The Big Ten conference is exploring the possibility of expanding to 12 teams, yahoosports reports.
The move appears to be primarily motivated by the desire to extend the football regular season and hold a conference championship game. A conference must have 12 teams to be allowed to do that.
Teams expected to be considered include Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Missouri, Cincinnati and Louisville.
The Big Ten last expanded in 1990 with the addition of Penn State. Since then, the conference has explored expansion three times, in 1993, 1998 and 2003. They went as far as to extend an offer to Notre Dame in 1999 which was subsequently rejected. The conference is not expected to pursue the Irish this time around, according to Rivals.com, though this blogger disagrees.
The Chicago Tribune offers further speculation as to the motives behind this.
What is your take on this? Who do you think would be the best choice if the Big Ten does expand? How would you structure the divisions within the conference? And would an additional team necessitate a conference name change? Let the debate begin.
