Lord Voldemort Revisited: Confusion Reigns in Big Ten

Last spring I wrote an article comparing Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to Lord Voldemort, the freakishly evil villain from the Harry Potter books. At the time I was inspired to write it by Delany's quick, harsh putdown of something Joe Paterno had said. What did JoePa say? He said that he thought the Big Ten should add a 12th team.

Delany called expansion "a back-burner issue" just 10 short months ago. Now, the most powerful man in collegiate athletics has sown fear, uncertainty, and doubt all over Division I. It's amazing how small of a statement was necessary to set off the Confrapocalypse.

Delany has not said the conference would expand, nor has he given any sort of definite timetable for a decision. In fact, all of his public comments on the matter have been about as specific as the Trolololo guy's lyrics. Those comments were enough to have us all believing that the Big East may be dead in the water, Texas is almost certainly leaving the Big 12, and Notre Dame might finally have to start playing football on Earth in a conference.



Share Once we got past the "Pitt to the Big Ten is a done deal" stage, our attention turned to Texas, who would have a lot of reasons to join the Big Ten. Or the Pac 10. Or just stay in the Big 12. Then again, there may not be a Big 12 for much longer. Every league school except Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma State has been mentioned as a possible target for the Big Ten. Nebraska AD Tom Osborne even hinted that his school is shopping itself around.

Since the University of Texas is under control of the Texas legislature, it's possible that erstwhile body might prevent the Longhorns from bolting for colder pastures. Either that, or they'll try to work a package deal with Texas A&M coming along too. Both these things could happen; the legislature's intervention is the only thing that got Baylor and Texas Tech into the Big 12 in the first place.

Of course, if the Big Ten does add more than one team, its inclination to expand in the future will be a bit more limited. That presents a potential problem for Notre Dame, which has always regarded the Big Ten as something like a "friend with benefits." Suddenly, the FWB is getting serious about someone else, which may forever end the WB part of the deal. This chain of events is not lost on Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick, who is suddenly sounding a lot less standoffish about the prospect of Notre Dame losing its independent status.

All this assumes as well that the Big Ten doesn't just pull an ACC by raiding the Big East. Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse have all been linked to possible expansion as well. They'd all bolt, given the opportunity. Every Big Ten school gets $18 million more in TV money than the Big East schools do.

This chaos and confusion all stems from Delany saying that the Big Ten might be thinking about expanding after all. Simply that and nothing more. Voldemort and his Death Eaters couldn't get such great results from so few words.