If The SEC Expands, Will The Big Ten Follow Suit?

With expansion possible again, the Big Ten may want to keep up and Buckeyeswire.com has this piece up on possible targets.

The Big Ten is currently at 14 schools so could probably digest a couple of more.

This list suggests UNC and Pitt but the ACC schools also signed over media rights for several years. Pitt could conceivably make a move but we can’t see UNC leaving the ACC and given the lucrative prominence of the Duke-UNC rivalry, that would be hard to walk away from. We can’t see UNC fans or donors being happy about a move like that.

But if Texas and Oklahoma do end up in the SEC, then West Virginia might make sense. It might be too late to go after UConn but that might be interesting too. The problem with a lot of the Big 12 schools, outside of Texas and Oklahoma, is that they might not add too much audience. Rutgers has been pretty mediocre in the Big Ten but at least Rutgers brings demographics.

Kansas basketball might get the Jayhawks some love but football is always a struggle in Lawrence.

If you want to be really mischevious, the Big Ten is the only conference that makes more than the SEC and you might consider looking there. You certainly won’t get Alabama, Georgia or Florida, but would South Carolina consider it?

Maybe. Ideally you’d want a school that could use the money and in the case of the SEC, the school that for some reason has struggled with money is Tennessee. What would happen if the Big Ten made a serious pitch to the Vols? With incentives?