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Part of me feels like this whole B10 expansion thing has been in the works behind the scenes for a bit, that they already knew who they're adding and it's just a formality to announce the plans to consider studying expansion.
It'll seem homeresque of me, but it's not because of the Jersey thing with Rutgers, as much as it's understanding the mechanics of higher ed. Rutgers, even in the face of some significant budget cuts in other areas, didn't slow plans to grow their football program in recent years.
They've been consistent with their success, have given Schiano anything he's wanted to ensure he's not tempted to leave and the stadium capacity of 52k puts it in a respectable size nationally.
Anyway, the more this plays out -- and I thought this from the outset -- the more it seems to me that they knew this was going to happen and they've been doing the work behind the scenes to get prepared for the move to the B10 from the time it was first floated back a few years ago, than say, some sort of "thoughtful" process where a few schools do the show pony to determine who'll get tapped for B10 expansion.
That's all just random speculation in my head, not anything scientific, but...I just feel like if there wasn't some larger plan in mind beyond "being considered a respectable player on the Big East scene" that the school would've scaled back its plans at some point or caved to the considerable faculty (and some state) pressure to focus less on increase the football program's footprint.
I guess we'll see, though.
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