The B1G doesn't need to expand within its footprint, exactly.
Don't need Pitt, Cuse, ISU or KSU. Kansas might be worthwhile for basketball. As much as I hate to say it, Notre Dame would be good if we can sell them on the B1G being a better landing spot than the ACC.
The best option is also outside the footprint, and to try to pry UVA/UNC out of the ACC. But I don't know that they'll try to leave unless the writing is on the wall that the ACC is getting killed, and I don't think the writing would be on the wall that the ACC is getting killed without UVA and UNC jumping ship.
Kansas and Syracuse wouldn't be horrible, though. Kansas shores up our basketball situation and Syracuse isn't all that bad of a fit to add with Rutgers and Maryland out East... But I worry it would be seen as a desperation add.
I agree with all of this except ND.
Notre Dame:
I think that Notre Dame would have been a great addition years ago when the league looked at them but not today. My perception is that their fandom is slowly shrinking as the country as a whole becomes less religious and the religious portion becomes less Christian. When my dad was a kid the big religious divide in America was between Catholics and Protestant's. My dad's catholic friends had to get "permission" from their priest to attend friends' weddings in protestant churches. My point is that the catholic/protestant divide was serious business. Catholics saw Protestants as heathen non-Christians while protestants saw Catholics as Papal worshipping idolaters. Meanwhile, back then, the entire national population of atheists, Jews, and Muslims would probably have fit in one football stadium.
Today I think that most Catholics and Protestants see each other as sharing a religion just with slightly different customs and the bigger divide is between Christians and everyone else. That, I think, makes Catholics less predisposed to be fans of Notre Dame.
Secondly, Notre Dame's academics simply are not up to B1G standards. Notre Dame fans usually laugh when they hear me say that because Notre Dame's undergrad ranking is very good. Per USNR they are #19 which would be second among B1G athletic members behind only Northwestern and just ahead of Michigan (#24). However, it is also behind Chicago (#6) and John's Hopkins (#9).
The more important issue academically is research. This is slightly dated but here is a list of Research spending by B1G (and quasi B1G) Universities:
- #1 Johns Hopkins $2.6B
- #2 Michigan $1.5B
- #6 Wisconsin $1.2B
- #17 Minnesota $922M
- #22 Ohio State $864M
- #23 Penn State $855M
- #29 Northwestern $752M
- #32 Michigan State $695M
- #33 Rutgers $682M
- #36 Illinois $642M
- #37 Purdue $623M
- #43 Maryland $549M
- #45 Indiana $540M
- #49 Iowa $494M
- #55 Chicago $433M
- #77 Nebraska $302M
Notre Dame is #101 at $213M.
Highly ranked Research Universities that might be plausible additions:
- #8 Dook, $1.1B
- #11 UNC, $1.1B
- #16 Pitt, $940M (I still don't think we'd add them for athletic and footprint reasons but at least they would be a good add academically.
- #24 GaTech, $804M (Probably too far away geographically but great academics and in the fast-growing ATL media market).
- #46 VaTech, $522M (Good athletic fit, decent geographic fit, good academic fit).
- #47 NCST, $500M
- #51 UVA, $470M
The top two there are Dook and UNC but I think we'd be looking to add two states to the footprint not two schools from one state. UNC is a much better addition than Dook because they are more similar to our existing schools (Mostly State Flagship Universities) and while Dook has arguably better Basketball, the rest of UNC's athletic programs would run rings around Dook's.
Thus I think the logical additions are UNC and one of UVA/VaTech. Both NC and VA are populous (#9 and #12 respectively) and fast growing states.
