The Pac 12 has no interest in losing its sexy football schools to the B1G. The Pac 12 wants to expand.. they need the central time zone. I have a hard time imagining USC playing at tOSU at 11:00 am. Anyone in LA going to watch that at 9:00 am their time? BTW, Colo has zero interest in the B1G. The Pac 12 has a golden opportunity here with the vulnerable Angry 8.
In the end, I still think that in college sports keeping things regional is best for the fans and the games. Rivalries are awesome for the fans, storylines, ticket sales, etc. It's seriously hard to imagine creating a real rivalry with schools that are several time zones away. We know ISU and Hoks rivalry. Imagine ISU/Minn? ISU/WISC? ISU/ILL? ISU and KU are by far best fitted for the B1G. Not to mention the fun that fans can have making reasonable road trips to follow ISU.
This really sucks that we have a really good football team to watch in less than a month, and all our focus got shifted to this narrative. Let's go kick some butt and prove our worth!!!
The Pac12 might prefer to stay intact, but where does the money come from? Money isn't the key to success, otherwise Texas wouldn't be a middle of the road Big12 team. But as we have seen from history, college athletics is an arms race. They aren't giving incremental media rights $ back to the university. If the Big10 and SEC media rights deals are in the $70-$100M range annually over a 10 year period, that makes it tough on Pac12 schools who would be mired in the $35-$50M range. Especially if athletes become school employees - getting paid and schools are responsible for their health insurance. Could all happen if athletes can collectively bargain.
IMO the Big10 should grow to around 20-24 schools - adding USC, Stanford, Washington & Oregon are no brainers. USC & Oregon because they are name brands in football and draw viewership from casual football fans. The Big10 adds Stanford for academic reasons and Washington because they have highest revenues among Pac12 public universities and Seattle is large media/tech market. Both Stanford & Washington have historically solid athletic teams.
After that, there is a host of schools that would be good fits, each have their pros/cons. IMO if the Big10 does add Pac12 schools, they will add a minimum of 6 teams. That way Pac12 schools can play a schedule split 50/50 among traditional Pac12 & Big10 schools,
- Both USC & Stanford are private California schools, but is there still pressure to include UCLA and California? Both public schools are AAU schools and well respected academically. IMO they would be Big10's preference if they stop at 6 schools. But do they add the most value to the Big10 Network?
- Arizona is an AAU school and there are A LOT of Big10 alumni who live full or part-time in AZ. Also not a bad road trip in November.
- Arizona State in not an AAU school, but Phoenix is larger media market than Tucson and again a lot of Big10 alumni live in Phoenix area. Does having 2 Arizona teams make sense to maximize Big10's media rights?
- Both Utah & Colorado are AAU schools- but not sure either moves the needle as the other Pac12 schools mentioned above. One advantage that CU would have over Az/ASU is historical rivalry with Nebraska. CU also makes sense to pair with KU if the Big10 adds 2 Midwest schools.
- Iowa State makes as much sense as KU or CU if the Big10 wants to solidify its east of the Rockies footprint. All have had periods of nationally respected basketball or football programs over the last 40 years. But where KU & CU have an advantage is media markets for Big10 Network platform. Cable isn't going to disappear anytime soon.