A wild idea I have

[yh]

Mizzou has been not-so-secretly working on getting into the Big 10 for about 20 years now. They have made huge strides in boosting their academic resources and requirements, have completed a number of substantial building upgrades, and are in the final stages of a massive, billion dollar endowment campaign. Every now and again, there is under the radar talk about the move and I believe that it will happen sometime in the next 10-15 years. I think the Big 10 will eventually pull the trigger once it's entirely convinced that there's no earthly way Notre Dame will ever consider coming into the league.

As far as replacement schools for Mizzou go, I would think it will be a mid-major football program clamoring to get into a BCS conference. Colorado State would be a solid logical choice as would Tulsa. I could see Tulsa and Colorado State coming in and Baylor moving to the MWC.

Oh, and there already is a Missouri Tech, however it's a storefront college on Manchester Boulevard in the Kirkwood/Glendale/De Peres area of St. Louis County. I don't think they have much of a parking lot, no less the ability to host D1A football .

[rockchalk]

It's logical and everything, but I just can't see Mizzou going to the Big 10. I'm just going to assume things here, so bear with me. I'm thinking that the schools fan base is pretty much split right around the middle of the state (around Columbia) about where the school would rather be. I would think that the Western part of the state (KC) would like to stay right where they are with all of their history and keep the rivalry with KU (and to a lesser light, Colorado and Nebraska). The Eastern part of the state (St. Louis) would like to go to the Big 10, build up the rivalry with the Illini and Iowa...Personally, I would rather see them stay, because the Big XII would need that school, and I don't think that Colorado State really helps. It's not like the conference would need help with the Colorado market, although CSU is building popularity, but they would basically cede the state of Missouri to the Big 10, while gaining a couple hundred thousand fans in Colorado. I just don't see that happening. (Another sidebar would be that I would almost have to think that Penn State would leave the Big 10 as well, because Iowa State would be an island in the middle of Big 10 country otherwise, and Penn State could join either the ACC or the new Big East whenever it reforms...again) Wow, scenarios are just jumping out at me making my head hurt as I type this. I may try to re-organize everything and write it down in another thread sometime

[BigMac12]

Oh, and there already is a Missouri Tech, however it's a storefront college on Manchester Boulevard in the Kirkwood/Glendale/De Peres area of St. Louis County. I don't think they have much of a parking lot, no less the ability to host D1A football .

Now, I'm ticked off at Missouri State. All the good names have been taken now. I've originally called the program Missouri State, but when Southwest Missouri State decided to drop Southwest from their name, I had no choice but to name my school Missouri Tech. I'm very angry at them, because I have now no name for my school! I hope those Bears decide to change their names back, because I'm very mad at their decision.

[mfoster]

As far as replacement schools for Mizzou go, I would think it will be a mid-major football program clamoring to get into a BCS conference. Colorado State would be a solid logical choice as would Tulsa. I could see Tulsa and Colorado State coming in and Baylor moving to the MWC.

The only reason Baylor was added to the Big XII was that legislative approval was needed for Texas and A&M to change conferences, and there were too many Baylor grads (including Governor Richards) in power to leave them out.

Personally, I think the Big XII has had more than enough cause in the past to boot Baylor for program standards noncompliance, but for whatever reason they've not pulled the trigger.

As for a replacement, you've got the previously mentioned TCU, Colorado State and Tulsa. I may be biased, but I think there's more money to be had from adding TCU than Tulsa - Frog U. is about twice as big and has a much larger endowment. Heck Tulsa's not even the largest private university in the state (yh can guess who is).

But, if you have to replace Mizzou, it's going to have to add a school in a comparable TV market. None of the aforementioned schools do much for the TV footprint since they're already firmly entrenched within existing B12 markets. No, there's no team in DFW, but there's at least ten times as many combined grads from the B12 South schools in DFW schools as there are TCU grads. Similarly, adding the University of North Texas doesn't help the footprint either, nor does adding Houston.

So, where else can you go? Arkansas, LSU, and New Mexico... Memphis is a bit of a reach, but I'm just tossing it out there. I don't know what sort of restrictions/laws/covenants keep these schools in their current conferences, or if they're even available... but if you don't consider these schools, you vitrually assure the replacement for Mizzou results in a net-loss for the conference.

Marc

[Huskyfan82]

Notre Dame will never join a conference, period (in football, I know about the other sports). They make too much money on bowl games. When a Big 10 team goes to a bowl, they have to share that with the other schools. When Notre Dame goes, they pocket it. The whole entire thing. Same with TV revenues. NBC pays them, not 10 other schools. I think ND has outsmarted EVERYONE. They're a conference all by themselves. So why join one?

David

[BigMac12]

Okay, I'm forced to rename my college Missouri Agriculture & Mechanical University, or, for most people, Missouri A&M.