To break from UGA practice discussions...there were recent on again off again noise out of the Big 10 about possible expansion. Brian at MGoBlog offered up some candidates for the Big 10 to consider.Given that Notre Dame is likely never leaving their sweet heart deal with NBC deal to join a conference, some of the top names bantered about for the Big 10/11 included Missouri, Iowa State, Syracuse, Rutgers and Pitt. Missouri in particular has been mentioned as a potential candidate for the past two years.
The downhill effect of a Big 10 move involving a Big 12 member is the Big 12's own need to expand. The logical first name to pop up is former Southwest Conference member Arkansas. However, the Razorbacks would take an enormous financial hit (around $3 million per year in lost revenue by my lousy math) to leave the SEC as the Big 12 generates less overall revenue, and they split the revenues unequally. So why toss away a good thing to take a smaller piece of a smaller pie?
The "What If" conversation around Big 12 changes came up last week on BurntOrangeNation with some of the top candidates being BYU, Utah, Cincy, TCU, Memphis and other names even more far fetched as a replacement should Missouri or Iowa State leave.
One name that might be a great fit for the Big 12 = Louisville. Why?
- TV: Louisville would open a new TV market of Kentucky and more importantly southern Ohio and Indiana. L'ville is less than 2 hours from Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Plus, they would bring Eastern Time Zone games and viewers to the league. (see DMA info below)
- Basketball: A strong hoops program would be an ideal fit if Missouri leaves.
- Geography: Closer than Denver and Salt Lake to most Big 12 members
- Receptivity: Louisville has no historical ties to the Big East
- Cash: Big 12 is a better paying gig than the Big East.
Louisville is unranked academically in the Top 125 overall colleges. Academically, they are a peer school with USF or UCF. However, Nebraska, Kansas State, Iowa State, and Oklahoma are academic peers with Tennessee, Auburn and Alabama while Mississippi State and Oklahoma can swap fun stories about the merits of the 64 vs. 128 box of Crayons together.
While nothing is going to happen either way, it's interesting to consider the "What Ifs" if the Big 10 finally makes its move to expand.
Factoids:
- -- Overall SEC Revenue = $122 million (over $10 mil / team)
-- Overall Big 12 Revenue = $106 million
-- Overall Big East Revenue = $75 million ($5.8 mil / team)
-- St. Louis -- 21st DMA
-- Indianapolis - 25th DMA
-- Cincinnati - 33rd DMA
-- Louisville - 48th DMA
-- Lexington - 63rd DMA
*DMA = Media market ranking
