Sources: Big Ten did "homework" on Oklahoma, Kansas, and Vanderbilt

Think the ACC's pending "grant of rights" kills conference realignment in its tracks? Think again, apparently.

Per a report filed Monday evening from Omaha.com's Lee Barfknecht, several of his sports business connections don't necessarily think that the ACC's "grant of rights" cause means the silly season that is college conference reshuffling is dead to rights. As just about all national columnists who dared to proclaim as much Monday afternoon on Twitter were quickly reminded, lawyer's gonna lawyer.

While J.D.'s from Twitter University don't exactly care the same weight as those who've passed actual state bar examinations, you have to think that *some* highly paid attorneys out there would be willing to take up such a cause on behalf of a school looking to better themselves by trading conference affiliation, particularly at a time when it may become less and less commonplace.

Barfknecht went on to add, perhaps most interestingly of all, this nugget about the future of Big Ten realignment musical chairs:

As a sidenote, two sources have told The World-Herald that the Big Ten has done prior "homework" on Oklahoma, Kansas and Vanderbilt among other schools who might some day be expansion targets. The Big 12 grant-of-rights deal didn't stop a look-see for OU and KU.

Besides a legal challenge, the potential future TV money available could still make it profitable for a school to move.

So what do you take from all this? When the most powerful people in college athletics want something, there are ways to do it, regardless of the contracts and paperwork in place.

Barfknecht isn't even a West Virginia blogger either. Honest.

New ACC deal could halt conference realignment for a long time

Three power conferences now have similar deals, leaving very few major realignment possibilities on the table.

Big Ten to scrap Leaders & Legends, adopt East/West divisions

As long pined for (and expected as of late), the Big Ten will eliminate the Leaders/Legends setup and instead move to an East/West divisional alignment.

Report: Big Ten to approve nine-game conference schedule for 2016 soon

As widely anticipated, the Big Ten is inching closer to a nine-game conference slate, beginning for the 2016 season.

Report: New Big Ten divisions almost set

New Big Ten divisions should mean Ohio State and Michigan in their rightful place in the same division.

Is Florida State joining the Big Ten?

Our sources say...

Maryland 247 site reporting North Carolina has Big Ten offer, Virginia on deck?

Could North Carolina be the next ACC team to leave the conference for the Big Ten?

Local DC news producer reports Georgia Tech & Virginia to the Big Ten, offers slight retraction

UPDATE: Kevin Jones, the DC CBS producer/blogger who boldly went live with some of the whispers many (us including) had been hearing concerning a potential as early as Monday announcement regarding Georgia Tech & Virginia has back tracked on his previous report:

On Friday I tweeted a report about Georgia Tech and Virginia, which turned out to be inaccurate -- for the time being. I can only offer my apologies to the people I misled. Changes in the ACC are on the cusp of fruition, but today is not that day.

The reality is that NCAA conference realignment is one of the more complex issues today in sports. Powerful people inside various universities have certain agendas. My sources, no matter how influential and credible they may be, indeed were not enough to run with a story of this magnitude. I found out the hard way.

I vow to not be defined by this error in judgment and look forward to interacting with all of you through various media platforms.

So there's that. We personally still haven't heard anything to suggest the deal is totally off the table, but if more smoke appears on our radar, we'll certainly pass it along.

–

The information worth taking with numerous degrees of skepticism keeps rolling in, but with such a girth of it, should we probably be giving it more and more credence?

Washington DC online content producer Kevin Jones (WUSA9 in the District) is reporting a source of his is saying that not only will Georgia Tech Monday announce that they're leaving the ACC to join the Big Ten, but that the University of Virginia is coming with them:

Source: Georiga Tech and UVA will announce decision to leave ACC by Monday. Will join Big 10

For what it's worth, we've heard similar whispers from a couple different sources that aren't Jones, but nothing we'd feel particularly comfortable/reliable enough to run with. If he's right, the Big Ten must really be banking on securing the Norfolk-Portsmouth-New Port News market (41st in the country), Richmond-Petersburg (58th in the country), Roanoke-Lynchburg (67th), the Tri-Cities (TN-NC-VA, 92nd in the country), and whatever remnants of the DC market Maryland doesn't lay claim to. Though with DC, it's probably more about the Big Ten alumni in the area that'd be watching their teams play the Terps, it'd be interesting to know how many B1G alums migrate to the Commonwealth.

Georgia Tech acting AD denies Big Ten rumors

With all the hoopla over 3 reports spanning 24 hours concerning Georgia Tech potentially discussing a move to the Big Ten with the league, acting GT athletic director Paul Griffin says pay no mind:

"I'm not aware of any communications between university leadership and the Big Ten or any other conference," Griffin said Friday afternoon from Charlotte, where Tech will play Florida State for the ACC football championship Saturday.

Griffin acknowledged that an action like switching conferences from the ACC to the Big Ten would take place at an executive level, but said that Tech president G.P. "Bud" Peterson "has told me there's been no communication nor does he expect any."

I suppose one could also say this is exactly the kind of thing an athletic director who's either engaging in or who's institution is engaging in discrete conversations with one conference about leaving another would probably say. We'll see what (if anything) transpires from here.

Rumors: Georgia Tech approved by Big Ten to become 15th member?

Just a day after the NCAA approved Georgia Tech's waiver to become a bowl team even if they finish 6-7, a report from an ACC writer indicates more Big Ten tectonic shift may be on the way.

Rumor mill includes North Carolina as next possible Big Ten expansion target

Go ahead and add North Carolina to the shortlist for perspective future Big Ten expansion teams.

Could Boston College and Virginia be the next to join the Big Ten?

If you were down on the idea of Maryland and Rutgers joining the Big Ten...

Jim Delany: Big Ten divisions to be revisited after all

While Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany mentioned yesterday during the Maryland press conference that the Big Ten's divisions would be revisited, most of us just rolled our eyes and assume he was paying lip service to the notion at best. Sure, they'd "revisit" them, but given how notoriously stubborn the league's leadership can be, it seemed just as easy of a bet that that revisitation would mean going through the motions and then the reported Ilinois shifting to the Legends Division and Rutgers & Maryland joining the Leaders Division coming to fruition after all.

Delany told the Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein that there weren't any truth to the reports that a Maryland administrator had confirmed Rutgers and Maryland would be joining the Leaders Division:

B1G commish Jim Delany just told me we should not believe report on Rut & Md going to Leaders, and Ill shifting to Legends ...

Delany: "I have absolutely no idea where that came from. We have not had discussion one about that."

Whether or not that's commissioner speak or the real deal, hope is hope. Fingers crossed, Big Ten football fans.

Rutgers to hold 2 PM EST press conference to announce they're joining the Big Ten

Much like the Big Ten conference did yesterday for Maryland, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, will hold a press conference Tuesday afternoon with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to announce their plans to become the 14th member of the storied football conference. The Big Ten Network will begin coverage of the event at 1:45 PM EST and will also stream the event live on their BTN2Go service.

While Rutgers is having arguably their best football season in recent memory (they presently sit at 9-1 with their lone loss coming at the hand of former Ohio State wide receivers coach Darrell Hazell's Kent State Golden Flashes), they don't add a ton in terms of football pedigree beyond the last decade. The architect of that success, Greg Schiano, has also moved on to the greener pastures of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL. None the less, Kyle Flood's done a tremendous job and as was noted yesterday, were Rutgers a member of the Big Ten in the previous recruiting cycle, they would've had the 3rd best recruiting class in the entire conference.

Big Ten divisional realignment dream dead: Maryland, Rutgers to Leaders, Illinois to Legends

So much for the basic concept of East/West.

Report: Rutgers will announce Tuesday that they are joining the Big Ten

Well that certainly didn't take long. For the seemingly brief 12-16 hours of so it appeared that Georgia Tech might be an alternative to Rutgers, ESPN's Brett McMurphy reported Monday afternoon that Rutgers was, in fact, going to be the Big Ten's 14th team, thus, in theory, delivering the vaunted New York City market to the Big Ten (and their Big Ten Network):

Rutgers will announce move to Big Ten on Tuesday, sources told ESPN

Now becomes much scrutiny and second guessing. Do Maryland and Rutgers really add enough to justify what will surely be a high price tag (particularly in Maryland's case)? Though Rutgers is more on the up and up from a football perspective, they certainly don't add a ton from a men's basketball perspective. Many Big Ten (and Ohio State fans for that matter) would've certainly liked splashier additions, but in terms of dollars and where alumni reside, they certainly could've done worse.

UPDATE: Per a report at The Star-Ledger, Rutgers is expected to accept an invitation to the Big Ten Monday and will announce the decision as early as Tuesday. Perhaps most interestingly about the report is this bit about the unilateral powers of athletic director Tim Pernetti:

When the invitation comes, Tim Pernetti, Rutgers' athletic director, has the power to accept without waiting for authorization from the school's board of governors.

The report also goes on to state that the school would hope to join the Big Ten by 2014 but that Rutgers could try to follow the path previously paved by Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia in their respective negotiated early exits from the Big East.

Maryland will join the Big Ten prior to the 2014-2015 season

The Big Ten Network announced through their Twitter account Monday afternoon that the now confirmed Maryland move from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten would be taking place effective for the 2014-2015 season. The network also reiterated that they would be airing a special Big Ten Expansion Special and the press conference announcing the school's joining of the league at 2:30 PM EST on both the Big Ten Network and through their BTN2Go online service/app.

Now that we have a time table, we can begin to speculate the other lingering questions, like what impact will this have on the Big Ten's much maligned divisions? Will the league simply shift Illinois over to the Legends division and add Maryland and Rutgers (or Georgia Tech) to the Leaders side of the ledger? Or will they instead finally acquiesce and go to the more logical East/West alignment folks have been pining for since we first knew the league would have divisions in the first place?

Could Georgia Tech leap frog Rutgers to be the next to join the Big Ten?

Would the Big Ten opt for the Atlanta market and a foot print in the south in lieu of New York City?

Sources: Maryland has decided to move to the Big Ten

Not long after ESPN's Andy Katz reported that a prominent Maryland alumnus told him that the Terrapins would likely choose the Big Ten, Maryland's 247Sports representative, InsideMDSports.com's Jeff Ermann, reports that the move is indeed happening:

A source with knowledge of the situation tells InsideMDsports.com Maryland has decided to move to the BigTen. Announcement expected at 3.

And if that wasn't enough, ESPN's Brett McMurphy verified Maryland's move not even 20 minutes later:

Maryland's board of regents unanimously approves move to Big Ten, source tells ESPN.

And there you have it.

For better or worse, it appears the University of Maryland is planning to initiate the process to depart from the ACC and move to the Big Ten. Whether a lengthy legal challenge is in store (or just a large, financial one), it'll be interesting to see when and how the next dominoes fall. At 3 PM we should have more clarity on the situation as a whole.

Report: Maryland's board to meet Monday morning and vote on move to Big Ten

The University of Maryland's board of regents are meeting Monday morning to vote whether or not to join the Big Ten athletic conference. While the vote only needs a simple majority to pass (and evidently comes on the heels of expedition from University President Wallace D. Loh), many of the board members were reportedly not briefed on the situation as a whole:

The board members had not been formally briefed on the situation before the conference call with Loh. Multiple individuals with firsthand knowledge of the situation, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions, remained unsure of how the Board of Regents would vote, only saying that, as one put it, members "have a lot of questions."

"Obviously there's a financial incentive, but we need to know what else is involved," one of those individuals said. "Is there any other reason besides money? What are the pros and cons? What does it mean to spread the size of your conference out? I don't want to sit down and say I've made up my mind until I've heard all the data."

Sounds like a solid way to conduct business that could include a reported $50 million dollar exit fee to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference and could have serious financial implications on the athletic department and university alike for years to come.

What would Maryland and Rutgers bring to the Big Ten?

As Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten rumors heat up, let's take a long look at what both programs have produced athletically in recent memory, and how they might stack up in their new conference to be.

Maryland's official Twitter account, for one, welcomes their new Big Ten overlords

#Welp

Report: Maryland, Rutgers in talks to join the Big Ten

The Big Ten may soon be adding two more teams wearing shades of red to the league.