Iowa AD 'very, very comfortable' with 12-school Big Ten

CHICAGO - Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta hinted that Nebraska's addition to the Big Ten Conference next year gives the conference an optimum number of schools moving forward.

Nebraska was invited - and accepted - a Big Ten invitation in June and will become the league's 12th member in 2011. Barta said league and school officials discussed multiple plans related to expansion before Nebraska opted to join the league.

"When we started this process, we had a plan that said, 'OK if we don't grow, we're set. We've got a good plan,'" Barta said. "We had a plan for one, and that's what it's coming to. And then we had a plan for maybe 16. But we're very, very comfortable right where we're at.

"Twelve teams ... we love the fact that Nebraska is that 12

^th

team," Barta said. "I feel like they fit academically, athletically. I think they're a national presence. They can make it work financially. I can't predict the future, but it feels pretty good about where it's at right now."

League Commissioner Jim Delany said Monday the league's presidents will discuss expansion again in December. Delany announced last December the league would study expansion over a 12-to-18-month time frame. Delany stuck to that time table at the league's spring meetings in early May.

The Big 12 Conference's potential disintegration in early June forced the Big Ten and Nebraska to consummate expansion plans more quickly than either entity had expected. Nebraska accepted a Big Ten invitation less than six months after Delany's initial announcement.

"I think what they (the presidents) wanted to do was to study thoroughly the opportunities and the options, the risks and the rewards," Delany said. "And our time frame was changed, quite honestly, when the Big 12 wanted a commitment. And so we moved forward in a way that we thought was appropriate.

"And I asked at that time, as I mentioned earlier, how do you want us to proceed? And they said, ‘We said 12 to 18 months; that's what our standing statement will be. Work hard to get Nebraska in, and then we'll discuss it in December."

Delany all but discounted a potential expansion that includes Notre Dame, saying "I don't see them as a player, really." Delany declined to comment about possibly expanding to East Coast markets and said league presidents will "make a judgment."