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Northwestern could benefit from Big Ten expansion
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Joe Paterno is pushing for a Big Ten expansion that
could only help the conference
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
There was a time when I though the game had passed Joe Paterno by. I was wrong.
Say what you will about the often gruff coach – he’s old, he can’t relate to kids, the game has passed him by – but he is usually correct. And by the way, like me, you would be wrong on all three counts.
Never one to hold his tongue, Paterno said last week that he would like to see the Big Ten expand to 12 teams, enabling the also-ran conference to create a championship game and play later into the season. The wizened one said he thought that the extra team and game would allow the Big Ten to stay in the minds of the media (read voters) later and possibly get the conference more shots at the National Title.
It is a tough sell, not only because commissioner Jim Delaney has already turned it down, but because the last leagues to try and make waves through expansion haven’t yet shown that it works.
Yet, when Paterno talks, we should listen. After all he was the first to conceive of an East Coast football conference – it became the Big East, but ironically without Penn State.
Plus, with Penn State the relative newcomer to the Big Ten, Paterno can almost speak from an outsider’s point of view. It is not like the Nittany Lions have a strong tie to the Rose Bowl like the rest of the league seems to have.
No, Penn State and JoePa are just the right messengers to push change onto the league that seems perpetually stuck in the 1950s (Now talk about irony!).
So why not expand? This would seem the perfect time to do it. Just as when Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech were plucked from a dying Big East, we have a conference that is on the verge of collapse.
I am talking about Conference USA, which has lost the last vestige of a great team in Memphis with the departure of John Calipari to Kentucky. Yes, it is basketball, but Memphis’s dominance in that sport was the only thing keeping Conference USA – designed to be a roundball giant – alive. Without Calipari and the Tigers, Conference USA is no better than the Sun Belt, or SWAC.
That leaves the conference ripe for plucking.
Not that the Big Ten should look there, but it gives the other conferences a chance to expand along with the Midwestern boys. (Mountain West, take note)
Instead, the Big Ten should look at one of Paterno’s suggestions: Pittsburgh. Like all the conference teams sans Northwestern, Pittsburgh is a large public institution. It is renowned for research, liberal arts education, and has a rabid fan base.
Most importantly, Pitt plays in the style of the Big Ten in both basketball and football, and they provide a natural rivalry for JoePa’s Penn State team. No more of these made up rivalries for the Nittany Lions such as Minnesota and Michigan State. Bring on the Panthers!
While it may not be nice for the other leagues to continually pick apart the Big East, this is the most natural fit for the Big Ten given that Penn State is already part of the league. The Big East could easily replace the Panthers with a Memphis, or more likely, Central Florida, giving the league a larger cut of the Florida market.
Now, to cut off the Notre Dame faction that believes that is the most logical choice, I contend that Notre Dame would have nothing to gain from the addition to the conference. While yes, geographically Notre Dame falls more neatly into the conference footprint, and its schedule already contains a smorgasbord of Big Ten teams, the Irish stand to lose far more than they gain with the conference affiliation.
Gone would be its exemption for the BCS (if it survives hearings in Congress). Gone would be its television contract. Gone would be the ability to make a number of decisions purely based on football because it is tied to the hands of others.
Notre Dame’s alums wouldn’t give that up. Notre Dame’s administration would be thrown out if they did.
And that leads us back to Pittsburgh.
The league would seek to maintain the set rivalry games, probably through a setup much like the ACC uses for its divisions. There, each team has a rivalry game with a single team in the other division and the other two games rotate each season.
I am guessing we would be looking at something similar to this (And notice the name change; these are colleges that should be able to count):
| Great Midwest Conference | |
| Great Lakes Division | Plains Division |
|---|---|
| Penn State | Minnesota |
| Pittsburgh | Iowa |
| Ohio State | Wisconsin |
| Michigan | Illinois |
| Northwestern | Indiana |
| Michigan State | Purdue |
Permanent cross-division games:
- Northwestern – Illinois
- Michigan – Minnesota
- Wisconsin – Michigan State
- Indiana – Pittsburgh
- Purdue – Penn State
- Ohio State – Iowa
The only current permanent rivalry that is lost in this format is Northwestern – Purdue, which doesn’t have a traveling trophy, and when was the last time anyone looked forward to that game anyway?
This probably isn’t the way they would go (I am imagining something more geographic, although this is pretty close to East – West), and the Great Lakes Division in this format is historically stacked.
But I think it is something to look at. Plus in this format, if Michigan ever returns to glory, it avoids a two-week series between Ohio State and the Wolverines. What fun would that be if each year were just a race to that game?
No, this allows a legitimate shot for teams in the Western part of the conference that is traditionally without a lot of football power to compete for a title each season. And that seems to be slightly more important than preserving the dominance of the Buckeyes and Michigans of the world.
Of course, as the Northwestern Examiner, I have to admit that the Wildcats are at somewhat of a disadvantage in this format. Each season will be packed with some long road trips east to face the division foes, and it means facing the traditional powerhouses year after year.
But knowing the fire that Pat Fitzgerald brings to the team, this alignment might only inspire the team more. Plus knowing that you have set games against Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State could only help recruiting because those games are almost guaranteed television spots.
Northwestern has made strides in recruiting in Ohio recently and this could only help matters, while opening up the very stacked Pennsylvania and Michigan arenas for talent.
So, before you dismiss Joe Paterno as some sort of kook, or let Jim Delany’s dismissal out of hand convince you that there is no room for 12 in a league named “10”, think a little longer on it.
You might find yourself agree with the old man in State College.
For more info: Penn State Examiner Kevin McGuire wants your thoughts on expansion
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