It won’t be cincinnati. They don’t have the facilities to qualify for B10 membership. I agree that ND won’t join the B10. It doesn’t really offer them anything. Besides, the Big East is already BCS, and it would offer ND a relatively easy path to a national championship PLUS it would use up only 8 games on their schedule, leaving them with some of their traditional opponents.
I’m thinking the top candidates with state flagship-level university credentials + acceptable facilities and excellent basketball are: West Virginia, Pitt, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Kansas State, and Missouri. I like the Iowa State idea. I’ve wondered about Louisville who has just opened a dynamite basketball arena.
Iowa St. and Pitt add a rival for Iowa and Penn St. respectively but they do nothing in terms of tv markets (and tv is going to be 3/4ths of the equation).
West Virginia is another market which doesn’t have much to offer.
Nebraska, at least, has a national football fan base much the way Notre Dame does although their basketball program isn’t much.
Rutgers only makes sense as an entry way to the NY-Philly tv markets but, otherwise, they’d be a fish out of water in the Big 10. Syracuse might make more sense there.
Missouri has two good tv markets, are competitive in football and basketball, already has a rivalry with Illinois and has enough educational prestige to satisfy the snoot-nosed regents. If Notre Dame won’t budge, Missouri gives them the best option.
There’s also some academic standard that has to be followed as well. All Big Ten schools are members of some esteemed collegiate group (can’t remember the name), and the schools that are to be considered must be members of it. I think I read somewhere that Pitt was not, but Rutgers and Nebraska are.
Well, the Big Ten (or whatever it will be called after expansion) will immediately split into divisions when they get their 12th school. I’m not sure how many conference games they will play. It could be that the “Big Ten” conference schedule will be a similar number of games currently played by the Big East.
The Big Ten really, really needs a conference championship game.