Jim Delaney's Dance Card a Who's Who of Mediocrity

According to 810 Sports Radio in Overland Park Kansas, the Big Televen has officially offered four schools the chance to become bigger and slower. Notre Dame, Rutgers, Missouri and Nebraska now must make the choice between status quo and a promise of more money.

It is not yet clear whether the Big Ten will expand to 14 or 16 teams but sources indicated Missouri and Nebraska are invited in either scenario.  Notre Dame has repeatedly declined the opportunity to join the Big Ten.  If Notre Dame remains independent, Rutgers would be the 14th team.  The Big Ten would then decide whether to stop at 14 or extend offers to two other schools.  If Notre Dame joins, sources say an offer will be extended to one other school making it a 16-team league.

The Kansas radio station goes on to explain the penalties Mizzou would face for leaving the Big 12.

The Big 12 charter states any member will lose between 50 and 100 percent of its shared annual revenue depending on the length of notice any school gives.  According to published reports, Missouri receives around $9 million annually in shared football revenue from the Big 12.  According to sources, it seems likely Missouri would give one- year notice.   It is projected that Missouri's football revenues would increase by $10 million or more per year when it joins the Big Ten versus what it currently receives in the Big 12.

Rutgers certainly falls into the no brainer category with Mizzou and Nebraska having to at least make a difficult decision. Sure, $10 million additional dollars is a nice sum but Mizzou and Nebraska still have to decide if this dream is a long-term windfall worth leaping for or just a pipe dream from whatever Jim Delaney's been smoking.

And it's just hard to imagine NotHer Dame making the move at this point after all these years of saying no. I doubt they can be scared into jumping on board with the likes of Rutgers and two average Big 12 teams. Couple that with the fact that the scheduling implications (like PWD said, there's only so many service academies) for the long time independent are dramatic and I believe it's easy to conclude the Irish will stick to their current green pasture.

But that's not going to stop all the speculation. And here's the newest proposal for the 16 team mega-conferences that I've seen. I submit that to you simply because it's fun to see the ACC dissolve into a pool of Big East and Atlantic 10 teams. If only Diddy coulda held on for a couple more seasons...