(05-09-2017 12:59 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  Yes the Big Ten would take them in a heartbeat. Think back to the Big 8 days when Oklahoma was part of a league that ran from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, into Oklahoma. Essentially OU and KU to the B1G recreates that Big 8 with the West Division, substituting Iowa for Iowa State, and Illinois for Missouri. Then there is the FOX networks angle, as both are affiliated.

There is no more sales pitch IMO than Kansas (and OU) to the SEC, where the West would be a semi-recreation of the best of the Big XII/SWC with Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Arkansas together. Neither the B1G nor the SEC in those configurations look like pure Union or Confederacy anyway. Both would have a distinct Great Plains element.

Conferences in the push to have more influence are pushing beyond the boundaries of their original geographic names. The B1G has three Eastern and one Great Plains school not in Chicago's orbit. The SEC would move firmly into the Great Plains with an expansion of Kansas and Oklahoma.The Pac-12 might yet move into the central time zone. And the ACC is made up of almost half ex-Big East Schools, running from Boston to upstate New York and not far from Chicago in northern Indiana.

Oklahoma ranks almost identical to Nebraska and is a bigger brand name. Frankly that brand name is the selling point.