Apparently satisfied with squeezing eleven schools into the Big Ten, Commish Jim Delany is no longer interested in adding a 12th school to his conference. He had previously suggested the conference should consider adding another big-name university, which would mean two divisions and a postseason playoff that would greatly benefit the new Big Ten Network. At least he was honest about it, and didn’t feed us some line about improving academic standards or furthering the conference’s mission statement. When it comes to Big Eleven expansion, there’s really only one school worth the trouble and its name rhymes with Notre Dame. Problem is, they already own a network. Maybe they could poach Louisville from the Big East, or merge with the other Big Twelve and become the Big Twenty-Four. But Iowa Kirk Ferentz voices what many around the conference feel on the subject:

“I’ve not met anybody in coaching that really enjoys it. There’s a lot of downside to it, in my opinion.”

The last thing we need is another conference full of coaches who complain about having to play another game against a quality opponent. How many times have we heard Bob Stoops or Pick-a-coach from the SEC gripe about that extra game? Never mind that those schools greatly benefit from the added revenue of the extra game, along with the increased TV exposure. Maybe Delany was remembering that, while Michigan was in the clubhouse with their regular season finished on November 18, Florida used their SEC title game performance in prime time to leapfrog the Wolverines into the BCS title game.

Besides, the so-called custodians of the sport can’t keep telling us with a straight face that there’s no way to add a Plus-One game when they keep adding meaningless conference title games. After all, they wouldn’t want the players to miss too much class time.