So the big news yesterday out of the Big Eleven Ten was that they are definitely going to form a committee to consider thinking about maybe expanding, someday, to a twelfth team. I’m torn. I find the arguments for expanding persuasive on their face: the Big Ten is invisible between Thanksgiving and the start of the bowl season, which hurts. It would give us a championship game, which would be exciting. And the likely east-west division of teams would likely benefit Iowa, who would dominate most formulations of the Big Ten West.
All that said, Stewart Mandel’s case against expansion gave me pause. It’s worth reading the whole article on SI.com, but here’s the money quote:
Would the exposure from a conference championship game help a potential BCS contender from the Big Ten? Possibly. But the game could also produce the opposite effect.
While Big Ten teams have taken their lumps on the field, they aren’t exactly hurting for consideration. The league has produced a second BCS berth more often than any other conference (nine times in 12 years), including each of the past five seasons. If this year’s Ohio State-Iowa showdown, played Nov. 14, had taken place in a league title game three weeks later, the 10-2 Hawkeyes likely wouldn’t be playing in the Orange Bowl. Oklahoma in 2003, Alabama in 2008 and Florida in 2009 are the only title-game losers ever to receive BCS at-large berths, and all three entered their title games undefeated.
If the league loses more than one at-large berth (currently worth $4.5 million) over a four-year period, that extra championship-game revenue becomes a wash.
Ouch.
However, claims that it’ll never happen, or that it would actually have negative consequences for the conference–can’t spoil the fun of “Who’s the 12th Team?”! Will it be Pittsburgh? Syracuse? Rutgers? How about Missouri, or Nebraska (!)? Of course, Notre Dame is the crown jewel, but nobody seems to think that’ll happen.
So will they just leave it at eleven? Why should they, when they can go to twelve?
