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Speaking of changing conferences, I don't know if any of you have heard or read about what is going on here in the Illinois State Senate (leave it to these idiot politicians) the past three-four weeks. Two state senators plans to get another Illinois university into the Big Ten was approved by the state senate yesterday. They want to create a committee to look at how the state could market an existing state university to the Big Ten as a candidate for expansion. The legislation was approved by a 51-1 vote and now moves to the House (the lone "no" vote was from the Senator who represents the Champaign area.....surprise, surprise). The reason behind the thinking for the legislation was that too many Illinois students leave Illinois for other Big Ten schools, because they are being rejected by Illinois and Northwestern, because those schools are so competitive and difficult to get in to.
So, which school is at the top of their list? Yep, Illinois State. Also on their list is Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois and SIU-Edwardsville (figure that one out!!!).
To gain admittance into the conference, it would take the approval of at least 70% of the member schools, which is expanding to 14 schools later this year, with the addition of Rutgers (fun fact that a lot of you probably know....New Jersey is the only state in the nation whose state school isn't named after the state ; that would be Rutgers) and Maryland.
Leave it to the politicians. The state is broke and the pension fund is the worst in the nation, and they're worried about this stuff.
So, who will replace ISU and SIU in The Valley? Gee, maybe some state Senators in Iowa can introduce some legislation to get the Bulldogs into the Big Ten or Big Twelve!!!
The Big Ten has not spoken to any of the Senators about this.
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