The Big Ten has made it a point to expand its midwest boundaries over the past decade.
A conference that once debated whether or not to stretch to add a wildly valuable Penn State program in 1990 extended its reach in the early 2010s. First came Nebraska from the Big 12, a logical addition for a league that had already established outposts across the Mississippi River in Minnesota and Iowa. Maryland and Rutgers followed three years after, sniping major media markets away from the AAC and ACC in an expansion to the East Coast.
But none of those moves could have adequately prepared the college sports world for what could reportedly happen next.
