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Okay, I swear, I'll be abstaining from "HURR WEIS IS FAT" jokes from here on out. Charlie and the Field Goal Factory top most people's list as possible entrant into the Big Ten for one reason: they basically are a Big Ten school. In terms of academics, enrollment, game attendance... they've got the total package. They're already rivals with three Big Ten schools - Michigan, MSU and Purdue - and they're in a location that puts them essentially smack-dab in the middle of "Big Ten country".

Benefits for the conference

- Would immediately be one of the top academic schools in a conference already loaded with prestigious institutions

- Would lock down the Chicago market far better than NW and the Illini, as the Windy City is overrun with crazy Domer fans and alums

- Who wouldn't want to see Notre Dame lining up against the likes of Ohio State and Penn State?

Drawbacks for the conference

- Idiot SEC fans (redundant, I know) who lump together ND and the Big Ten arbitrarily would now be justified in doing so

- Um, Notre Dame hasn't been good at football lately

- Yet another obnoxious-assed fanbase to go with Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State, making the Big Ten easily second to the SEC in yet another respect: pompous assholery

Could it happen?

Well, it makes a good amount of sense and wouldn't be a particularly difficult transition, so you know what that means: fuck no. I say this only partially with jest. As stodgy as the Notre Dame powers that be may be, Jim Delany is far stodgier, and will gladly out-Stodgy McStodgerson anyone who dares oppose him. I tend to assume that no teams will be added under Delaney anyway, but the collective bass-ackwardness of both institutions and their leaders, in this particular case, will probably put this into like, negative probability or something. I know that's impossible, but where there's a will to be headache-inducingly incompetent, Jim Delaney will find a way. It just isn't going to happen this decade or next.