In response to
@bwarbiany and
@847badgerfan , I could potentially see the B1G deciding to go after OU and Texas but I don't think that either Mizzou or Kansas would be on our radar.
Mizzou practically begged the B1G for an invite before joining the SEC and we didn't make the offer. I have thought, ever since then, that the long-term plan for the B1G was to add something like UVA* and UNC. I think that Texas/OU would trump that, but otherwise, I think we are waiting for the right time to get UVA*/UNC.
One reason is population. This one is simple. NC and VA are ranked 9th and 12th respectively with 10.4M and 8.5M people.
The second reason is population growth. None of the B1G states are growing very fast. Census estimated growth from 2000 to 2018 for B1G states:
- 5.8% MN
- 5.6% NE
- 4.7% MD
- 3.6% IA
- 3.2% IN
- 2.2% WI
- 1.3% OH
- 1.3% NJ
- 1.1% MI
- 0.8% PA
- -0.7% IL
North Carolina (8.9%) and Virginia (6.5%) are both growing faster than any B1G states.
The third reason, and I think the reason we wanted UMD is proximity to DC. Years ago most research money came from the private sector. I'm sure that a lot of Michigan's hefty endowment is a legacy of being the closest major research institution to the HQ's of the Big Three US Automakers in Detroit. In our modern era most of the research money comes from the Government rather than the private sector so having schools close to Washington is advantageous.
The fourth reason is that while Texas is a great school, Oklahoma isn't. UVA* and UNC are both great schools.
*UVA: I think that you could replace "UVA*" with "VaTech" throughout this post. I think that the B1G would prefer UVA mostly because Charlottesville is about 150 mi closer to DC (116mi by car vs 269).