Ohio State Football: Is Kansas on the verge of joining the Big Ten?

The Ohio State football program might have a new member in its conference soon if these reports are true.

There is a report coming out of Big XII country claiming Kansas is on the verge of joining the Big Ten. Mike Vernon of KCSP radio in Kansas City said on his show last night,

"“I am hearing from some people I consider to be pretty reliable that this thing is imminent… I’m not ready to say it for sure, but there’s some smoke coming out of Lawrence right now.”"

Now, this is the only media outlet reporting anything like this, but his declaration is getting a lot of attention. Kansas has been mentioned a few times as a possibility for making the jump to the Big Ten.

The question is why would the Big Ten consider a school with probably the weakest football program of all the Power 5 conferences? Most will tell you this is more of a basketball move because their program is legendary. That may be true, but the Jayhawk football program still brings in more revenue than basketball.

Hoops junkies are now sitting in stunned silence while reading that sentence again. That’s right, football still pretty much pays the bills at the University of Kansas. But, the biggest reason the Big Ten would want Kansas over most other Big XII schools has nothing to do with sports.

It is pretty well known if the Big Ten were to expand, they’d seek schools that are members of the Association of American Universities. Kansas is one of its 66 members. The AAU is a very prestigious organization. Any research university wants to be a part of this, but membership is gained by invitation only. Here is how they describe themselves,

"AAU member universities—64 in the United States and two in Canada—are on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to scientific progress, economic development, security, and well-being."

Membership in an organization like this means prestige, which translates to more research dollars for its members. Thirteen current members of the Big Ten are members. That’s twenty percent of the AAU’s total membership (Nebraska is the only conference school not a member).

It doesn’t matter if the Jayhawk football program has won just 21 games in eleven seasons. Athletic revenue is not the only consideration here. The more AAU members the conference has, the more influence and, most importantly, research dollars are brought in and shared among the schools.

I really don’t see the Big Ten adding just one school. I think they’ll want to add a second to balance the divisions. Only one other available school in the Big XII is a member of the AAU-Iowa State. If the Big Ten is going to take on Kansas as a member, I firmly believe they’ll pursue Iowa State as well. Because the Cyclones football program is on the upswing, they would balance out the dismal shape of Jayhawk football.

Stay tuned Ohio State football and basketball fans, the chant of “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk” may soon be heard in Big Ten stadiums.