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At Least One School Is Super Enthusiastic About Big Ten Expansion

Dec 16, 2009, 10:00 PM UTC

â†µThe blogosphere has been thrown into a speculative tizzy by the Big Ten's recentâ†µannouncement that they'll take a look at expanding over the next 18â†µmonths. Realignment is always good for pageviews and comments, and blogsâ†µacross the internet have complied with detailed posts that boil down to one thing: unless Mizzouâ†µhates the Big 12 more than anyone expects they do, the Big East isâ†µgetting raided again. â†µ

â†µâ†µThis has been met with displeasure by most of the Big East, includingâ†µsome of the teams people are proposing should get the golden ticket.â†µSyracuse fans are almost 3-1 against a move in a poll at Troy Nunes Is An Absoluteâ†µMagician, and crotchety old columnist Bud Poliquin* makes superâ†µfunny jokes about how the Big Ten actually has 11 teams in it -- a factâ†µthat is certainly not almost 20 years old -- before declaring the ideaâ†µ“bad, very bad.” Rutgers blog Bleed Scarletâ†µalso pulls no punches:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥I’m not going to sit around and pine for an awful football conferenceâ†µâ‡¥that happens to have a lot of ill-gotten money.â†µâ†µâ†µEven blogs following generally speculated favorite Pitt are pretty lukewarm -- “whoever gets offeredâ†µrealistically should and must jump.” On the Big Ten’s part, mostâ†µare indifferent about the candidates since they aren’t Notre Dame. Noâ†µone’s happy, exactly, about what may or may not go down in 12-18 months,â†µbut it seems like time to grit their teeth and make the most of it. â†µ

â†µâ†µBut there is one school poised to benefit hugely from BCS conferencesâ†µadding a single member: Memphis. The Big Ten wouldn’t touch Memphis withâ†µa ten-foot pole, but if and when someone (read: Pitt) takes their ballâ†µand heads west, the Tigers will probably be option 1A for the Big East.â†µ

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â†µOther local options (ECU, UCF, maybe USM) are three letter abbreviationâ†µschools without anything approaching the media profile or recent successâ†µof the Tigers. And only Memphis has a huge pile of cash from theirâ†µversion of T. Boone Pickens, FedEx founder Fred Smith. Memphis is theâ†µnew Louisville, an urban commuter school looking to move up in the worldâ†µvia athletic achievement, and they're itching to move on up to a BCSâ†µconference, any BCS conference:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“There is no one out there who doesn’t know of ourâ†µâ‡¥intentions,” said U of M athletic director R.C. Johnson.â†µâ†µâ†µIn fact, Memphis just hired former Big East commissioner Mikeâ†µTranghese as a consultant. He’s tasked with evaluating aspects of theâ†µMemphis athletic department from the perspective of a -- surprise! -- BCSâ†µconference commissioner looking to add a new program.â†µ

â†µâ†µSo while the Big East gnashes its teeth and wails and the Big Tenâ†µdistastefully picks through the ACC’s leftovers, Memphis holds itsâ†µbreath, hoping an unhappy marriage is eventually consummated. â†µ

â†µâ†µ*(Yes, the guy who decried Heisman voters’ general ignorance ofâ†µcollege football and in the same piece revealed that he votedâ†µTebow-Ingram-McCoy, causing a thousand facepalms to bloom across theâ†µinternet.)â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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