Teams to add: I don't want Texas and I don't care about Oklahoma or Oklahoma State. Kansas would be a good addition, and you could add Oklahoma or Kansas State with them, but Georgia Tech would be a better fit academically, plus they bring a prosperous alumni base and the enormous Atlanta TV market with them.
GT is an option. They are AAU. Wasn't the Big 10 flirting with Virginia and NC? Didn't that cause the ACC to create a GOR?
You are correct Nic. The B1G was eyeing Georgia Tech in expansion (along with NC, Virginia, and one other school--I want to say FSU, but I don't believe that's correct). This, coupled with the talk of the SEC and/or Big XII poaching ACC teams led to them instituting a GOR, and not all schools voted for it (it passed by majority vote of all present schools). Then the ACC expanded back to 12 schools. I think I may have muddled the timeline somewhat, but that's the gist of what happened.
But Georgia Tech would be a good fit, culturally, academically, and athletically, but they're not contiguous to the B1G footprint. And while Delaney has softened/backpedaled on the importance of a contiguous footprint, it supposedly is a strong requirement, save for some AAA school jumping up and approaching the B1G (e.g. Florida State, Oklahoma). This is yet another reason why Kansas is likely the Big XII moving buddy with Oklahoma, and not Texass--adding Kansas and Oklahoma preserves the contiguous footprint.
If the bolded happened, I doubt we'd be in the B1G. It's been quite a while since most people would consider us in the top tier. Our last year in the Big 12, Nebraska and Maryland had an almost identical records and both finished just inside the top 25. Maryland's most recent conference championship is more recent than ours.
And technically Kansas Football has been more successful more recently than us, too. But thankfully, that round of expansion was about getting a name program with a fervent following to bring a national audience (and eyeballs) to the BTN. Nebraska fit the bill, as many of its games (even during poor years) brought more viewership than other schools in the running then (e.g. Mizzery).
The Texass/Nebraska Big XII screwfest of '09 was one of the Top games that year and was the second-most popular (at the time) Big XII title game because of us (Texass was in others that didn't fare as well). Many of our games during sub-par years got better ratings than Notre Dame. We have alumni all over the country that would force the issue to get BTN carried.
Now, it's about adding content. Kansas for basketball and Oklahoma for football would do just that, and both of them bring in a national audience (like Nebraska) that, in the age of streaming media, will be key for survival.
