I have it CONFIRMED from well place sources within the Luther College athletic department that the Big XII is seriously looking at bringing on Luther and Wartburg along with Notre Dame. Word is that ND was only comfortable joining the conference if two other religious schools were brought in as well. They preferred the Lutheran tradition as opposed to BYU b/c both schools are much more comfortable with drinking than "the Y."
While Texas bulked, OU, OSU, ISU and Mizzou all welcomed the idea of adding two more wrestling programs as well as an instate rivals for Iowa State. Furthermore, Luther, Wartburg and ISU are working feverishly on putting together a network that will likely broadcast through THE ENTIRE eastern half of the state as well with limited coverage in MN as Luther has a large alum base in The Cities and Wartburg covers the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metro area really well! The flight to Decorah had JP on board as he was meeting with President Torgerson to hash out the details of the network. Also, something about VEISHA and Nordic Fest being the same weekend in future years. I'm going to start a Twitter to send out all the updates. More news when I hear it. Lots of smoke, for sure!