Thoughts on Big Ten (expansion) meetings

After spending three days in Chicago reporting on some newsworthy subjects (Iowa basketball update, inter-conference transfer rule) and others for the sake of conjecture (Big Ten expansion), let me sum up the meetings in its value:

"No Gnews is Good Gnews with Gary ... Gnu"

But, expansion is topic de jour right now. People who regularly cover the Big Ten understand the league will pick an institution with a terrific academic reputation, in a prime location, that can generate revenue for the league and its television network AND  maybe can play some ball.

The talking heads at ESPN, like Andre Ware and Craig James, don't get it. Ware said the Big Ten should pick up TCU. James thinks Texas would say no because parents wouldn't be able to travel to road football games (isn't Hawaii in the same conference as Louisiana Tech?). Others have openly discussed Cincinnati because it's in Ohio and the school had a good football team last year.

Any school(s) that join(s) the Big Ten must meet the above criteria. The prospects start with state schools because they traditionally have fan support, state support and are widely respected. That's why Missouri, Nebraska and Rutgers always are mentioned as candidates. They are Association of American Universities members (like all 11 current Big Ten members), are geographically contiguous and open up new markets.

Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Kansas, Iowa State and Texas also meet elements of that criteria. Syracuse and Pittsburgh are not state schools, but meet the same criteria. Two schools that miss on the AAU criteria -- Notre Dame and Connecticut -- I think are candidates as well.

[poll id="8"] But Big Ten officials wouldn't budge on naming candidates or giving an update on prospects.

"I'm not going to go into any of the substance of our internal study," Commissioner Jim Delany said.

"I won't go there," Wisconsin Athletics Director Barry Alvarez said. "I just don't want to do that."

Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith was the only one who talked at length about one of the mentioned schools -- Notre Dame -- mostly because he's an alum.

"If they end up being one of the schools," Smith said, "I hope that they would consider what a conference championship means to a young person."

So there was no expansion news from Big Ten headquarters this week on expansion. There won't be any, either, on June 6 when the league's presidents meet. But sometime this fall, the prospects will leak out. That's when the expansion talk truly becomes newsworthy.