in conference last season.

Most of their members want 7 home games per year so, assuming that the conference games will be even between home and away, whether 5 home/4 road, 4 home/5 road, or 5 and 5, the two remaining slots will never be on the road.

That should make for some dynamite matchups when the Big Ten school isn't willing to schedule a home and home with a decent non-conference opponent.

Who really cares about seeing them play a MAC or 1AA school to fill their last 2 or 3 spots on their schedule. Just let them play within their own league while they tell eachother that the B1G is the greatest thing in college football.

Rutgers-Indiana match-up will be something to see. Ditto Maryland vs Minnesota. These epic contests will make people forget MSU vs ND in a hurry.

they assume that everyone will be as interested to see them as, well, THEY are. I believe this same narcissism might account for naming one's own divisions "Leaders" and "Legends."

I know they want to hurt us, but I think they will hurt the MAC and their TV ratings the most.

Her's how the 48 OOC games last year break down.
ND-3
Pac 10-4(this doesn't include any of the 3 top teams for the past few years, USC, Oregon or Stanford)
Rest of the BCS-7(Give Michigan credit, they played the 2 teams that played in the championship game. Northwestern 3 of the 6 others. Besides Alabama the 6 games were against Syracuse(twice), Virginia, BC, Vandy and Iowa St. Not even a representative sample of the BCS teams.
MAC-13
Service academy teams-3
Other D1-10
D2(you know what I mean)-8

Somehow I think the number of games against BCS schools will decline the most.

geographic expansion within the conference. They won't have any geographic diversity otherwise.

You have to believe one of the 2-3 OOC games would be a MAC team for all the Big 10. So in a 10 gamre schedule you might, just might have a good game. Iowa, for example, would be a cup cake and Iowa State and 10 Big 10 teams. Yuck.

Pressure the NCAA for a 13-game season. That way you can have a 10-game conference schedule and still have room on the schedule for 3 OOC games.

I've always had a problem with a 9-game conference schedule. The odd number off home/away games benefits some schools and punishes others.

and Iowa State every year. That would take care of its OOC.

I guess that is one way to get the Hawkeye fans fired up for the occasional road trip to New Brunswick.

Without inter conference play, they will not be able to gauge their teams against National talent. I.e. how good are they? Will also lower strength of schedule for own years. And most importantly, lower their draw for recruiting outside of the Midwest.

Take Ohio State next year. They play absolutely no one OOC, and should be able to coast into a BCS game if not the championship itself before being tested. Still, the conference will be collecting the same money. The B1G as a whole will get more prestigious bowl invites as well.
It's ALL about money to Jim Delaney. By having less non-conference games, it becomes less apparent to the rubes in the stands that their team is not as good as many of the MAC schools ( I specifically refer to the Little 9 here), and also less obvious that the best teams in the league can't compare to the top programs nationally.

It is unquestionably a short-sighted move that will hurt the B1G brand in the long run - the recruiting hit you mention will be big, but it is the thinking of PTB's of the B1G.

I agree with you, but Delany's answer would probably be that once the big Ten gets to 16 schools, the conference will cover new, rich in footballl talent, areas.

Not sayin' they are right or wrong, but that is what they believe will happen. Delaney also assumes that Clemson, NCST, VaTech and FSU leaving for maybe SEC or Big 12.

It will never add Florida State.

So far, the m.o. in B1G expansion has been:

1. AAU school;
2. Not located in current B1G footprint, but located in a state adjacent to current B1G footprint.

If the B1G were to continue to follow that blueprint, that would make UVa the 15th member, and UNC the 16th member. If they go beyond that, Ga Tech becomes the 17th member, and Florida (an AAU member) becomes the 18th member. Florida State is not an AAU member and not likely to become one anytime in the foreseeable future.

Of course, a turf war with the SEC is probably not what the B1G is looking for. I suppose they could try to arrange a Florida State-for-Florida swap on behalf of the SEC, but that could be a tall order as well.

The Big Ten isn't going past 16 schools. Next on the list are GTech and maybe Virginia. Delany probably expects FSUand Clemson to go to the Big 12.

Delaney is hell bent on trapping ND w/o options to coerce them into his conference

For five years (2006-2010), the Pac-10 football teams played a round-robin conference schedule. They did not do this until the NCAA teams were allowed to play 12 regular season football games.

I know that five seasons is a relatively short time frame, but during those five seasons, did the Pac-10 experience the same problems that you think the Big-10 would experience with a 9-10 game conference schedule?

I realize that there are differences between the Pac-10 during that time period and the current Big-10. However, both conferences were essentially dominated by two teams (USC and Oregon, Ohio State and Michigan).

I live in Big 10 country. I formed my opinion based on conversations with their fans. This is not a new idea.

I can't imagine that MSU or Purdue will continue to play ND annually.

With nine conference games... I could see MSU and Purdue becoming a 4 (or 6) games every decade series. If the rest of the conference is playing three cupcakes for their non-conference schedule, I can't see those two schools playing ND every year.

Every game on the BTN is a national TV game.

A team that finished one game above .500 in a conference with it's own network still managed appearances on network TV or an ESPN network (which I think should be considered national at this point) a total of 9 times last year. Kind of incredible when you think about it:

Boise State - ESPN
Central Michigan - ESPNU
ND - ABC
Ohio State - ABC
Iowa - ESPN
Wisconsin - ABC
Nebraska - ABC
Northwestern - ESPN2
TCU (Bowl Game) - ESPN

Even Purdue had a few national games:
ND - NBC
Ohio State - ABC regional / ESPN2
Penn State - ESPNU
OK State (Bowl game) - ESPNU

Either way, they were seen nationally.

"national TV". Even ESPN should only be considered national cable, IMHO, not national TV, since not everyone has cable TV (something the cable networks don't want to talk about).

I would given MSU credit for 7 out of 12 games.

As more and more people drop cable for a combination of OTA antenna and online streaming, the distinction between cable and network is becoming more significant. This is probably the opposite of the 90s and early 2000s where the emergence of satellite made "cable" television more accessible to everyone.

Not that I would miss Purdue. MSU would be a tough loss for me personally.