The Big Ten is the Big Move CMU Needs

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The head coach of the MAC Champion Central Michigan Chippewas is leaving for the University of Cincinnati.

Butch Jones will follow in Brian Kelly’s footsteps for the second time in three years, succeeding Kelly at Cincinnati after Kelly, who was CMU’s head football coach from 2004-06, left for the University of Notre Dame.

The university is now at a crossroad, do they want to be taken seriously as a football school or continue to be a big fish in a small pond and be a coach feeder system for bigger universities who take football seriously?

The answer is simple; Athletics Director Dave Heeke must do all within his power to have CMU join a Bowl Championship Series member conference.

And if he is not willing to do the work, the university must find someone who will.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney will soon announce that the conference will renew its push to add a 12th team. With 12 teams, the Big Ten would be able to finally hold a conference championship game; NCAA rules only allow conferences with at least 12 teams to hold conference championship games and conference championship games are worth millions to conferences in terms of advertising and television revenues.

While the Big Ten will continue of pursuing their pipe dream of adding Notre Dame to the conference and other universities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Connecticut will vie for the slot, Heeke must secure that spot for CMU.

After years of football obscurity, the work of Kelly and Jones have finally put CMU on the national radar, earning their first Associated Press top 25 ranking in school history. If the university wants to build on that success, a stable football program that doesn’t have to start over ever three years is a must.

The Chippewas have proven they can compete with Big Ten competition, with road wins over Indiana in 2008 and Michigan State in 2009, and having close losses to Purdue in the 2007 and 2008; both games that were winnable for CMU in the final minute.

The most important part for the university would be the revenue and exposure. Big Ten teams are guaranteed games on the ESPN family of networks or the Big Ten Network. Gone would be the days of bending over backwards for ESPN and Wednesday night home games just to get ESPN to broadcast from Kelly/Shorts Stadium. Not to mention, Big Ten Schools get between $1.5 and $2 million from BCS revenues.

Imagine a season where Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State all come to Kelly/Shorts with Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa guaranteed the next?

A competitive team in the Big Ten would have alumni lining up to donate money and allow the team to recruit from the state’s elite football talent, instead of picking up the scraps from the rest of the region.

These goals are attainable if the university is willing to whatever it takes to take this athletic department to the next level towards national prominence.

If they are not willing, just prepare the next football coach for his move to Cincinnati in 2012.