Texas, Notre Dame reportedly not on list of Big Ten expansion candidates

No Texas. No Notre Dame.

Other than that, the possible expansion of the Big Ten is moving along at a swifter pace than most of us expected. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Saturday that the conference had hired a firm to research possible candidates.

The list of schools being examined, the paper said, numbers 15.

"They [research firm] basically broke down what they [expansion candidates] would bring to the table," Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez was quoted as saying at a meeting of the Wisconsin athletic board. "They talked about academics. They talked about size. They talked about size of their arenas. They talked about attendance. They talked about the populace in that specific area."

CBSSports.com, in various conversations, has been able to determine that Notre Dame will not be one of the expansion candidates. While that should come as no surprise, it was thought the Big Ten would at least make ND and Texas say no before moving on.

Notre Dame has maintained its steadfast intention to remain independent. Meanwhile, a report in the Lawrence Journal-World last week stated that there had been "preliminary exchanges" between the Big Ten and Texas. The Journal Sentinel reported that Texas was not one of the 15 schools being examined by the research firm.

Of course, if Notre Dame and/or Texas showed a willingness to join the Big Ten, there wouldn't be much research to do. The two schools are seen as the only slam-dunk candidates in an otherwise muddied expansion picture.

"My read is that Notre Dame wants to be a national school, and they want to play a national [football] schedule," Alvarez told the paper. "And unless you've been there and seen the magnitude of their fan base and the interest nationally, it is hard to understand.

"I understand."

When asked recently about a timeline for Big Ten officials making campus visits to possible expansion candidates, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany refused to comment. Alvarez did say that Delany could make a recommendation to conference presidents as early as this summer.

In December, the Big Ten stated publicly it would study expansion over the next 12 to 18 months. Last week, Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said his league would "seriously" explore expansion.

The Big Ten expansion could be by one or more teams. Presumably, the Pac-10 would expand by two teams.

It is not certain that either conference is going to expand but the mere possibility has caused much consternation at the top levels of college athletics.