Shrug - I'd think they'd be standing pat unless one of two things happens:
1) ND is ready to make the move
2) There's concern about solidifying quality additions for when ND is going to move.
ND is the big prize. Everything should center around being attractive to them while minimizing financial impact to the existing programs. If there are teams that are a must for ND to consider joining out there (Stanford comes to mind), then it might make sense to get them on board now. Regardless, I don't think you'd take 4. One or two, maybe three if you think ND joining is imminent, but you keep a seat warm for them.
You don't want to get to your final desired number only to not have a spot for ND or to make it awkward to carve out a spot for them. At some point, conferences will get big enough that the playoffs will center around pod or division championship games feeding into the cross conference playoff games. At some point, ND (and any other independents) will be left on the outside looking in.
What would really force that issue is going to 10 conference games. It provides more quality content to make the media rights even more appealing and it puts ND into a scheduling bind since home/homes with the multitude of B1G teams they regularly play becomes problematic.
If you really want to expand more, go to 10 games and add Stanford. ND would have to make a move at that point (since they'd be losing about 5 regular opponents per season) and I don't think they'd be interested in joining the SEC for academic and cultural reasons.
1) ND is ready to make the move
2) There's concern about solidifying quality additions for when ND is going to move.
ND is the big prize. Everything should center around being attractive to them while minimizing financial impact to the existing programs. If there are teams that are a must for ND to consider joining out there (Stanford comes to mind), then it might make sense to get them on board now. Regardless, I don't think you'd take 4. One or two, maybe three if you think ND joining is imminent, but you keep a seat warm for them.
You don't want to get to your final desired number only to not have a spot for ND or to make it awkward to carve out a spot for them. At some point, conferences will get big enough that the playoffs will center around pod or division championship games feeding into the cross conference playoff games. At some point, ND (and any other independents) will be left on the outside looking in.
What would really force that issue is going to 10 conference games. It provides more quality content to make the media rights even more appealing and it puts ND into a scheduling bind since home/homes with the multitude of B1G teams they regularly play becomes problematic.
If you really want to expand more, go to 10 games and add Stanford. ND would have to make a move at that point (since they'd be losing about 5 regular opponents per season) and I don't think they'd be interested in joining the SEC for academic and cultural reasons.