Lieberman: Taking a crack at Big Ten expansion

It’s time to take my first crack at the Big Ten expansion talk — publicly, at… It’s time to take my first crack at the Big Ten expansion talk — publicly, at least.

With so much speculation out there, it’s easy for me to instantly regret opening this can of worms.

But hey, it could be worth a high result on a “Big Ten expansion” Google search.

It’s a shot in the dark, but I’m fairly confident you’ve heard of this expansion phenomenon the Big Ten is using to mask what it really entails: “We need one more team to allow for a huge-a** championship game to make millions of dollars.”

This wouldn’t be a Big East column without some mention of Big East schools.

In this case, Big East schools are being tossed around like sandbags heading toward a huge Big Ten corn-hole board on blogs and online news outlets.

Naturally, Pitt has been mentioned plenty of times for its natural bitter rivalry with Penn State and its forced, and in my eyes ultimately futile, rivalry with Ohio State.

Pitt makes sense. Rutgers, Syracuse and even Connecticut are in the talk, as well.

The hype stirs up a good amount of blogging, but really, what we have here is a failure to communicate.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany held a news conference Wednesday between meetings with fellow BCS commissioners in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The press conference was essentially called to say … nothing. Delany said he had discussed nothing of expansion in the meeting.

Largely because of hype generated from Internet reports, the news of the day from Delany was that expansion wasn’t discussed. Come on.

Delany gave a 12-to-18-month time frame in a release he sent out in December. That leaves us at least eight months away from a major decision.

But what if the rumors are true and the Big Ten raids the Big East for all it’s worth?

From what I have read, the most likely kamikaze strike from the Big Ten would mean that Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse and Connecticut would jump ship, hoping to entice Notre Dame, as well.

This would give the Big Ten a total of 16 teams.

How can you call a 16-team league the Big Ten? What sort of witty logo (notice the T splits the number 11, representing the 11 teams in the conference) could they make from the number 16?

So many questions and not enough answers.

Also, the Big East would be desecrated and most likely raid the Conference-USA for teams, and on down the line.

Because that scenario is the least likely to happen, let’s look at a more likely one: What if one team leaves the Big East for the Big Ten to give the conference 12 teams and a football championship game?

To me, Rutgers makes the most sense. Its access to a unique television market with New York close by and access to a one-of-a-kind championship game in, let’s say, a new Giants/Jets Stadium is key.

Pitt makes sense geographically and schematically, whereas Rutgers makes way more sense monetarily — and we usually know how these deals are done.

This leaves the Big East in a pickle it doesn’t want to deal with.

That’s why the conference announced it will bring former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue onboard.

With a number of Big East schools on the Big Ten’s wish list, Tagliabue comes in on a voluntary basis to advise the conference on how to navigate through a changing college football landscape.

Tagliabue, a graduate of Georgetown University, should provide invaluable advice on how the Big East should conduct business after losing a team or two.

But with Tagliabue’s hiring, it seems to send up a white flag from the Big East.

The conference won’t fight for its members, but it will more likely instead try to compensate for their losses.

It will be an unfortunate day when the Big East is forced by the bullying Big Ten to scramble to cover any losses.

But it’s a sad state of college football — money is power.

The punishment for the lesser conferences in football, such as the Big East, for growing into a competitive league is of teams spring boarding such success into a wealthier opportunity.

It’s one thing we could do without, but at least for now, it seems the sad reality is coming to fruition.