So the Big Ten+? is expanding and now accelerating the process. Not that that’s a terribly big surprise. The expansion idea has been moving along for a while and, I’ve been told, it’s always a step or two ahead of what the public knows. And now the the window in which the conference will expand suddenly shrinks. A decision is going to come sooner rather than later.

And what will that decision be? Seems it can go in different directions. There may be a 14- or 16-team Big Ten. It may be a 12-team Big Ten. It just isn’t going to be an 11-team Big Ten. There may not be a Big East …

It’s fair to assume whatever outcome will be something we’ve discussed previously. There’s been talk of four, maybe five, major conferences. There are six today … we call them BCS leagues and that moniker may soon be no more.

This round of expansion may completely alter the structure of college athletics.

rekterx said:

The great irony is that the Big East sits squarely in the most populous part of the country. Yet it is the most fragile of all conferences in the NCAA. And frankly, if some serious realignment were to happen, WVU could find itself athletically in a place that is more in keeping with the general nature of West Virginia, which isn’t exactly near the top of the list of many things desirable. I know it would be difficult for many to accept. But since when has reality been a big concern to a lot of West Virginians?

Yet another aspect in all of this is to keep in mind the long range possibility of the BCS schools withdrawing from the NCAA. Wouldn’t that be something? Imagine an expanded Pac 10, an expanded Big Ten, the ACC, the SEC, and the Big 12 all saying, “See you later NCAA. Thanks for letting us visit. Maybe we’ll occasionally schedule some of your schools if you’ll let them play us.”

The defection point is interesting and I think there is some practical connection to this NCAA Tournament expansion. The BCS exists separately from the NCAA. There is no NCAA national champion in football. It’s BCS. There is a NCAA national champion in basketball. Nearly all of the revenue from NCAA athletics — and I’m talking about 95 or so percent — comes from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The schools see very, very, very little of it. So for many of these schools that don’t have programs on the level to consistently compete for a BCS bid — which gets schools a good deal of money — there may come a time when they ask themselves if the current situation – getting little or nothing from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — is worth it. A situation similar to what you proposed — an establishment/tournament that’s free of the NCAA’s reach — would solve a lot of those problems. It’s actually very interesting.

Oh, but that’s just a blog! And a Friday Feedback, no less. Well, the doom and gloom is not hovering above the Big East, but it’s being bandied about by Big East brains. Your comprehensive “What can I expect to really happen?” piece is here.

What it would not do is significantly increase the Big Ten’s television footprint for its successful new network, which is really the driving force behind its proposed expansion.

That is why the Big Ten is toying with the idea of a 16-team league that could include colleges like Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Connecticut. If that happens, Crouthamel predicted other conferences would catch up by adding teams.

The counterintuitive aspect of the Big Ten expansion talk is that it is not always the quality of the program, but the television market that it would deliver, that is the most important factor. Though probably not pining to watch Rutgers or Syracuse football, Big Ten officials like all the television sets in New Jersey and upstate New York.

Eventually, Crouthamel said he saw the Big Ten, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Southeastern Conference and the Pacific-10 forming four 16-team superconferences and leaving the umbrella of the N.C.A.A. (Just imagine the fight between the SEC and the Pac-10 for Texas.) He said that those leagues would form their own basketball tournament to rival the N.C.A.A. tournament.

“If you look at the history of what’s been going on for the last decade, I think it’s leading in that direction,” he said.