Nebraska AD Tom Osborne Monitoring Big Ten And Pac 10 Expansion Talk

With the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences allegedly closing in on pieces of the Big 12, some of the most prized program fillies of middle America are beginning to make eyes at any and all comers. To wit: That Nebraska rumor is finally gathering some speed, in the form of some very coy quotes from Husker AD Tom Osborne:

So there you have it. Nobody’s running to jump off a cliff, unless everybody else does it first. Maybe. Makes sense.

With the rumors that the Big Ten might court Nebraska as the conference’s twelfth school*, the fans at SB Nation’s Nebraska blog, Corn Nation, and Michigan blog, Maize N Brew, decided it was time to get acquainted with each other. Think of it as a not-so-awkward first date between fan bases. Some highlights of their back and forth:

Read the whole exchange here and here.

All true. Nebraska’s not the first option. The first option, far-fetched though it might be, is Texas, followed by Notre Dame, and then Pitt from the Big East. Failing those, however, you begin to slide into the less appealing but still viable candidates: Kansas, Colorado, and yes, Nebraska. Note that the conversation about expansion involves a whopping four teams from the Big 12, something that has not escaped the notice of K-State blog Bring on the Cats.

If last week’s hotness in the Big Ten expansion rumor department was “OMG Texas!!!”, things are a bit more sane this week. According to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com, Nebraska would listen to Big 10’s offers thanks to the ongoing decline of the Big 12 North and their declining television revenues under their agreement with the Big 12.

The Big Ten does have a big chip to throw around the bargaining table: its revenue sharing from the Big Ten Network, which it owns lock, stock, and barrel. While their small range of advertisers might be the likes of Barbasol and Ro-Tel (whose commercials, while unavailable online, are the stuff of legend among Big Ten viewers), the revenue goes exclusively to them. It’s a big stick they can swing around in negotiations, even if it’s funded entirely by your grandfather’s shaving cream and the makers of heart-stopping cheese dip.