Tuesday, April 20, 2010

UConn to Big Ten? Colorado and Utah to Pac-10?

It may be starting very, very, very soon.

The Big Ten is looking to get that 12th team that will allow them to hold a college football championship game ... and getting in that New York market is also on their minds. I was listening to Colin Cowherd's radio show today when he mentioned a rumor that I've been backing for years: The Big Ten is going after UConn.

It makes sense on many levels. UConn is heavily covered by the New York media AND the New England media. You'd inherit a football program that is highly competitive and gets to bowl games. You'd inherit a hoops program that has won two National Championships in the last 12 years. You'd inherit a women's basketball team that is THE elite program in the nation. It's a great school that will help get the conference into the door for Pittsburgh, Syracuse or Rutgers if they wanted to down the road.

Adding UConn to the mix is huge. That would mean that the Pac-10 would have to make their own move. Cowherd mentioned that Utah would be a lock to join (I agree) and Colorado would most likely jump over as well (I said BYU, but getting the Denver market would be huge for the Pac-10).

A new-look Big Ten could look like this:
EAST: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UConn
WEST: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Wisconsin

A new-look Pac-10 could look like this:
NORTH: Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Washington, Washington State
SOUTH: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, UCLA, USC

Of course, the Big XII and Mountain West Conferences will be short a member. Well, that's kind of simple. The Big XII would love to add TCU or Arkansas to their ranks. The Mountain West (maybe needing to replace TCU as well as Utah) could go after Boise State and Fresno State ... or maybe look at adding another Texas school like UTEP.

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