Delany: Big Ten 'not anywhere near' expansion decision
By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY
The Big Ten Conference is still in the early stages of weighing whether and where to expand and is "not anywhere near" the point of identifying and approaching prospective new schools, commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday.
"We have not accelerated anything," Delany said, refuting a Chicago Tribune report late last week that the league had stepped up its timetable.
In announcing it was exploring expansion beyond its current 11 members, the Big Ten said in December that Delany would take 12-18 months to draw up recommendations to its council of school presidents.
He met with the presidents in conjunction with semiannual meetings of the Association of American Universities in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, but described those discussions as routine.
While "I'm not saying it didn't come up," Delany said of expansion, he insisted it merely was one of several league issues addressed.
He declined to get into details of the discussions.
Delany is in Scottsdale, Ariz., for regular football Bowl Championship Series meetings through Thursday. He spoke to USA TODAY in a telephone interview.
Also in Scottsdale are other commissioners, including the Big East's John Marinatto and Big 12's Dan Beebe, and speculation had been rampant that Delany could serve them notice of the Big Ten's interest in talking to officials at Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Missouri and Nebraska, among other potential expansion targets.
"We'll work with our athletic directors and our presidents. If there's a need to have formal discussions about expansion with another institution, we'll reach out," Delany said.
"But we're still in the process of analyzing and gathering information, and we're not anywhere near what I would describe as formal expansion discussions with any member. We haven't changed anything, neither the timetable nor the process that was described."
