Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Quiet on the Expansion Front...for Now

If you can believe Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, he says expansion talk is months away for his league.

Delany and the conference seemed to quiet the expansion talk down this week at the Big Ten meetings. Delany apparently wants to dismiss possible discussion for a while.

His comment about wanting to add a Sun Belt team because that's where the population growth is was interesting, however. He wasn't talking about taking a Sun Belt Conference school either. I'm joking.

Of all the rumored schools, Texas is the only one that fits that group. And Texas pulls lots of weight in the Big 12 now and really, why would it want to join the Big Ten? One rumor had the Longhorns considering the SEC. If they do that, they would rejoin Arkansas from the days of the old Southwest Conference.

But I think Texas is fine with the Big 12. I don't see the Longhorns jumping unless the conference takes a big loss of schools. Would Missouri and Nebraska do that? I doubt it. If Oklahoma and other Texas schools jump, then Texas would have to cover its potential losses.

But for now, I think we can rest on the expansion front. Come late August, all the conference stars will be aligned in their proper places.

Hopefully the cooler talk will go away for a while too. Let the football season begin.

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