Hey everyone,
I did my undergrad at Mizzou, and I'm at Minnesota Law right now.
Mizzou would be perfect for Big Ten expansion. Mizzou brings the media dollars, fits in academically, and athletically.
Nebraska used to be a football powerhouse, but frankly when the NCAA changed scholarship rules, it has slowly taken it out of Nebraska. I think most people would be shocked to know that Nebraska pays its football coach less than 5 other Big XII programs (including Missouri) and ranks 25th nationally.
Mizzou has made huge strides athletically, beating Nebraska 3 out of the last 4 years. They have a newly remodeled football stadium and a beautiful basketball arena that opened in 2006. It is only on the upside. Mizzou has been making waves recently with low-level recruits. But this year in football and basketball they have roughly top 15 recruiting classes. For comparison, Nebraska's class is rated 34. Don't be fooled by Nebraska's success this year. Suh really carried that team in basically every game. It will be in trouble without him. Nebraska has no offensive prospects and the defense is about to take an epic hit. Football isn't the only sport MU is good at though. Mizzou had first round picks in Football (Maclin, and Hood), Basketball (Carroll), and Baseball (two pitchers). Mizzou would already be the best baseball team in the Big Ten. MU is on a 5 year bowl streak, and made the Elite 8 last year.
Additionally, several of you are really underrating the following Mizzou has. The fanbase is much better than you are giving it credit for. Sometimes they may not travel well (this might even be a myth, I haven't seen any data to back it up), but Mizzou gets great ratings. Mizzou's bowl games recently have gotten great ratings nationally, and the Tigers have played in some hot games. In 2007, "Espn on Abc" had an average broadcast rating of 4.3. But Mizzou played in two games on "Espn on Abc" that nearly broke 11. They played in consecutive weeks, in 2 of "espn on abc's" top 10 rated games ever. To the extent Mizzou gets bad support, it is likely because of its terrible deal with the Big XII. Several Mizzou games a year are on PPV. The rest are generally on cable channels like Fox Sports and Versus. Mizzou really gets shut out of the current Big XII deal.
Missouri brings the media markets you are looking for. Kansas City and St. Louis are top 30 markets. Several smaller cities in the state have more tv's in them than all of Nebraska. For comparison. Kansas City has more than a million more people in it than the entire state of Nebraska.
Finally, Mizzou academics are seriously underrated. This is mostly a product of the silly US News Rankings, in my opinion. Missouri has a world renowned Journalism school. It also has its own nuclear reactor and the world class engineering school (MUST) is a part of the system. Mizzou has a law school, business school, veterinary school, and medical school on campus. The MU system has 3 law schools, 3 medical schools, and a host of other academic resources. Generally, those satellite campuses are never figured into the equation. Missouri is both similar and different to the Minnesota system. It spreads its schools out, but they all work under the same banner and share resources.
A friend of mine has been operating a blog that explains why a Big Ten - Mizzou relationship would be mutually beneficial. Check it out:
http://www.big10mizzou.com/
I also agree that the Big 12 would be comfortable with replacing (from a football/money standpoint anyway) Mizzou with TCU. Same/better quality football team with an athletic department that would view their smaller share of the TV money pie as an upgrade.
