Expansion? Who cares?

All the rage in college football these days is talk of Big Ten expansion. In fact, without it, I’m relatively sure ESPN would be looking for actual stories to cover right now in college football. Instead, everyone is talking expansion, and the probable demise of the Big East conference.

I’m not having any of it. And neither is Pittsburgh head coach Dave Wannstedt.

He met last week with in-state comrade Joe Paterno to discuss Pennsylvania high schools adapting a new practice policy and announcing that the two schools would be hosting high school coaches for clinics.

According to the AP report, “Wannstedt declined comment when asked afterward of rumors that Pitt is a possible Big Ten target. Wannstedt said he has had ‘zero’ discussions about the issue and that any talks would be taken up by school administrators.”

This weekend Tom Luicci, of the New Jersey Star-Ledger wrote an in-depth piece about Rutgers joining the Big Ten. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano took the same route as Wannstedt. “I hear the talk just like you do,” Schiano told Luicci. “But I don’t know anything more. A lot of powerful people are making statements that would lead you to believe maybe. I don’t know.”

On ESPN’s “College Football Live” on Friday afternoon analysts debated hypothetical expansion situations. Four teams from the Big East—Connecticut, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida—were wrapped up into a larger Atlantic Coast Conference. Two, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, left for the expanded Big Ten. Cincinnati and Louisville were the only two Big East teams to not make a new “super conference” according to the show.

Pat Forde, ESPN.com analyst spoke via phone on the show and noted that Cincinnati and Louisville own three of the past five Big East BCS bow berths, and felt it a little odd that the two schools would be left out of expansion of any kind. Boise State was another perennial contender that would be left out of a “super conference”.

Why should Big East schools want to stay in the eight-team league? Easy, just ask Notre Dame head man Brian Kelly, who, numerous times during his three-year tenure at Cincinnati, noted that the Big East was the easiest conference to win. In order to win and go to a BCS bowl, he’d note, all you had to do was win seven games, and there was no conference title game.

So, why should schools from the Big East want to jump ship to go to a conference where they’d have to play seven games and a conference title game? Money, money, money.

Big Ten teams earned an enormous sum of $22 million per team last season. The Big East earned $33 million by itself, and $20 million of that came from basketball deals. So, for Rutgers, Pittsburgh and other schools named in the hypothetical Big East expansion talk, money literally does talk.

Who will bite? Who will remain in the Big East? Will the Big East fold? Where will UC end up? Where will West Virginia go?

Want my thoughts? Who cares? A poll on UC’s student-run newspaper, The News Record, wanted to know where UC would end up after the Big Ten raided the Big East and the Big East ceased to exist? Four options: the ACC, a redesigned Big East/Other, the Big Ten or Conference USA.

Forty percent of those who voted (59 students) say Conference USA. Thirty percent said a redesigned Big East or other, and 27% said the ACC. Apparently the sky is falling down in Bearcat land.

Just don’t tell Athletic Director Mike Thomas that. “It’s difficult to speculate on what will happen,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Bill Koch a few weeks ago. A lot of “experts” think college football is headed to four 16-team “superconferences” to decide the national title. Thomas thinks UC would be one of those 64 teams.

If you came here looking for my opinion, well, you already got it: Who cares? When a co-worker of mine came into the office and said, “Bring back Rick Minter, we’re going to be in Conference USA,” I was shocked. I asked, “What the heck are you talking about?” He responded, “The Big Ten is going to raid the Big East and we’re done.”

Well, glad to know people who work on BCS level football teams are thinking the same thing. Hey, call me back when things actually happen. Maybe then we’ll do some talking. Until then, let’s sit back and talk about football—not hypotheticals.
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Sooner or later I’ll begin looking at the Big East football schedules. This year I have decided to offer last year’s guest blogger, and WPTS Sports Director, Jake Meyer another shot at looking at Big East football. We’ll be looking at each team here shortly. When I have the dates, you’ll know. Thanks for reading.