[KChiefs1]

http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog...in_big_te.html

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State president Gordon Gee had it right on Big Ten expansion two months ago, when he wrote in an email to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany that "we control our own destiny at the moment, but the window will soon close on us. Agility and swiftness of foot is our friend."

The Pac-10 may have slammed at least one window shut, right on the Big Ten's fingers.

The potential growth of the Big Ten no longer exists in a vacuum, not after Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott told reporters in San Francisco after league meetings on Sunday that he'd been cleared by league presidents to pursue any expansion angles.

Given that multiple reports have the Pac-10 contemplating an offer to six Big 12 schools, including Texas and Oklahoma, it was little surprise that the Big Ten might be moving up its originally stated 12- to 18-month expansion timetable stated in December.

"It's possible that timeline may be altered," Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon, who heads the Big Ten council of presidents and chancellors, told reporters in Chicago on Sunday after the conclusion of those league meetings.

The clear expansion connection stretched 2,100 miles from San Francisco to Chicago, as the rival conferences contemplate expanding to 16 teams each, destroying the Big 12 in the process and causing tremors that would be felt in the SEC, ACC and Big East as well.

There's a connection, and a circle. Consider:

• Nebraska and Missouri, logical Big Ten targets, have been given a deadline to commit to the Big 12 by the end of the week, according to multiple reports out of Texas.

• Texas would prefer to remain in the Big 12, but if those two schools bolt for the Big Ten, threatening the existence of the Big 12, it might encourage Texas and the other schools to accept a Pac-10 offer.

• Texas, one of two "home run" options for the Big Ten, would be off the table, leaving Notre Dame as the only earth-shattering addition left to be made. Some reports have the Big Ten willing to expand by just one team if that team is Notre Dame.

• However, my belief is that Notre Dame is more likely to consider joining the Big Ten if the league is doing more than just going to 12, and if the Big Ten isn't the only league expanding. Notre Dame may need seismic change in the college landscape to give up its independence, and that would mean the Big Ten adding multiple teams to reach 14 or 16.

• That would mean the Big Ten adding schools like Nebraska and Missouri. The key is that Nebraska and Missouri need some sign from the Big Ten if the deadline from the Big 12 is looming. Those schools can't be left without a conference.

Though Delany told reporters he was unaware of a deadline, that would be part of what is accelerating any Big Ten action.

While Texas remains an attractive option for the Big 10, the possibility of Texas Tech, Texas A&M and maybe Baylor having to be a part of any Texas move probably would rule out the Longhorns to the Big 10. The Pac-10 appears more willing to accept that.

According to ESPN.com, two other key points made in Chicago on Sunday were that league presidents don't have to meet in person to vote on expansion, so something could easily happen before the next scheduled league meetings in December. Expansion could come in phases, not just in one three-team or five-team chunk.

So the targets of Big Ten expansion -- Notre Dame, Nebraska, Missouri, a couple schools from the East -- don't seem to have changed from the initial speculation of six months ago. Once again, Simon emphasized the academic component of expansion, which conference leaders have done in the past.

But in many ways, for any conference, these moves are about money and television markets. That hasn't changed. It all just may happen sooner than some people expected, maybe in weeks, not months or years.