The Rest of College Football

[Tony G]

And the ones on the list are?

[whodean]

ND, obviously, then probably Maryland and Oklahoma.

I don't think expansion will happen for the Big10 until/if Notre Dame joins.

[Tony G]

You would need 4 to make it even. I'd drop OK and add Cuse & Rutgers. PSU, Cuse, Rutgers, and Maryland would form a 4 team section

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... tell me we are not actually having this discussion AGAIN.

It must be summer time.

[Hannibal]

If all of these expansion markets are so attractive, then why have the Big Least and ACC had such shit TV contracts for so long compared to the Big Ten?

[lineygoblue]

Hanni makes a good point. I doubt that the sports bars in Virginia or Carolina would fill up to watch their teams play Minnesota or Northwestern.

[WM Wolverine]

Its not just about adding those programs for football/basketball, its about adding their population, fan base, television markets (B10 games could be shown in Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, etc), recruiting grounds in addition to adding their university to the CIC and adding basketball/football games inventory.

[entropy]

By Adam Rittenberg | ESPN.com
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CHICAGO -- When the college football playoff push kicked off, Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith planted himself in the campus-sites camp.

Smith favored having the semifinals on the campuses of the higher-seeded teams. The setup would give Big Ten teams like Ohio State an advantage they've never enjoyed in the current BCS/bowl setup -- nationally significant games on Midwest soil in late December or early January. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany was among the first major college football figures to stump for campus sites this winter.

"We've shifted," Smith told ESPN.com on Tuesday. "I was originally for campus sites, and I still go back there mentally every now and then as discussions occur, but the bowls have a really good system set up to host."

The reasons for the Big Ten's shift are well known by now. Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said Tuesday that a playoff outside of the existing bowls would "pretty much destroy the bowl system." Preserving and protecting the Rose Bowl is paramount to Delany and the rest of the Big Ten brass.

Smith also thinks there are operational advantages to keeping the biggest games at bowl sites.

"There are certain schools that would put it on and host it extremely well," he said. "Others might be challenged with that. Bowls have done this a long time. They have great local organizing committees. ... And it's good for the game."

The strongest counterargument is that campus sites would ease the burden on college football fans. Rather than make separate trips for a league title game, a national semifinal and a national championship game, fans of some teams could have one of those games closer to their homes.

Another apparent plus for Big Ten backers is the potential weather advantage Big Ten teams could exploit by hosting games. Unlike squads in the South and West, Big Ten teams are conditioned to play cold-weather football, but they typically face the best from the SEC, Pac-12 and Big 12 in ideal conditions at places like the Rose Bowl, the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and University of Phoenix Stadium.

The thought of a college football playoff in the snow is both novel and exciting to some Big Ten fans. But Smith actually sees it as a drawback.

Brace yourselves, Woody and Bo ...

"Let's say Ohio State is hosting and it's January or December, and let's say it is 5 degrees," Smith said. "Is that right for the game? We're not pro. We need to figure out what's best for the game, and I think a fast surface, good weather is important for the game. It's important for the kids."

Delany, Osborne and others acknowledge that campus sites could favor the Big Ten, which hasn't won a national championship since after the 2002 season. But in surveying presidents, athletic directors, coaches and even players, the overwhelming majority favored the bowl sites.

"It would be a competitive advantage to have semifinal games at home fields," Osborne said. "... but the bowls have been good to us."

The sentiment isn't sitting well with some folks. The Big Ten might have been alone in advocating for campus sites, but it's fair to ask if the Big Ten gave up on the crusade far too easily.

Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel writes today:

Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.

Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you're not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold?

Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month -- Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won't end up with the majority of the crowd?

The Rose Bowl's power over the Big Ten is something to behold. It makes normally intelligent men say ridiculous things.

Of the Big Ten groups advocating for playoffs at bowl sites, the coaches' position makes the least sense. These are guys who typically capitalize on every possible advantage presented to them. But they seem to value their players' bowl experience over the possibility of making Alabama or USC play them in the snow.

Why should the Big Ten care if TCU and Oregon have small stadiums and can't accommodate the media and the corporate sponsors? The Big Ten, for the most part, doesn't have those problems.

In my recent interview with Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman, I asked him why so many powerful people in the Midwest care so much about bowl games located so far away.

"It's part of the tradition of college football," Perlman said. "It is a good experience for student-athletes. It makes more sense in terms of ending the season than some kind of playoff. It helps the communities that have been supportive of intercollegiate football for a long time."

What about the local communities Big Ten schools can serve by keeping games on campus?

Wetzel writes:

There's no question Big Ten fans love the Rose Bowl, although not as much as they once did. They also like to win, also would like to shut the SEC up and also really like showing off their legendary stadiums and great cities, fighting against the idea that they live in some inhospitable, rusted-out region.

Plenty of them could use the economic impact of staging these massive events in the Midwest too.

That's not going to happen. The campus-sites ship has sailed. Perhaps it's a tradeoff the Big Ten made to ultimately ensure strong playoff access for league champions.

If and when the Big Ten champion qualifies for a playoff, however, it will more than likely play a virtual road game. The team will have to fight like heck to win.

A lot harder than the league did to have meaningful games on campus.

[entropy]

Big Ten surrenders fight to bring college football playoff to the Midwest, just to help the Rose Bowl

By Dan Wetzel

Of all the love stories ever told, there may be none purer than the Big Ten's undying devotion, commitment and pure heart-throbbing lust to the Rose Bowl.

True love always. Best friends forever. A Romeo and Juliet for the modern ages, complete with suicidal second-guessing because a rose by any other name apparently wouldn't smell as sweet.

Big Ten players and fans can forget seeing a playoff game in their stadium, or even in the Midwest (Getty Imag …

It's wrong to criticize someone for who they choose to love.

Instead, just marvel at the depth of the relationship. The Big Ten has abandoned its smart, savvy push for a playoff that featured on-campus semifinal sites and a title game open to bid by cities across the country, including the Midwest, because it just couldn't bear the thought of cheating on a bowl game.

There are still details to be hashed out on how college football is going to stage its postseason. There are still plenty of sober voices out there who think outsourcing hundreds of millions in postseason games is at best illogical and at worst corrupt. Many more think playoff games on campus would be glorious.

But forget it.

If the Big Ten, which has the most to gain on the issue yet is trying to lose, then campus playoff games aren't happening. In an effort to help the Rose Bowl, the conference is willing for a playoff to also be staged in Miami Gardens and Glendale, and so on, rather than Columbus and Ann Arbor.

A playoff will be great no matter where the games are played. It'd just be better on campus. But the bowl lobby has won, and a select few of them are about to become even more fabulously wealthy off the labors of student-athletes. Leave it to the inevitable congressional investigation to sort out how the no-bid deals were reached.

At this point, it's still a romance novel because the Big Ten really, really loves the Rose Bowl … no, I love you more … text me when you wake up … no, you hang up first.

"For us it's critical to keep the Rose Bowl in the equation," Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis told reporters Tuesday after Big Ten meetings hashed out the conference's likely preferred plan.

How critical? Well, so critical that they're willing to make business decisions based on emotion, willing to give up on competitive advantages, logistical ease and monetary benefits.

Possible home-field advantage for Big Ten teams? We love the Rose Bowl.

Making the elements, which Big Ten teams are presumably better equipped to handle, a factor in the playoffs? We love the Rose Bowl.

Showcasing the incredible game-day environment of Camp Randall, Happy Valley or the Big House? We love the Rose Bowl.

Mark Hollis and his fellow ADs remain steadfast in their support for a broken bowl system. (AP)

Not requiring fans, students and players' families to continue to make lengthy postseason trips? We love the Rose Bowl.

Creating economic impact in the league's hometowns? We love the Rose Bowl.

Not taking discretionary spending out of the region and into California or Florida? We love the Rose Bowl.

Not playing games in opponents' home regions, states, cities or even stadiums? We love the Rose Bowl.

If you hate campus so much, how about compromising and staging neutral-site semifinal games in Indianapolis or Detroit, where the money would be so welcome? Sorry, we love the Rose Bowl.

Other than loving the Rose Bowl there isn't a single reason for the Big Ten to support this plan. Of course, what they love is what the Rose Bowl was (Big Ten champ vs. Pac-10 champ), which is not what it is or certainly will be. This is a playoff blueprint in sepia tones.

It's lunacy. But then again, love's crazy, right?

Somewhere Mike Slive of the SEC and Larry Scott of the Pac-12 are kicking back with a cackle of delight. These guys are angling for every possible edge while the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl sit in adjacent bathtubs, holding hands and waiting for the moment to be right.

Wait, the rest of college football has to be asking, you're not even going to fight and try to make us look like wimps for arguing against football in the cold?

Wait, you seriously are going to ask the same fan base to travel three times in a month – Big Ten title game, semifinals and championship game, the last two at least via airplane? And you think we won't end up with the majority of the crowd?

[Related: Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany doesn't think much of Alabama]

The Rose Bowl's power over the Big Ten is something to behold. It makes normally intelligent men say ridiculous things.

"It would be a competitive advantage to have semifinal games at home fields … but the bowls have been good to us," Nebraska AD Tom Osborne said.

If rampant profiteering, indictments charging corruption and millions in unnecessary expenses passed onto the schools counts as "been good to us" than the Big Ten may be the battered spouse here. Even so, exactly how good would a bowl have to have been to be better than a Nebraska playoff game in Memorial Stadium?

"If you took them out of the playoff, it would pretty much destroy the bowl system," Osborne said.

Ah, no, it wouldn't pretty much destroy the bowl system. In fact, it wouldn't destroy it at all.

But, hey, love is blind. So blind apparently that no one can be bothered to actually look at the financial statements and business models of how bowl games operate and realize that line is complete garbage.

"From kids' perspective, the bowl experience is the one thing they want to keep," Hollis argued.

The Big Ten is so committed to the Rose Bowl it ceded playoff venues to the SEC and Pac-12. (Getty Images)

Yes, the vaunted bowl experience must be protected for the players. It's cool. Bowls are fun. Except in the same meeting the Big Ten proposed moving bowl eligibility from 6-6 to 7-5, which means maybe half a dozen smaller bowls will, indeed, be destroyed and the experience of those players apparently isn't worth protecting.

If only those games were as loveable as the Rose Bowl.

[Wetzel podcast: Hammering out the playoff details]

The athletic directors talk about trying to maintain or improve the meaning of the regular season, but then they want to take out the incentive of home-field advantage so it really doesn't matter whether you finish first or fourth.

And do players really value the chance to engage in some pie-eating contest more than potentially getting any edge on winning the biggest game of their life, getting one more chance to run on the field of their own stadium or, even playing on the road in one of the nation's other spectacular campuses? Playing at Bryant-Denny, even as the road team, is also a pretty sweet experience.

And what about the chance for the Big Ten to finally stop playing games in SEC/Pac 12 country, maybe see if one of those sunshine programs can handle a few flakes of Midwest snow? Yes, it sure sounds good, but did they mention they love the Rose Bowl?

"There's a part of me that wants to play a team from the Southwest or the Southeast in five-degree weather," Ohio State's Gene Smith told the Sporting News. "But is it really right for the game?"

The NFL thinks all weather is football weather and adheres to the crazy idea of playing games in places like Lambeau and Solider Fields.

If only they had something like a Rose Bowl to love. Then Roger Goodell would immediately get smart and try to move the NFC title game to the Alamodome or something.

There's no question Big Ten fans love the Rose Bowl, although not as much as they once did. They also like to win, also would like to shut the SEC up and also really like showing off their legendary stadiums and great cities, fighting against the idea that they live in some inhospitable, rusted-out region.

Plenty of them could use the economic impact of staging these massive events in the Midwest too. But you can't put a price on love.

And all these years later, that old Rose Bowl sure can cause the Big Ten's heart to flutter. Kind of like Juliet once did.

[hack]

Not shocked in the slightest...

[entropy]

I know we nebraska fans don't have the emotional tie to the Rose some of you do.. but the BIG lost a huge opportunity here. There are enough competitive disadvantages. When a potential advantage presents itself, you have to take it, not give it away.

[Hannibal]

Its not just about adding those programs for football/basketball, its about adding their population, fan base, television markets (B10 games could be shown in Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, etc), recruiting grounds in addition to adding their university to the CIC and adding basketball/football games inventory.

The new programs also get access to your TV markets, your revenue, and your recruiting base. It's a zero sum game.

[entropy]

I guess I forgot where everyone stands on this.. I doubt anyone doesn't have ND as their #1, so just to level set, who are your top 2 and top 4 (assume 14 or 16 team conference) if there is no ND..

[hack]

I know we nebraska fans don't have the emotional tie to the Rose some of you do.. but the BIG lost a huge opportunity here. There are enough competitive disadvantages. When a potential advantage presents itself, you have to take it, not give it away.

feel exactly the same.

[whodean]

"Let's say Ohio State is hosting and it's January or December, and let's say it is 5 degrees," Smith said. "Is that right for the game? We're not pro. We need to figure out what's best for the game, and I think a fast surface, good weather is important for the game. It's important for the kids."

Reality. You just can't fight Mother Nature.