CHICAGO — Jim Delany was clear with what he is looking for in the months and years to come regarding conference expansion.
The Big Ten commissioner wants a nine-game conference schedule and he has “paused” on expansion for now.
The coaches in his own league, however, didn’t necessarily agree with him on those two talking points.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel disagreed with a possible schedule shift to nine Big Ten games and Joe Paterno said he was looking for expansion eastward as soon as possible.
With nine conference games – meaning five conference road games every other year, Tressell said teams would begin to hurt financially, especially those such as Penn State, whose athletic department is entirely self supported.
“If you’re assigned five away games from the get-go and you’re in the midst of a home-and-home with somebody like we do, all of a sudden you’ve got six away games and that might be difficult for us to do to our 36 sports.”
He also noted the difficulty for a team to challenge for a national title if it is playing five road games in the Big Ten followed by a neutral-site conference championship game.
As for Paterno’s complaint, he said he isn’t trying to impose his view on the Big Ten, but purely for selfish reasons, he wants the conference to expand east.
He pointed to increased recruiting possibilities with a Big Ten market that spans past Penn State, eastward. Without specifying, Paterno hinted at Syracuse and Rutgers, who would bring the New York City market to the Big Ten.
“Well, I could get up here and have a little fun with Commissioner Delany and tell him exactly where we ought to go,” Paterno joked. “After all, I have all the answers.”
One answer Paterno said he doesn’t have, however, is how to split up the two divisions, saying “I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision.”
He also hasn’t thought much about playing in the same division as the conference’s newest addition, Nebraska, or a potential rivalry game. But he did praise the conference for adding the Cornhuskers.
“We had played Nebraska before we got into the Big Ten, and I had some great, great games with them,” Paterno said. “I have tremendous amount of respect for not only [athletic director] Tom [Osborne], but the University of Nebraska. So I think it’s a really good addition to the Big Ten.”
The Nittany Lions currently play Michigan State in their final regular season game for the Land Grant Trophy, and Spartans coach Mark Dantonio talked Monday about the importance of keeping rivalries and traditions.
But Dantonio also said he wasn’t sure divisions mattered much in terms of keeping rivalries alive because of cross-sectional games needed to fill the schedule.
There has solely been speculation about a Penn State-Nebraska rivalry game, but Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema was adamant Monday he would like to play the Cornhuskers in a yearly season-ending contest. Once the expansion was made official, Bielema said he texted Big Ten Associate Commissioner Mark Rudner asking for it.
He also tweeted he wanted the Huskers at year’s end.
“If Nebraska is coming to our league, it would be neat to have them maybe as an end of season rivalry game,” Bielema said. “Because we don’t have that currently.”
Notes
-Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor was voted preseason conference player of the year by media members, while Michigan State linebacker Greg Jones took home the honors on the defensive side of the ball. Both players took home the preseason honors last year, as well.
-The Buckeyes were picked to finish first in the Big Ten, followed by Iowa and Wisconsin. Penn State was not included as the league only announces its top-three teams.