Alvarez thinks expansion a good thing for Big Ten
The latest push to add a 12th school to the Big Ten Conference is being fueled on multiple fronts - mainly the birth of a new cable TV enterprise - but it was triggered by scheduling issues with non-league programs in football and men's basketball.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said Friday renewed interest in expansion came to life during a regularly scheduled meeting of league ADs in May.
"We were talking about scheduling - a number of different things, really - and one of the directors brought it up," Alvarez said of adding another school. "He said, 'We haven't heard anything about this. It really would solve a lot of the problems that we're talking about.' "
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany took it a step further earlier this week when he told the Des Moines (Iowa) Register that "we need to look at (adding another school) in the next year."
Next on the docket, Alvarez said, is a "serious discussion about (expansion) as directors" with Delany during the annual Big Ten preseason football meetings Tuesday in Chicago.
Alvarez said Big Ten schools are encountering increased difficulty, and frustration, when it comes to filling their four non-conference football dates. There has been a significant increase in the amount of guarantees - payouts to opponents for playing at Big Ten venues - being commanded by visiting schools since the NCAA gave its blessing to a 12-game regular-season schedule in 2006.
"Some of the non-conference teams that we're forced to schedule with our 12th game really have us over a barrel (and) are charging us an arm and a leg," Alvarez said. "It's not right. "We have to find a solution. Obviously this would be a solution where you play another conference game."
Adding a 12th school to the Big Ten manifest has not been on the front burner publicly since 1999 when Delany tried to lure Notre Dame into the fold.
Alvarez said he doesn't think Notre Dame, which decided to retain its independence in football, will factor into the latest search even though the Fighting Irish represent the most favorable combination of academics, finances and popularity for the Big Ten.
Delany declined to offer specific possibilities to the Register, but the paper cited Rutgers and Syracuse, both members of the Big East Conference, as potential candidates. Missouri, a member of the Big 12 Conference, has been mentioned in past discussions about expanding the Big Ten.
Alvarez didn't identify specific options, either, but said Delany met with the athletic director and the president of a school "that was very serious a few years ago" about joining the Big Ten.
"This one was so outside the box that no one would ever anticipate, or guess who this was," Alvarez said.
A major factor in the expansion equation is the Big Ten Network, which is scheduled to debut Aug. 30. It's reasonable to assume a 12th school, in addition to being judged academically compatible, would provide access to a sizable viewing market.
Delany and Big Ten Network president Mark Silverman are currently visiting all the campuses in the Big Ten to discuss issues like cable rates and expansion. Alvarez said the tour will stop in Madison Thursday.
The last time the Big Ten expanded was in 1994 when Penn State was added.
"I think Jim's pretty wide open on this thing," Alvarez said, adding the ideal candidate would be any school "that would bring in more viewers to help with TV contracts and bring something to the league, much like Penn State did."
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/sports/in...tid=203208