The Indiana Hoosiers are in arguably the best conference in the country, the Big Ten. But if they consider expanding here are some teams they should not consider adding.
Recently we explored the option of the Big Ten expanding and what five teams they should absolutely consider adding. While there hasn’t been a lot of talk of more expansion there have been some whispers and any of the five teams we outlined would be great additions to the conference.
Some, if not all of them made a lot more sense then adding Maryland and Rutgers as they did previously. Yes, adding in Rutgers who is located in New Jersey opened up a big market for the Big Ten, athletically it just didn’t make a lot of sense and still really doesn’t. At least Maryland brought a good basketball program with them and they just won their first conference title in 2019-2020.
Geographically none of them made a lot of sense and in schools we think the Big Ten should add, only Texas was in the same boat. But the Longhorns would bring in a ton of money to the conference and better athletic programs.
With the news the Big Ten going to conference only schedules in the fall and others probably following suit, could this lead to another round of expansion? It could because schools like Notre Dame and BYU might be stuck without teams to play as they continue to stay independent.
It all could lead to some realignment if even one domino falls, likely being Notre Dame. So if this were to happen we still think the five schools we listed are ones the Big Ten should chase. But let’s look at the other side and list five schools the Big Ten should absolutely NOT go after.
We take into account that they must be part of the AAU as that has been a long requirement for the Big Ten. So that eliminates a lot of schools that would be good for the Big Ten, including Louisville, Kentucky, and possibly even Cincinnati.