re: Interesting take on Big Ten expansion..prob. the best explanation.

Couple thoughts:

Recently all the articles I've read have shown the SEC to be making more money than the Big 10... so from the start the article struck me as being written from a Big 10 bias that would not appreciate other perspectives... even when they may be written in black and white

Pittsburgh makes a lot of sense to the Big 10 as the author mentioned and while they wouldn't be a publicity bonanza they would offer something and the author seems to overlook the likelihood that Pitt fans in the area are likely not fans of PSU for example (so his comment along the lines of "big 10 gains little or nothing as far as regional or national interest" is an over-statement at least IMO)

Missouri makes sense too... I took it from the blog that the guy writing it was an Illinois fan more than anything. One particular comment he made struck me as fairly wrong though... especially his idea that Illinois and Missouri split the Saint Louis market for college football. Having spent part of my childhood in Saint Louis I can tell you they really don't. Largely the city is indifferent to college football or if they are interested they passively turn in to watch big name teams rather than root for the somewhat local teams of Missouri (and to a much lesser extent Illinois). This is for several reasons... saint louis is mostly a baseball town... there is no major football university all that close to the city and the closest couple of "major" programs (if MU or Illini can be counted as major) pretty regularly sucked over the last few decades.

Nebraska would make a lot of sense for the Big 10 and I think the author sold well short the national media attention that they would generate. While Nebraska is a largely small and in some ways unimportant state, the football reputation of the University on a national scale probably exceeds any institution not named Notre Dame.

Texas is a worse fit than the author seems to think. The money would be appealing I think and the idea is creative but it turns the Big 10 into the PAC 10 east with a huge geographic distance between schools. If I were a Texas fan I would say no to the idea because they already have plenty of resources and they give up a lot for some money and a lot of disadvantages. Suddenly every conference trip is a serious haul instead of having a lot of easy travel dates. Their team will constantly practice in good weather designed to highlight their team speeed and athleticism and then play all of their late season road games in colder weather with slush and mud... good for neither their players nor their fans who presently enjoy traveling. Their baseball program would be completely screwed with the crap weather and while it probably doesn't occur to a Big 10 fan baseball is indeed a major sport of serious interest to them (yes, they win championships in that too)