I hope it’s Notre Dame

The Big Ten wants a 12th member:

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez says the Big Ten will soon make a more aggressive push toward adding a 12th member.

Speaking to Wisconsin’s athletic board on Friday, Alvarez, the former longtime Badgers football coach, said the conference already has investigated possibilities for expansion “from all over the country.” And though he places no timetable on the search, Alvarez thinks conference commissioner Jim Delany will respond to a group of athletic directors and coaches who want expansion.

…A 12th team would allow the Big Ten to split into divisions and hold a conference championship game. The Big Ten typically ends its football season two weeks before the other BCS conferences, though the addition of a permanent bye week in 2010 will shrink the gap by a week.

The “downside” to a conference championship game is: say you’ve got an undefeated team that is in line for the national championship. If that team loses the conference championship game, they get knocked out of national contention. There’s a lot of prestige and money in the national championship, so that’s bad.

But that’s a weenie excuse, unworthy of us. Add a 12th team! Have a conference championship game!

I wonder: if we can’t get Notre Dame, can we steal a team like Cincinatti from the conference they’re already in? Or maybe Pitt? And what’ll we do about our name?

UPDATE - The Big Troglodyte Conference!