Notre Dame will eventually now that their best buddy USC is also in the Big Ten.
The question is who else does the Big Ten want to swallow their pride for and offer a spot?
Stanford would be the most logical, but they'd a few years down the road still with their ACC deal. It's also not like they feel compelled to stay in the same conference as California to maintain their rivalry, which is nice compared to some of the other idiotic f***ing programs out there..............
The others would be darts at the wall and then manufacturing reasons why they're the best fit.
Go down the list:
Pittsburgh- proximity, natural rivalries
Boston College- proximity, major northeast market
Syracuse- proximity, natural rivalries, having an ACTUAL f***ing NY team in the conference
North Carolina- major brand and good market moreso for basketball
Duke- Big name basketball brand and academics, think of them as a more athletic Rutgers........and would you trade Rutgers for Duke right now?
Virginia- good east coast market, competitive athletics brand, natural rivalry with Maryland (basically could throw VT in here as well)
Clemson- probably not gonna be an individual choice, unless sh** gets messier than an episode of Jerry Springer, in the ACC
Florida State- that ship has probably sailed, but the door is always open......also see Clemson
Miami- ahhh, now we're getting somewhere. Miami is still a sneaky surprise pick because not only is it a major market, but it unlocks the south to the Big Ten, particularly in one of their prime locations, plus you get all the prime time matchups and narratives with just about any current B10 team that faces Miami (along with Notre Dame potentially), even with all their struggles on the football field recently. Plus I don't think it would be THAT much of a hard sell to convince Miami to jump ship for the B10.
Darts in the ceiling:
Connecticut- if the B10 was really desperate, they could go with a big brand in the northeast in UConn, who has had a little bit of a resurgence on the football field this year, going 8-4. Not to mention you'd be getting one of the best men's/women's basketball programs in the country, AND you could set up shop right across the street from good ole ESPN HQ for the ultimate troll job 😉
Iowa State- now hear me out...............bawwwhahaha who are we kidding. F*** Iowa State
West Virginia- proximity, natural rivalries, plus they might be tired of traipsing across the country to play mid level Big 12 teams when they could enter a conference with a slightly more natural fit
California- if the B10 can't land Stanford, then Cal might not be a terrible second option to add more of a presence for our west coast teams, particularly if 5 team divisions are something they want to explore at least for scheduling purposes
Missouri- F*** it. Swing big and steal Missouri from the SEC and let them steal Oklahoma State from the Big 12 or Clemson/FSU from the ACC and we can have true domino collapsing chaos in CFB
