I was thinking Notre Dame might be persuaded to join.
It's more likely than you may think TAW. Notre Dame would make more money (their deal with NBC is only $9 million annually while each big ten school brings in $22 million from the Big Ten Network) while spending less (travel expenses and administrative costs). The only thing that stands in the way is arrogance. Pitt is a nice choice from a geographic, tradition and academic standpoint, but really they don't bring much to the table financially. Notre Dame has all those things and offers the financial reward for the conferences that lacking in any other choice. Also, Notre Dame has a hockey team, so the potential for hockey as a big ten sport is now on the table. A Big Ten hockey conference would be huge.
A big ten hockey conference would kill college hockey.
Read this article and you'll see why.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...rkhorse-candidate-for-big-ten-expansion-texas
Sure it would be great to get Texas. Why would they want to join the Big Ten again? They hold all the power in the Big 12 conference.
Because they would get an extra $10 million in tv revenue alone every year?
This (and the addenda) is a great, though long, look at the expansion contenders, especially Texas.
I disagree. The east would be completely unaffected by this. The west would see Minnesota and Wisconsin leave the best conference in college hockey. However UND, DU, CC, and the MN-based schools can more than hold their own in comparison to other conferences. Michigan, MSU, and OSU leaving would hurt the CCHA I believe, but then it would allow for smaller schools to advance.
Ultimately I think that forming the Big Ten conference in hockey would help college hockey in the long run, as it would attract more national attention and encourage other schools to form teams as well. College hockey gets overlooked for the most part, but occasionally gets ESPN time in the Frozen Four and if a son of an NHLer is playing and such. The Big Ten would demand attention, especially with it's dominance.
hockey doesn't make minnesota any money. the only revenue sports for minnesota are football and basketball.
The reason MCH and MSU left the WCHA was travel. With Omaha soon to be gone, even better. They and OSU would never agree to join what is an airplane league when they can bus anywhere except Alaska. Hockey is not a revenue sport at any of those schools (MCH breaks even) and only at OSU could then even make it one (based on arena size). The Blue jackets can hardly sell tickets there, so that's doubtful. Attendance: MCH 6,700 (#4 rank) per game; MSU 4,900 (#13); OSU 2,900 (#27), Notre Dame 2,700 (#30).
Minnesota is 3rd in attendance and outdraws MCH by over 3,000 per game.
Not a good financial move at all. Not happening.
I hope I am missing something here. Last I saw was the Hockey team makes about 5 million a year for the U. They gross over 7 million.