subscribed to the "one member per state" expansion model. Now the Big XII didn't use that philosophy when it added TCU. However, the Big XII may have used a similar philosophy assuming you accept "one member per major market" as a philosophy. At least TCU is currently the only Big XII member physically located in the DFW metro area. The reason I mention these 2 potential expansion philosophies is because the Big Ten could apply them to Iowa State as a justification for not adding them. The Big Ten already has Iowa as a member, so that eliminates the Utah scenario. Is the state of Iowa a large enough market to justify a conference having 2 members from the state in this current media market environment?

For the record, I would like to see Iowa State become a member of the Big Ten. I am just not sure the Big Ten views Iowa State the same way I do. Then again, I would like to see the ACC (East), Big Ten (North), Pac-12 (West), and SEC (South) work together so they could re-organize into 4 geographic conferences and negotiate 1 national media contract for the entire group. Each conference could still have their own conference network to handle the "regional broadcasts." By taking that approach and limiting conference membership to 16 members, then it could bring more stability to the situation as well as harmony and/or balance among the 4 conferences.