Notre Dame and Texas are the crown jewels of the Big Ten's expansion plans. But things might have been different...
As the Big 8 and Southwest Conferences were disintegrating, Texas began to explore its options. Texas first looked to the Pac-10, but was blackballed by Stanford.
Mark Wangrin of the San Antonio Express-News picks up the story...
The Longhorns next turned to the Big Ten.Jim Delany is as sharp as they come, but we have to think he'd like a mulligan on this one.
Having added Penn State in 1990, the Big Ten was now made of universities that, in the view of UT officials, matched UT's profile - large state schools with strong academic reputations. Berdahl liked the fact that 10 conference members belonged to the American Association of Universities.
Yet, distance remained a disadvantage. Iowa, the closest Big Ten school to Austin, was 856 miles away - but the appeal of having 10 of 12 schools in the same time zone was seen as a plus.
But after adding Penn State in 1990, Big Ten officials had put a four-year moratorium on expansion. Although admitting interest, Big Ten bosses ultimately rejected UT's overtures.
Sigh...what might have been.
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