UNC Football: Tar Heels Reportedly Offered To Join Big Ten, Virginia Might Be Next
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The Big Ten has undergone quite the expansion in the past few months, and have now added North Carolina to the list of schools it wants to bring aboard.
According to Jeff Ermann of 247Sports.com’s Maryland site, UNC has an offer to join the Big Ten, with Virginia and Georgia Tech being eyeballed aggressively:
Big 10 talk buzzing again. #UVA being mentioned often as likely to join. Georgia Tech still in the mix. #UNC, the big domino, has an offer.
— Jeff Ermann (@Jeff_Ermann) February 19, 2013
This is a hell of an expansion that the Big Ten is under-taking. The conference has already added Maryland and Rutgers starting in 2014 — additions that a good chunk of current fans of the conference aren’t too happy with — and looks to be ready to poach the ACC until they’re dry, having already taken UMD.
Conference realignment is generally one big mess that no one can keep up with, and reports like these surface regularly, so it’s not as if this is definitive.
That said, 24/7 Sports has a reputation for breaking these conference realignment deals, and specifically, Ermann was right about Maryland eventually joining the Big Ten.
If this is true, the addition of North Carolina should be one that fans of the conference will be excited about: UNC is a college basketball blue-blood joining the best conference in college basketball, while the Tar Heels’ football program is considered to be a sleeping giant, with new head coach Larry Fedora making strides in his first season.
However, this is also contingent on UNC’s willingness to leave the ACC, but it’s also a real possibility considering the state of the conference with the Big Ten poaching the way it is at the present moment.
Whatever happens, we’re sure that the Big Ten isn’t about to stop expanding anytime soon.