The Big Red will be joining the Big Ten.
A source with knowledge of the expansion talks has confirmed to the Tribune that Nebraska will be invited to apply for Big Ten membership, a mere formality in the process. An announcement is expected Friday.
The league has not determined, the source said, whether it will remain at 12 schools or expand to 14.
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Sunday that the league "could act and act again" -- meaning that expansion could occur in phases..
Clearly, Delany knew that Nebraska, facing a loyalty ultimatum from the Big 12, would need resolution this week.
The Big Ten remains interested in both Notre Dame and Rutgers, and Delany appears willing to wait for a final response from the Irish.
A source at Notre Dame, though, indicated that the school likely has "moved on," with another saying that a top Notre Dame official assured the Big East that it intends to keep teams such as men's and women's basketball in the league.
If that's the case, the Big Ten appears likely to cap at 12 teams.
Part of the Big Ten's motivation to add only one school is its desire to avoid being viewed as responsible for causing college football Armageddon.
Texas officials have indicated that if Nebraska leaves, the Big 12 would dissolve, with Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado poised to join the Pac-10.
The New York Times reported that top officials at Texas and Texas A&M will meet Thursday in a final effort to keep the league intact. Adding a school such as TCU would do just that.
Those Big 12 talks -- and the potential breakup of the league -- could affect Nebraska's financial penalty and whether the Cornhuskers can join the Big Ten by 2011.
Nebraska had been hell-bent on joining the Big Ten, a source said, and the interest was mutual. The Big Ten gets a huge name to boost its brand and it gives the league three of the five winningest Division I programs in history (along with Michigan and Ohio State; the other two are Notre Dame and Texas).
It allows the conference to form two divisions and create a conference title game, addressing Penn State coach Joe Paterno's criticism that the league now takes a siesta in December.
One logical projection would have Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the West and Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana in the East.
While it creates marquee, TV-friendly games such as Nebraska-Iowa and Nebraska-Wisconsin, expanding to 12 won't do much to stretch the reach of the Big Ten Network, which became profitable in its second year by attracting 45 million TV households.
Nebraska is a state of 1.8 million people and its largest TV market, Omaha, ranks 76th nationally with around 410,000 TV homes. That's smaller than Toledo.
Tom Osborne, the Nebraska athletic director who coached the Cornhuskers to national titles in 1994, '95 and '97 (shared with Michigan), said during a recent radio appearance that the school was not motivated by a publicly perceived beef with Big 12 rival Texas.
"This decision is not going to be based on animosity or petty jealousy," Osborne said. "You're talking about something that could maintain for the next 75-100 years
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