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Twelve teams work for me, I think 16 is too many but it works better than 14.

Look at the Big Ten logo. B1G.

The G is a 6. Meaning, expansion to 16 is the goal.

Yeah, but who would they add? They already cheapened the brand by adding Rutgers. I still feel like it's Notre Dame or bust for the 15th team. And then if you need to add a token 16th team, I nominate Cincinnati. It's about time Ohio State had someone in their own state to deal with. Luke Fickell has deep ties in the state of Ohio, he's lead UC to back to back 11 win seasons and top 25 finishes, and he just turned down Michigan State to stay there. It would be nice to see Ohio State have an in-state rival to also deal with on the field and compete with for with Ohio recruits.

G5 programs that could make it up include Cincy, Memphis, Houston, UCF ....

I'm honestly kind of surprised that Houston isn't already in the Big 12.

I'd love to see Cincy join the B1G just because they'd become a small thorn in the side for Ohio State. When you have another P5 program in your own state it just makes things a little more difficult. Everyone else has to deal with this except for those f**kers. That's an advantage that I'd like to see disappear for them. Plus Fickell has UC rolling. 22-4 in the last two seasons I think, and two top 25 finishes. And he just said no to Michigan State, which was huge, because UC had always kind of been a feeder school for the P5 to nab coaches. Notre Dame got Brian Kelly from there, Michigan State got Dantonio from there, and Tennessee probably wishes they didn't get Butch Jones from there. The fact that Fickell stayed tells me he wants to build a program there.

I feel like UCF is a hidden gem. That university has grown by leaps in bounds in just the last 15 years. It's insane actually. Florida State and Florida are great programs, but man are they in Butt F**k Egypt. Tallahassee and Gainesville both honestly just suck and are FARRRRRR away from any kind of normal civilization. They are in the middle of nowhere. Orlando is an infinitely better city than either of those hillbilly dumpster fires, in my opinion. Orlando has been listed by Forbes magazine as one of the top 5 fastest growing cities in America every single year for the past 20 years. Orlando is 80 miles from Tampa, about 2 hrs and 30 mins from West Palm, and the VirginTrains USA high-speed rail system is being built from Miami to Orlando as week and will be completed by 2022. 80% of Florida's population lives in those three metro areas- Tampa area, Greater Orlando, and South Florida. And those 3 areas are where virtually all of the state of Florida's top football recruits come from, especially the South Florida area. Not sure they could ever replace FSU or UF on the national stage but they might be able to replace Miami. Miami is a small private school that doesn't have it's own stadium, has basically zero fan base, and they are probably 10th on the list of sports teams that people in South Florida care about. The Dolphins are #1 and always will be. Hell, there's more Yankees or Red Sox fans there than there are Miami Hurricanes football fans.

Yeah, but who would they add? They already cheapened the brand by adding Rutgers. I still feel like it's Notre Dame or bust for the 15th team. And then if you need to add a token 16th team, I nominate Cincinnati. It's about time Ohio State had someone in their own state to deal with. Luke Fickell has deep ties in the state of Ohio, he's lead UC to back to back 11 win seasons and top 25 finishes, and he just turned down Michigan State to stay there. It would be nice to see Ohio State have an in-state rival to also deal with on the field and compete with for with Ohio recruits.

The B1G may need to think outside the box for 15 and 16.  ND is an obvious target, but there still might be too much mutual animosity for it to be realistic.  I would have to say programs in large states with lots of B1G alumni would be optimal.  I'm thinking the U of Texas, U of Florida, and UNC.  UNC might make the most sense because while still a geographic outlier, it's still the closest to existing B1G schools (it's about 4 hours or so from UMD, and 6-7 from Penn State).  UNC and Texas don't have the conference stability that Florida has, but if there is an SEC school that might think about bolting for the B1G - even for a split second - it's UF.

Notre Dame got Brian Kelly from there, Michigan State got Dantonio from there, and Tennessee probably wishes they didn't get Butch Jones from there. 

I almost spit all over my keyboard when I read this. 

 Tallahassee and Gainesville both honestly just suck and are FARRRRRR away from any kind of normal civilization. They are in the middle of nowhere. Orlando is an infinitely better city than either of those hillbilly dumpster fires, in my opinion. Orlando has been listed by Forbes magazine as one of the top 5 fastest growing cities in America every single year 

Have you lived in any of these 3 cities?

Umm, no.  None of this.

The realistic options for B1G expansion are limited to these, in order of preference:
1 - AAU schools bordering the footprint
2 - AAU schools within the footprint
3 - ND

So in Group 1, you have Missouri, Kansas, Virginia, Colorado (hmmph), and technically Buffalo (n/a)
Depending on who you add from Group 1, you could extend the footprint further with the likes of UNC, Duke, Utah, or Vanderbilt.
Group 2, you have Pitt and Iowa State
Group 3 is Notre Dame
That's it.

Now, I think the B1G could add Pitt and ND and be perfectly fine.
The options in Group 1 are interesting in pairs - getting Mizzou & KU or Virginia & UNC....that's probably what the conference brass would prefer over a Pitt/ND addition.

But I'd be reeeeeally careful if they're extracting Missouri out of the SEC.  If that actually happened, I think some tectonic plates would start shuffling - some big boys would be like stonehenge dominoes falling.  The SEC would then go after a Texas or a Texas/OU or UNC/UVA/VT itself. 

Anywho, that's how I see it. 

I don't think Texas would ever join the SEC. First of all A&M would try to block them. Secondly, Texas thinks they are too smart for you all in the SEC. Texas has actively been transforming itself into becoming a public academic powerhouse like Michigan or Cal and it already sees itself as a Public Ivy League school. They look down at the SEC. They think y'all are a bunch of dummies. Texas would join the Pac before they joined the SEC.