Opinion: College expansion talk, plus thoughts on Michigan-Ohio State rivalry and more

Then a few schools in the plains decided to cough up some of their future earnings to keep the Longhorns coming to their stadium every other year, and next thing you know, expansion has quieted to a whisper.

Nebraska joined the Big Ten. Colorado and Utah high-tailed it for the Pac-12 (get used to that). Boise State is now in the Mountain West.

That’s it. No massive realignment. No Armageddon. And no reason to think anything else is coming.

On some level, it makes sense for the Big Ten to try and expand east. There are a lot of TV sets in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington D.C. that don’t get the Big Ten Network on basic cable. Tapping those markets is gold.

But Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is playing a game of chicken with himself if he thinks adding Rutgers, Syracuse or UConn will cause the seismic shift he needs to land Notre Dame, the real apple of his eye. If the Big East loses two programs, it’ll dip into the non-BCS ranks and add two more.

Maryland? Boston College? Missouri? Three fine schools with mediocre football programs, none of which will make the SEC fearfully raid its neighbors and grow to 16, the type of domino that needs to fall for the Irish to give up their ridiculous independence.

Expansion isn’t over. In three years or five years or whenever Texas decides it wants more money, the talk and the movement will heat up again.

For now though, New York can wait. Competitively, financially and structurally, this isn’t the right time for a Big Ten move east.

News, notes and quotes

Everyone knows who the Big Ten favorite is (Ohio State), so the biggest news to come out of the league’s football media days next week will be about 2011. What will divisions look like? Where will a Big Ten championship game be played? Will there be nine conference games?

Don’t expect firm answers to those questions - there’s a news cycle the Big Ten will take advantage of - but there might be enough movement and consensus to know where things are headed.

Not that Delany wants my input, but I say put Michigan and Ohio State in separate divisions. Forget the end-of-year tradition. Protect the rivalry, play it in early fall and hope your two premier programs match up again in a title game.

• As for a league title game, as much as I’d love to see it at Ford Field every year, the right thing to do would be rotate it between several venues, indoor and out.

There’s a case to be made for sustaining an audience by keeping it at one city, like the SEC (in Atlanta). But the Big Ten is unique in that it has eight NFL stadiums in its footprint (Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Minnesota and Pittsburgh) and weather is part of the charm.

Besides, Lucas Oil Stadium is about the same size as Ford Field, just as nice, and Indianapolis is better equipped to handle the crush of fans. Ford Field might not be the choice of the Big Ten powerbrokers.

• Outside linebacker Craig Roh, in a podcast on CBSSports.com, called the NCAA allegations against Michigan’s football program “a blessing in disguise.”

“It’s made us become a very close-knit group, even more close-knit than last year,” Roh said. “And I think it’s going to be really our relationships off the field that are going to affect how we’re going to play on the field as a defense.”

So were there chemistry issues last year?

“I wouldn’t say there was chemistry issues last year, but for some reason or another things just didn’t click going towards the second half of the season,” Roh said. “But I’d say this year definitely there’s - it’s just a stronger bond and I’m really feeling it with the whole defense, whole offense and team as a whole.”

Strong bond or not, Michigan just doesn’t have the horses to beat Ohio State, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.