RE: Jim Delany botched the 2010-2013 Big Ten Expansion
If this were the first move the Big Ten made it would have been interesting to see if the SEC would have still gone for Missouri and TAMU ... or went east to block the B1G and lock it into declining demographic markets (rust belt) and pro-heavy demographic markets with relatively low market penetration (New England).
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
+ Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh = 16
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
+ Virginia Tech, NC State, Virginia, Louisville = 16
The trouble is there's no way for the SEC to take enough to not leave very tasty assets laying around for others without getting substantially bigger. I've long contended the best way to make everybody the most money with schedules they actually want to play is to find some way to put the ACC's southern teams, the SEC, and the Big 12 under one umbrella and blend the schedules where the conferences overlap. The trouble with doing this today is the ACC has three teams that would be total misfits in that scenario: Pitt, Cuse, BC.
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