Expansion Updates – 6/8/10

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In an effort to keep you updated on the latest news (and rumors) surrounding conference expansion, here’s a quick update of what’s gone in the past 18 hours or so… complete with observations from MrSEC.com:


1.  Many people believe that Texas has passed Notre Dame on the list of most important schools in the current expansion mess.  But only Notre Dame has the power to keep the college landscape intact.  If the Irish join the Big Ten, it’s likely that league won’t chase Missouri or Nebraska which in turn would allow the Big 12 to hang together.  Texas is important, but Notre Dame is still the school to watch.


2.  Pete Thamel of The New York Times tweeted yesterday that an athletic director from a BCS school told him, “Notre Dame and the Big Ten are very much in deliberations.”  But Irish AD Jack Swarbrick said, “That’s just not true.”


3.  Meanwhile, the chancellor at Kansas “urged her Nebraska counterpart Monday to remain in the Big 12 and help avoid a potential calamity for the Jayhawks.”

Despite one of the nation’s best basketball programs, KU looks to be one of the odd schools out if the Big Ten grabs Nebraska and Missouri and most of the Big 12 South heads to the Pac-10.  Kansas (along with Kansas State, Iowa State, and either Baylor or Colorado) might be stuck partnering up with a re-configured Mountain West Conference.  The MWC delayed its own expansion decision yesterday, electing to see how the Big 12 mess plays out.


4.  Pete Fiutak of FoxSports thinks he knows how things will wind up: “In the end, Missouri and Nebraska are gone to the Big Ten, I don’t think Texas will go to the Pac-10, but I don’t think they’ll stick around, either, and Colorado has been desperate to get into the Pac-10 from the start of all these discussions.”  He doesn’t believe Texas will go to the Pac-10 but he does think they’ll go somewhere.  Hmmm.  Does he think the Longhorns will jump to the SEC?


5.  In regards to Texas, PLEASE READ THIS ONE. 

In mid-May — in our “Expounding On Expansion” series — we tried to explain why academics would play an awfully big role in conference expansion.  We revealed that a school like Florida, for example, has an athletic budget of more than $100 million.  At the same time, UF spends $550 million in research money every year.  Meaning: There can be even bigger money involved on the academic side of things.

Fast forward to yesterday.  In the middle of this piece from The Sporting News, you’ll find the following:  “The Big Ten has the CIC, which actually has helped Penn State dramatically improve its research budget.  For those who want to know, Penn State was only slightly above Texas in terms of research money back in the early 90s.  Now Penn State has a lead of around $200M+ on Texas and it’s only getting bigger.”

For those who can’t understand why Texas looks down its nose at the SEC academically, that’s why.  The SEC lags behind other conferences in research spending.  Partnering with schools more focused on research grants will drive up the research grants Texas would receive. 


6.  According to Chip Brown of Orangebloods.com, the Pac-10 “will start extending formal invitations to six Big 12 schools as early as this week.”  However, commissioner Larry Scott “is still gauging the seriousness of a push in the Texas Legislature to keep Baylor with its Big 12 South brothers.”  Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are expected to receive invites.  Baylor or Colorado will get the other.

Brown also writes that the Big Ten “is apparently ready to grant Notre Dame’s request that if the Irish decide to join the Big Ten that it be the only school added to the league.” 


7.  New Baylor president Ken Starr — yes, that Ken Starr — suggested yesterday that the Big 12′s Texas schools need to stay together.  “For Texas, a strong quartet of athletic programs such as the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor produces income and jobs and helps with student recruitment, both by keeping students in our state and by bringing others into our rolls.”

Translation: “Please, please don’t leave us!”


8.  Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports says Starr just wasted people’s time.


9.  It’s still possible that the Pac-10 and Big Ten become 16-team leagues, the Big 12 and Big East cease to exist, and the SEC will be left to decide what to do.


10.  There are plenty of factors at play in the current expansion talks, but when it comes to the sports angle, Arizona athletic director (who just came from Mississippi State) Greg Byrne says, “Football is the engine that pulls the train economically.”