Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon discusses Big Ten expansion

Among them, he said, are rivalries and academics.

If the Big Ten expands, he said he doesn’t have a preference whether it grows by one, three or five teams.

The paramount issue to him regards scheduling. As an athletic director - especially for football in a BCS conference - scheduling is tricky.

So until things shake out, Brandon said he’s holding off on making any big scheduling decisions regarding Michigan football.

Until something shakes out, he said, there isn’t much to do because the landscape could look different in a couple of years. With 2011 scheduling done, Brandon said his major scheduling responsibility doesn’t begin until the 2012 schedule.

“Before you get too deeply into the future you have to look at this whole conference expansion thing and where does it land, what does it look like, does it change anything about the composition of the conference,” Brandon said after the radio show. “Because if it does, it could change the scheduling dynamics and until you get into all that, my attitude is you’re chasing a ghost. My attitude for 2012-13 is let’s just get a little bit of time and see where this all lands.”

One thing he is fairly certain of is that Michigan and Ohio State will continue to play.

“Anybody who comes up with a proposal that said Michigan shouldn’t play Ohio State,” Brandon said, “should be institutionalized.”