Big 10 (11) to expand, Missouri willing to listen

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by kddani

Not quite sure what you mean by this part. Pitt's already a member of the AofAU and is a pretty high level research university. Pitt's academics fit in quite well.

Yeah - I meant that there's no draw to joining the AAU for Pitt (since they're one of the 60 already) like there is with Mizzou . . . didn't mean to denigrate Pitt academics or anything. Pitt leaving would collapse the Big East, so there would have to be a big pull for it to happen.

I probably should have expounded a bit - Pitt's a tough case, since it doesn't open up any new markets for the conference, and they have bad blood with PSU over scheduling issues (and general fanbase issues - from what I know, PSU was douchey in the whole thing). It would give PSU a "natural" rival and reduce their travel costs, but so would Cuse/Rutgers, with added tangential benefit for the conference.

Pitt would be a great choice on a wholly competitive level and I'd probably prefer them to everyone but Mizzou, but it doesn't seem to work out with what the University presidents will want.

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

Screw you hippy. Fucking Hawkeye Homer.

Yeah, originally I put that a LOT more diplomatically, then decided to go whole-hog in case you were still around reading. Obviously ISU's secondary (non-revenue) sports are very solid, so they'd be a good addition there, but the alumni/donation base and lack of additional markets kills their chances.

It'll be a few years before this even happens. If anything, the rumblings from Mizzou (and honestly, Iowa State and Nebraska should also make rumblings) should prove to the moronic Big XII commish Beebe that the north schools aren't going to stand to be Texas' bitch much longer. Maybe work in a better tv deal while they're at it.

This is the important thing - the B12N has been neutered by the UT/ATM/OU axis of evil, and basically the whole North should threaten to leave and form a superconference if it'll help their leverage. Seriously, the B12 bowl distribution alone is disgusting enough that the North teams should actively want to leave.