Starting in 2024 - conference realignment

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the best thing about an expanded playoff IMO, it is disincentivizes 16 team conferences. The best targets for SEC or Big 10 expansion are:
ACC teams (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State)
Big 12 teams (Texas and Oklahoma
Notre Dame

Honestly all of those teams have a better path to the playoff where they are currently at than joining the big ten or SEC
 


I believe the only changes will be Army, BYU and Notre Dame join a conference. Probably AAC, Big 12 and ACC. The rest of the independents move to FCS
 

Denver_Gopher said:
I believe the only changes will be Army, BYU and Notre Dame join a conference. Probably AAC, Big 12 and ACC. The rest of the independents move to FCS
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Which is what is best for the big ten.
I will be happy if it’s never the big 16

the big ten should consider trying to buy 3rd tier pac 12 rights and have them play the games on big 10 network
 

I'll be called crazy for this, and that is fine, but I actually think Cincinnati is an interesting candidate.

Solid market, solid football and basketball, and the school is good in research (good medical research campus) though not AAU.
 


MplsGopher said:
I'll be called crazy for this, and that is fine, but I actually think Cincinnati is an interesting candidate.

Solid market, solid football and basketball, and the school is good in research (good medical research campus) though not AAU.
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I don't think it would make much sense, as all the Cincinnati fans are already within the Big 10 Network footprint.
 

Ope3 said:
I don't think it would make much sense, as all the Cincinnati fans are already within the Big 10 Network footprint.
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Yeah, yeah yeah.

Same argument as against Iowa State (which is AAU). At least in Cincy it is in the much more dense population area of Big Ten country.

There are -- of course -- just no low hanging fruit anymore for the Big Ten to grasp. As was already noted, it always comes down to talking about Big XII and ACC schools, and now with auto-bids for the CFP coming to those, they have less incentive to leave, at least on that end. There is always the money part.

Notre Dame will never join the Big Ten. Ever. They're ready to join the ACC fully, if and when that day comes.


The closest you could say as far as state public flagships in or near our footprint that aren't already in a P5, that we could snag and would be at least reasonable in athletics, would be UConn. But that is fairly low research, and not AAU. And that is because in the Northeast, private schools are just so dominant. The NE public flagships I believe all started as public Ag-Mechanics schools, from the Morrill land-grant act. Hence why they're all in rural locations in those states. SUNY did not, that has all been on its own, but pretty sure all the New England states it is true.
 
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MplsGopher said:
Albert Lea, Austin, Rochester, Mankato, Winona, Owatonna, Faribault, Northfield, Red Wing?

Roch has since split into 3, and Mankato into 2.
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I didn't know Red Wing and Northfield rejoined the league and I thought AL and Austin joined the league with schools like Waseca, St. Peter....
 

MplsGopher said:
Albert Lea, Austin, Rochester, Mankato, Winona, Owatonna, Faribault, Northfield, Red Wing?

Roch has since split into 3, and Mankato into 2.
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Correct, circa 2000 when Rochester added Century the Big 9 became a 10 member conference. When the Missota dissolved in 2014, Northfield & Red Wing were added. Northfield previously left the Big 9 in the early 70s.

As for adding Big 10 schools, if they aren't adding to the BTN footprint (other than ND, which I agree, not going to happen) than I say there's no point, it just dilutes the revenue without adding much to offset.

It hinges on the Big 12 staying in business or if the massive 64 team Super Conference becomes a real thing.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I didn't know Red Wing and Northfield rejoined the league and I thought AL and Austin joined the league with schools like Waseca, St. Peter....
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Albert Lea does compete with those schools in football, which switched to districts 5 years ago. Red Wing is now also playing smaller schools as well, while New Prague is in the district with the rest of the Big 9 schools.
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
Does the Big 9 even have 9 schools presently?
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As for football, there are no such thing as conferences anymore. The state high school league is slowly wrecking football. Booster clubs running dry from not playing traditional rivals and getting little to no concession money in some parts of the metro already.
 
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Big Ten teams I would like to see added if we had to go to 16 teams...
In order:
1. Notre Dame
2. Iowa State
3. Combination of any of the following: Syracuse, Pitt, Boston College, Missouri, Cincinnati, Louisville, Virginia, St. Thomas, NDSU... jk on the last two.
 

Some guy said:
the best thing about an expanded playoff IMO, it is disincentivizes 16 team conferences. The best targets for SEC or Big 10 expansion are:
ACC teams (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State)
Big 12 teams (Texas and Oklahoma
Notre Dame

Honestly all of those teams have a better path to the playoff where they are currently at than joining the big ten or SEC
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It's a bit hazy over there.

I'm for expansion. (thread title)
I'm against expansion. ("disincentivizes")
I'm for expansion. (best targets)
I'm against expansion. (the better path)

Well, it meets the criteria for a discussion.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Big Ten teams I would like to see added if we had to go to 16 teams...
In order:
1. Notre Dame
2. Iowa State
3. Combination of any of the following: Syracuse, Pitt, Boston College, Missouri, Cincinnati, Louisville, Virginia, St. Thomas, NDSU... jk on the last two.
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If forced at gunpoint, despite what others have noted, probably correctly, that it adds very little if anything for BTN subscriber fees ... I'd go with Iowa State as well.
 

Conferences where you don't play everyone every year will never make any sense. Let's break 'em up.
 

What about addition by subtraction and let NE go back to the Big12?
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I didn't know Red Wing and Northfield rejoined the league and I thought AL and Austin joined the league with schools like Waseca, St. Peter....
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Waseca and St. Peter (my hometown) are now in the Big South conference.

The Big South Conference

www.thebigsouthconference.org

When I graduated in 1996, it was the South Central Conference with Blue Earth, Fairmont, New Ulm, St. James, St. Peter, United South Central (which was Wells-Easton way back in the day), and Waseca. United South Central isn't in the Big South, but the rest of the schools are.

I also taught and coached for Mankato West in 2001 - 2002. I think that was Rochester Century's second year in existence, so it was the Big 9 with ten teams (no Northfield, no Red Wing). Red Wing was an original member of the "Big 8" (when there was only one Rochester school and one Mankato school). Owatonna dropped out early and Northfield took their slot.

Big 9 Conference - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 

Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0 said:
I didn't know Red Wing and Northfield rejoined the league and I thought AL and Austin joined the league with schools like Waseca, St. Peter....
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If this is accurate:

Big 9 Conference - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

then it looks like they came back in 2014. As ope3 mentioned due to the Missota disbanding, which I assume was due to the exurban Twin Cities schools like Farmington moving up to join other large suburban schools.


And as others have said, conferences these days are only for non-football sports, as football is highly controlled into districts by the MSHSL for the regular season. For post-season, I assume the same section structure still exists.

Which I understand the arguments against by those who don't get to play their traditional rivals (as much) anymore, but there were too many schools getting left out in the cold with no one to play and that's ridiculous. It's public high schools, for crying out loud, not the Super Bowl.
 

Time to contract. Bye bye Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, and Penn State.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Time to contract. Bye bye Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, and Penn State.
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I vote against this. (because I get a vote!)

As crazy as it may seem to you ... put me in the camp that says Minnesota would be better off in a sort of quasi Big 8/Big Ten West based conference, and wave bye bye to Great Lakes and Eastern teams.

I'd take Illinois and NW on westward. Would also take Purdue and/or IU, if they'd want to join, as well. Would add Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas, and K-State.
 

Some guy said:
the best thing about an expanded playoff IMO, it is disincentivizes 16 team conferences. The best targets for SEC or Big 10 expansion are:
ACC teams (Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State)
Big 12 teams (Texas and Oklahoma
Notre Dame
Honestly all of those teams have a better path to the playoff where they are currently at than joining the big ten or SEC
Click to expand...
 

Honestly all of those teams have a better path to the playoff where they are currently at than joining the big ten or SEC

Yes, but it's also a matter of money. Is Rutgers better off than Syracuse, for example, because of Big Ten money vs ACC money? That type of argument. Not saying it's automatically correct or wrong, just that that is an argument.
 

It just all needs to be location based.

Midwest
Minn
Iowa
Wisc
Iowa state
Nebraska
Kansas
K. State
Illinois
Northwestern
Mich
Mich state
Purdue
Indiana
Oklahoma
North Dakota
Oklahoma state
 



This would be my ideal conference:

Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Iowa State
Northwestern
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Missouri
Kansas
K-State
Nebraska (yeah ....... I know .....)
 

Il
MplsGopher said:
This would be my ideal conference:

Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Iowa State
Northwestern
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Missouri
Kansas
K-State
Nebraska (yeah ....... I know .....
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I like it... I thought bout missouri... But ndsu fans think they are good enough to compete.. well let's see it
 

MplsGopher said:
then it looks like they came back in 2014. As ope3 mentioned due to the Missota disbanding, which I assume was due to the exurban Twin Cities schools like Farmington moving up to join other large suburban schools.
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Correct on why the Missota disbanded. Prior Lake jumped in 2009 to the new South Suburban which started the demise. They had outgrown the Missota and then the dominos started to fall. Farmington & Shakopee followed into the South Suburban a few years later. Interesting, every school in that conference was in the Missota at one time except Eagan, & Eastview, Lakeville South who were the result of their school district dividing.

Without them, Chaska & Chanhassen did not want to travel to Hutchinson, Northfield & Red Wing. It could have been pieced together for maybe a few years, but the writing was on the wall.

Who knows, if Northfield gets big enough, maybe they will someday rejoin their former Missota brethren, though for now they seem happy in the Big 9. It's too bad that only Faribault is close by, but they are fortunate that the only really long road trip is to Winona.
 

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