May 10, 2010

So far, sound and fury about Big Ten expansion signifying nothing

By Dennis Dodd | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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COLUMBIA, Mo. -- In the two places on the University of Missouri campus where you would think they might be throwing a toga party on Monday, all was quiet.

Missouri fits the Big Ten academically and athletically. (Getty Images)

Quiet in the athletic offices at Mizzou Arena, where athletic director Mike Alden definitely was not high-fiving or popping champagne corks.

Mizzou to the Big Ten? Maybe, someday. Maybe six months from now, but not on Monday. At least that was the look of it as we, the media, reacted to a report that Missouri was among four schools "extended initial offers" to join the Big Ten.

In what has become the latest exercise of media tail-chasing, the day was spent vetting the validity of the report from Kansas City radio station WHB. The station intimated that Missouri, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Rutgers are The Ones, the long-awaited new members of the Big Ten.

Unless Notre Dame says no. In which case, the Big Ten could expand by only three. If it says yes, there might be one more school to add for the Big Ten to go to 16. So, it wasn't exactly a "done deal" as a Columbia TV website reported last week regarding Mizzou to the Big Ten. But that's why we have our noses pressed up against the windows of the Big Ten offices in Park Ridge, Ill. To speculate until Big Ten commish Jim Delany makes the official announcement in prime time on the Big Ten Network.

If there is an announcement at all, as Delany reminded us last month at the BCS meetings in Phoenix.

It's a great story, Big Ten expansion, without many solid leads. At this point, no one can be wrong and -- if you pick the right combination of schools -- everybody can be right. It's Big Ten Keno.

It's gotten weird. I found myself engaged in the media equivalent of stalking -- staking out an athletic director, which is what I did for 90 minutes Monday in the Mizzou Arena parking lot. Not that Alden would have said anything had I intercepted him Mike Wallace-style.

"The University of Missouri is receiving numerous inquiries related to public speculation about conference membership," Missouri's statement said. "MU is a member of the Big 12 Conference and will not respond to speculation about conference realignment."

An empty statement, but that was no surprise. Since the Big Ten announced in December it was exploring expansion, the school is basically on record as saying, "Yes, yes, a hundred times, yes!" to a Big Ten invite. The administration has gone silent lately, basically in cross-fingers-and-hope mode.

Rutgers issued a similar statement. Like Mizzou, the state university of New Jersey can barely contain itself. It wasn't too long ago that Rutgers played a bad brand of juco football. Now it has new facilities, a young aggressive AD (former CBS College Sports executive Tim Pernetti) and the prospect of someday lighting up New York the way it did in 2006 when it beat Louisville.

Nebraska denied the report outright that it had been offered an invitation. Not that it wouldn't, like Missouri, accept in a heartbeat. Both schools are dissatisfied with the revenue sharing in the Big 12. Both schools are highly rated research institutions that would fit in nicely with the Big Ten's lofty academic standards. Both schools are also fed up that the league might have gotten a burnt orange tinge to it, meaning too Texas-centric.

"Faculty are almost unanimous in favor of going to the Big Ten, because of the academic ramifications of it," said Brian Brooks, professor and associate dean at Missouri's School of Journalism.

Brooks, who got his undergrad from the J-school 36 years ago, is not only a professor, he's a Mizzou fan. He trotted out statistics showing the average ACT score of Missouri's incoming freshmen fit nicely in the middle of the Big Ten.

Whether it comes to football or paragraph transitions, then, Missouri is ready to whip some butt. But like the rest of us, all Brooks had to do was read down to the second paragraph of the report. "... nothing can be approved until the Big Ten presidents and chancellors meet the first week of June in Chicago ..." Sure, Missouri is a fit, but so are Syracuse and Pittsburgh. And what about that Big Ten meeting the weekend of June 5? The roster of invitees -- if indeed it has come to that -- could change in the room when the Big Ten CEOs start discussions. These are academicians first, not GMs.

"Whether the Big Ten is ready to go to 16 teams, wow, that is so disruptive to the world of college football, we'll see," said noted sports media consultant Neal Pilson, former head of CBS Sports. "Those are [four] schools that everyone has assumed are on the list in terms of potential universities. None of them surprises me."

July 1 seems to be a key date in the process. Big Ten presidents might want to finalize expansion plans before the end of the fiscal year. However, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany reiterated last month that the league was staying with its initial 12- to 18-month process.

Since December, that process has now gone down to seven to 13 months. We can only take Delany at his word ... until word to the contrary leaks out.

WHB might have nailed it. If it got the scoop, good for them. But maybe it hit only three of four, or maybe even went hitless. We might not know for months, even a year. It's the nature of this story. No one is wrong and everybody can be right. Welcome, latest media friends, to Big Ten Keno.