Who will be the next big addition to the Big Ten? With conference realignment reshaping the college football landscape, the Big Ten is eyeing its next power move. In this video, I break down the potential candidates, explore what schools bring the most value, and discuss how these moves could impact the future of college sports. Could we see new rivalries, coast-to-coast matchups, or even a super conference in the making?
[00:00:02] What's up y'all, 2Five is here, Sports Reports As Ordered, Like, Review, Subscribe, Share, Rate, Do All The Free Things, Do All The Good Things and While You At It, You Might As Well Grab A Liquid Death, Why Not? Join Me, We're Gonna Talk About The Big Ten Today. Why? Because the Maryland AD was on a radio show today and he was talking about, hey, you know, we're gonna expand.
[00:00:32] You know, not necessarily in those words, but, you know, he was asked, you know, in five years or so, how many teams will be in the Big Ten? And his answer was 20. Which, of course, you would look back at it and say, well, there's 18 teams right now, right? So something is up in the air.
[00:00:52] So this report came out a few weeks ago, of course, about how the SEC was gonna go after North Carolina. Well, I think the Big Ten wants North Carolina to North Carolina is some promised state. Now, I know that football drives the bus. But when you get a basketball brand like that, I mean, the name alone rings bells, right? And it's gotta come with some kind of money, maybe not football money, but some money. So then you look around the landscape.
[00:01:21] You know, 2031 is when the Big Ten's big contract runs out. The SEC, you know, a little bit after. And 2028 and 2029 become a little interesting. Because, you know, those ACC grant of rights that everybody's been talking about for the last few years? They reworked that deal. And now, 2031 or so, the ACC schools can kind of get out of the conference with no penalty.
[00:01:47] Okay. So where does that leave us now? The payout that they have to give up to move goes down every single year. So around 2028 or so, what was 500 million might be closer to 100 million. So that's just good business. I'm gonna stick around with you until I can anymore. So what is the Big Ten looking for? You know, there's a couple of things.
[00:02:09] If we think about the Big Ten going back of all the moves they made, whether it was Rutgers, whether it was Maryland, whether it was any of these California schools in Nebraska, right? Like a lot of it was based on AAU affiliation. And some of it was based on being in a state that's contiguous to the rest of the Big Ten states.
[00:02:33] You know, for example, Rutgers being in New Jersey, right on, you know, next to Pennsylvania, Maryland right below it. So, you know, of course, that gets blown out the window when you add those Pac-12 schools. But AAU status matters. So I was trying to come up with a list of teams that I think would be viable that the Big Ten could and should, because some of these teams they won't be interested in. But these are the teams that I think that they should be interested in. Right.
[00:03:02] So taking it from the top, taking it from the top. You know, we already talked about North Carolina. But if you want to keep that contiguous rule in place, you have to bring Virginia into the fold. These are two states that the Big Ten are not currently in. So now you start talking about TV deals, TV markets. Remember, I said 2028, 2029. That deal is up in 2031.
[00:03:26] So you bring these teams in around that time so you can start working those TV deals behind closed doors before they get announced to kind of see what the valuation would be. Right now it's at 7 billion. Yeah, would it be? So, you know, you can talk about that. And they bring great basketball with them. Not so much Virginia this past season, but they're only a few years removed from a national title.
[00:03:50] So when you look at it, you know, you say football drives the bus, but the Big Ten has basketball programs like Michigan State, Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, so on and so forth. So North Carolina and Virginia would actually be perfect for that if that's what they're looking for, those new states. Or you could just grab North Carolina because they're so valuable to keep them away from the SEC. But let's just say, let's just say North Carolina is not in play.
[00:04:20] You got FSU and Miami potentially. FSU is an AAU. Miami is. So Miami would have the leg up in that kind of scenario with the Big Ten. It would just, would the SEC want FSU? What are they providing that don't get from the Gators? You know, besides not sucking. But we'll get back to that another time. You know, so I was making a list of the schools in these conferences that are AAU. And I factored in the Big 12 as well because there's some Big 12 states close by.
[00:04:50] You know, you look at Nebraska, for example, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and that general area. Utah brings the football success, but not necessarily the AAU or what are they going to be in a few years, right? Because it's not about now. It's what about what can I see in the future? And, you know, Kyle Whittingham's retiring probably after this year. So Utah, we don't know what Utah's going to be in five years.
[00:05:17] So I was thinking Colorado, you know, not just because of Coach Prime. Because I don't know if Coach Prime is going to be there in five years. But what I do know is that they bring a market with them. You know, the Denver market, one of the biggest markets in the country. We know it's a football-crazed area just by the Broncos. You know, you got Colorado State up the road. So Colorado can create an even bigger gap between their rival. You know, then you got Kansas. I already brought them up.
[00:05:45] The basketball, the Jayhawks, the tradition, the heritage. You know, they don't bring St. Louis per se. You know, even though it's in Missouri. You know, Missouri's in the SEC. But could Kansas grab some of that market and Kansas City and bring that to the Big Ten with them? Now, conventional wisdom would say maybe not because Illinois is a bigger program football-wise. And they might bring that market with them already.
[00:06:14] But it's something worth thinking about. You know, in the ACC, you know, Duke. You know, you're not going to want Duke for their football program. But keeping it on the basketball tip, if North Carolina's so valuable, look at Duke. Duke's got to be, you know, at least at their level, you know, about to surpass them at some point if trends keep going the way that they're going. You know, Georgia Tech, you know, right in the middle of Atlanta, you know,
[00:06:43] encroaching on the Georgia Bulldogs territory. You know, I'm sure some of these lesser Big Ten schools like, say, no disrespect, but Michigan State, you know, Wisconsin, I'm sure they would like to have more of an opening in these places, play some games there every few years and start building a brand in those areas. Then, of course, you've got the West Coast schools, the Pac-12 schools out there, you know, the USC's, UCLA, so on and so forth. Cal and Stanford, right? Now, this is the big play.
[00:07:12] You laugh when I say Cal and Stanford. But if I don't know anything else about Stanford, I know that Notre Dame values Stanford and their relationship with Stanford. I know that the Big Ten values Notre Dame and has been trying to get them for the longest of times. So Notre Dame isn't going to join a conference. They're happy where they are making the money that they make. But if this super conference is going to happen, Notre Dame might have a choice to make,
[00:07:39] you know, because you got your, me and Mr. Logical talk about this all the time, AFC, NFC style. Notre Dame's got to fit in somewhere because if I'm one of those two conferences, there ain't no independence in this setup, right? And Notre Dame's not going to say, well, you know what? We'll give up all the extra money, the playoffs, like all that. They can say that now because there's not an incentive or any leverage.
[00:08:05] But if that's major college football at its finest, you can't have it without Notre Dame. Notre Dame is going to want to be there. So you add Cal and Stanford, or at least Stanford, with the idea of, hey, this might entice Notre Dame to come because as is, they're only playing five ACC schools in football. And now you got to the point where they're playing the highest rated team. So it used to rotate, but now it's like, hey, we're going to play Clemson a lot.
[00:08:35] We're going to play Florida State a lot. We're going to play Miami a lot. You know, Louisville's maybe not so much. Virginia Tech, maybe not so much. Get your weight up. You know, but so those are some schools that I was thinking about. And then I'll even give you a G5 school. And I only bring them up because of location and because of AAU. But what about South Florida down there in Tampa? They're building their own campus stadium, getting away from Raymond James Stadium.
[00:09:01] You know, they're going to get talent, you know, and depending on what happens in the near future, if Florida State leaves the ACC, so on and so forth, they might be on that radar, you know, for the ACC as a replacement. But if FSU is off to the SEC, if you're the Big Ten, you might have to jump at that, especially they have that AAU affiliation.
[00:09:25] You still get the new TV markets, Tampa, you know, Florida, you know, the lower southeast of Florida, southwest of Florida. You have everything that you need to build a true national brand from coast to coast. You don't have to worry about, oh, we're missing the northeast because you know what? You got Rutgers already. Oh, we're missing the west. You've got the California schools in Oregon. Oh, we're Midwest is already taken, spoken for.
[00:09:51] You're probably not getting a Texas school anytime soon unless you want to grab, say, a TCU from the Big 12. But I don't think you want to go that route because they're not Texas. They're not Texas A&M. Their name doesn't register in that same way. It's all about prestige, heritage. And to a lesser degree, some blue blood in some area because, like I said, North Carolina at least brings the basketball.
[00:10:19] You know, Virginia at least brings the basketball. And they bring those locations. They bring the Tidewater recruiting, right? You know, you get into that Carolina recruiting, start making the Gamecocks sweat a little bit.
[00:10:31] So the Big 10, to me, they're in control of the leaderboard because the SEC doesn't necessarily need markets because they already got ESPN up their ass anyway, selling you every week on the SEC why the SEC is the best, why you should want to be a part of the SEC, why you should watch the SEC. The Big 10 is stuck on Fox. And I don't say that in a bad way. I just say that from the fact that they're not ESPN.
[00:10:58] So now you've got to figure out a way to get those markets, to get that brand out there, especially into those Southeast markets so you can say, oh, they do play football out there in the Midwest. So I want to know from you, what do you think? If the Big 10 is to expand, what schools make the most sense? Two of them, since that's what Jim Smith noted in his interview. Two schools you think are going to the Big 10. Let me know. I'm 2-5.
[00:11:27] I'm here for Sports Reports' order. Like, review, subscribe, share, rate. Do all the free things. Do all the good things. Talk to you soon. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.