texas has no intention of leaving the B12, due to the recent success of the LHN, unless we are absolutely forced to leave, and even then we would go with much wailing and lamentations. But I certainly think Texas could be forced to leave the B12 if Delany ever decided to make a move on a very willing Kansas, and an exceedingly intrigued Oklahoma. If Delany takes those two, you tell me: What realistic options does Texas have?
As for ND, I will confess to a certain ND envy that I think Texas is definitely afflicted with. Let me be blunt: Texas would love to be in the same conference with ND, all things being equal. Even now, we wonder how we can corral ND to play us home-and-home on Thanksgiving, replacing the aggy. Texas is so conceited, we would argue to ND, "to heck with Southern Cal and Navy and Stanford -- you need to dump all those schools and make Texas your #1 rival!". Seriously, when it comes to ND, that sentiment is very close to Texas' thinking, lol.
Furthermore, I have no doubt that if Texas migrated to the B1G, we would use our best efforts to convince ND to forgive and forget. But, in the end, I personally think the Domers would politely listen ... but say "no". I would love to be wrong about ND, but I just don't think Texas has the clout to entice ND into the B1G. So long as the ACC remains intact, which could happen, I don't think the Irish are going anywhere. The only thing that would bring ND into the B1G, best I can tell, is if the ACC were raided by both the SEC and the B1G, which could also happen.
If Texas, OU, KU, and, say, UConn were to go to the B1G, that would leave 2 additional schools to get to 20. The SEC needs 2 schools to get to 16. If the SEC managed to peel off 2 from, say, UNC, NCSU, and VPI, and if the B1G peeled off, say, UVA, then that last B1G spot might be grabbed by the Domers (rather than, say, Duke). But I don't think Texas alone brings ND into the B1G. JMO.
But now, indulge me while I speak some heresy. Let's assume Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, UConn, and Virginia all opted, at various times, for the B1G. Let's say that last spot at #20 was between Notre Dame and North Carolina. Who gets the spot? In this scenario, my guess would be UNC. I do think ND needs to think fast if the B1G completes a western sweep, fills the northern and southern ends of the NE Corridor, and the ACC is beleaguered. Sure, the SEC and PAC are there for ND, but are those leagues really better options for the Domers over the B1G? Just a thought.
As for UConn, I think UConn is very attractive to the B1G. However, the obvious cap to the NE Corridor is Boston and Massachusetts. I am also impressed by
dayooper's cite to FtT's valuation article wherein BC ranked so highly -- startlingly highly. I had no clue. Just goes to show how important Boston is. Lots of people up in that part of the country.
But BC is not AAU. And, as you point out, BC is not a public land grant university either. UConn gives the B1G more of NYC, and a little bit of Massachusetts, right? UConn's definitely got a lot going for it. I would not be surprised at all to see UConn in the B1G someday. And, for the reasons I've set forth here and upthread, I think UConn's best play for the B1G is via B1G expansion out of the B12 before any kind of B1G expansion out of the ACC.