With all the recent attention given to the possibility of the Big Ten expanding its membership, I thought it would be interesting to visualize the various new landscapes of a 12 (or more?) -team Big 10.
big10expansion (via ingebritsen)
While the map can give an approximate idea of where the new member would be, here's a chart of the distances (roughly estimated, courtesy of Google Maps) from existing schools to the six potential newbies.
|
Iowa state |
Missouri |
Notre dame |
Pittsburgh |
Rutgers |
Cincinnati |
Syracuse |
Minnesota |
217 |
558 |
502 |
868 |
1205 |
703 |
1087 |
Wisconsin |
278 |
476 |
241 |
607 |
945 |
443 |
826 |
Michigan |
581 |
626 |
179 |
283 |
621 |
243 |
502 |
Mich state |
561 |
606 |
159 |
349 |
687 |
309 |
467 |
Ohio state |
677 |
534 |
280 |
185 |
523 |
103 |
473 |
Illinois |
376 |
296 |
198 |
489 |
827 |
237 |
783 |
northwestern |
363 |
430 |
112 |
479 |
816 |
314 |
697 |
Iowa |
137 |
237 |
301 |
667 |
1004 |
476 |
886 |
Penn state |
907 |
851 |
478 |
136 |
237 |
418 |
281 |
Indiana |
542 |
343 |
259 |
409 |
747 |
131 |
696 |
Purdue |
459 |
388 |
151 |
423 |
761 |
179 |
710 |
Total Miles |
5098 |
5345 |
2860 |
4895 |
8373 |
3556 |
7408 |
Average Miles |
463.4545 |
485.9091 |
260 |
445 |
761.1818 |
323.2727 |
673.4545 |
It seems that between Syracuse's lack of football tradition/success and its distance from member schools, that possibility can be essentially written off. Rutgers would be in the same boat but for its renewed football vigor (...by which I mean proximity to the Manhattan media market). The geographic aspect of restructuring the Big 10 points to Notre Dame being the best choice, and that won't be happening.
If the Big 10 decides to add 3 schools to get to 14, I could envision a combination of Cincinnati, Iowa State, and Pittsburgh. All other factors aside, this would spread the travel distances more or less equally between the existing schools.