Nico Perrino

With the Big Ten recently announcing that it would spend the next 12-18 months exploring the possibility of an expansion to 12 teams the question naturally comes up, “if the Big Ten does indeed decide to expand, who would the 12th team be?”

Taking for granted that the Big Ten is probably looking most closely for schools that fit three different criteria -1) Solid Football program 2) Solid Basketball program 3) Good academics- three schools have come up frequently on message boards and in the media: Notre Dame, Missouri, and Pittsburgh. But last week, Jack Swarbrick, the Notre Dame AD, after hearing much hoopla over ND to Big Ten rumors, came out and openly stated that Notre Dame does not wish to join the Big Ten mainly because the school values it’s football team’s independence.

With Notre Dame out of the picture the school that stands out most to me as the best possible addition to the Big Ten appears to be Pittsburgh. Nothing against Missouri, but Pittsburgh seems to be a better fit for the conference both academically and athletically and here are 10 reasons why:

1. The school ranks 56th overall in the US News and World Report’s rankings of national Universities, which is ahead of many other Big Ten schools.
2. The addition would renew the natural in-state rivalry with Penn State.
3. Pittsburgh would help tie Penn State into the conference geographically because at the moment Penn State is somewhat of a geographic outcast from the rest of the Big Ten.
4. Pittsburgh is a member of the Association of American Universities –An Association of the leading 62 research universities in the United States and Canada. All current Big Ten schools are members of the Association.
5. The football team has a solid tradition, attending 25 bowl games in their history and being among the top 20 teams on the all-time win list.
6. The school doesn’t have strong roots within the Big East; it hasn’t even been a member for a full 2 decades – It joined in 1991. The football team was previously independent.
7. Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett and Mike Ditka all played football at Pittsburgh, and two of the 3 currently are prime-time football analysts. The addition would further entrench the Big Ten within sports media. Tony Dorsett also won the Heisman.
8. The basketball team has developed into a Big East power as of late. They have 21 NCAA tournament appearances in their history and advanced to the elite-8 last year before falling to Villanova. They won the 2008 conference title.
9. Joe Paterno suggested them as a possible addition to the conference in June.
10. They belong to a large media market in Pittsburgh.