The yearly rumors of Big Ten expansion are swirling, and once again Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said that adding a 12th university to the conference has been only a passing forethought.
But perhaps this time, Delany should consider it further. Though an expansion would greatly affect all sports in the conference, the most hotly debated topic is football. The addition of a 12th school would allow the conference to split into two divisions, creating a season-end conference championship game.
In addition to being a major revenue force for the conference, the championship game could really put the Big Ten's elite atop the national championship apex. Three of the last four champions have come from a conference with a championship game, and in the last two years they beat a team from a non-championship conference, including Florida's 41-14 romp of Ohio State this past January.
Of course, Florida could have simply been the better team, but perhaps their extra game in the SEC Championship pushed them over the edge, while the Buckeyes sat stagnant for almost two months.
It is a problem that six BCS conferences (Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, ACC) do not decide their champions uniformly. Hypothetically, USC can win the Pac-10 by running the gamut in the regular season while playing their toughest game at home, while Texas has to do the same and then also win an extra game against the conference's elite on a neutral site. It simply isn't fair that one unblemished school can have an extra game to lose while the other calmly waits for the BCS National Championship.
But more importantly, the Big Ten also has to consider the issues expansion presents. As Purdue's head football coach Joe Tiller put it during the Big Ten's preseason media days, the prospective addition should be able to compete in the conference, and not simply be there waiting to be stomped.
Each of the 11 schools currently in the conference has been a major force in at least one sport throughout the past five seasons. That's parity and balance, something the Big Ten has more of than other major conferences. Nor should the Big Ten add a team to expand the reach of the Big Ten Network into more states. Competition, not capital, remains the most important aspect of expansion.
While expansion would prove exciting and profitable, Delany is doing the right thing not jumping into the deep end -- at least not yet.
