Indiana signed on for two more years of the Crossroads Classic this week. It’s a move, coach Tom Crean said, that changes some non-conference scheduling.“We’re going to play a neutral game in Indianapolis.Much of the discussion of Big Ten expansion has centered on football.
So where do the conference men’s basketball coaches stand on possibly adding a 12th school?
“I was always for one more team if it was the right team and it made sense,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said during last week’s Big Ten teleconference.
The conference announced last month plans to explore expansion. Commissioner Jim Delany is expected to make a recommendation in 12 to 18 months. The Big Ten hasn’t expanded since Penn State joined in June 1990.
There would be obvious benefits for football, namely the possibility of a Big Ten title game.
“I don’t know what we would do basketball-wise,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “If you go to two divisions, would it mean less Big Ten games or more Big Ten games?
“… Football, they would have the chance for the playoff and maybe the two divisions, but I’m not sure how it would impact basketball.”
Scheduling, of course, is influenced by the location of the possible new school.
“Notre Dame has always been the one that everyone felt made sense. It does not look like that would work out,” Weber said. “If you could get a partner for Penn State, that part of the country, one for media markets and also with the other sports, if they are traveling that far, it’s somebody else to play against. That would make a little bit of sense to me.”
Notre Dame rejected an offer to join the Big Ten in 1999. Athletics director Jack Swarbrick has already stated the school would not be interested this time around as well.
The early round of media speculation included Missouri out of the Big 12 and Big East schools Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
“You hear different teams, I don’t know what team makes sense,” Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. “Most of it will be television-driven for the network. That will be an important ingredient. It would have to make sense academically for the other Big Ten universities. It would have to be a fit academically, campus-wise, the team is going to bring additional markets to the Big Ten Network.
“… I really don’t have a school in the East that fits best. I don’t know why some of those teams would leave their leagues. I don’t know what their financial agreements are with the Big East and why they would leave the confines of what they are used to in their recruiting bases to come to the Big Ten.”
DeChellis, like most of the coaches asked, didn’t have an opinion one way or the other on expansion.
“It makes for a good conversation, but we’ll see if it moves past conversation,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.
“You have to get someone who makes sense for the Big Ten and makes sense for them also. I don’t know who that candidate might be.”
