The Big 12?

Lets talk Big Ten expansion!

Lot's of people seems to like the idea because it allows the league to have a championship football game. There are other reasons, I suppose, but this really seems to be the only important one worth mentioning, which is kind of absurd on so many levels. But, whatever ...

So who gets the invite?

Apparently, Notre Dame is out of the picture while West Virginia, Missouri and Louisville are favored (at least according to Brooks). Let me just throw Mizzu off that list right away: their biggest rival is Kansas and I doubt they would diminish one of the most heated rivalries in college football by making it a non-conference match-up. West Virginia seems like a better idea, but they also appear to fit in well with the Big East, so who knows?

And Louisville? Well, if they're going to look at Louisville, the league may as well look at Cincinnati, which is on better footing in both basketball and football right now. This creates an instant in-state rivalry with Ohio State and gives a football team that's on a roll at the moment the momentum it probably needs to get beyond it's head coach defecting to ND.

Another choice: Iowa State. They're really not doing much in the Big 12 right now, fit in perfectly from a geographical perspective, and provide Iowa with an in-state, intra-conference rival. The down side: it's Iowa State. If you're going to invite another school into the league, why not make it a school in a major media market in the Eastern time zone.

If I were in charge of picking the 12th Big Ten school, I'd go with Pittsburgh, though I don't know if they're looking for a change of conference venue.

Any other ideas? Am I missing a school somewhere in the Midwest that would make a natural fit? Tell me what you got in the comments.