Red_Skin_Pride
Nebraska is already in, obviously. That's the 12th team. The Big10 takes Rutgers (I know, I know it's Rutgers...it's for the $$$ and academics, not the athletic competition) and Mizzouri for the St. Louis market. That's 14. Texas and A&M become 15 and 16.
If I may borrow a saying from fishing, you have to use the right bait to catch the fish you want. Obviously it's pretty well known to everyone on her Texas's main goal is MONEY. Shocking. I know that many people feel they are a "cancer" to whatever league they're in but every league they've ever been in was smaller; between 8 and 12 teams, and no teams big enough to stand up to them, especially in recent years; but this is a whole different landscape. They'll be enough teams and enough revenue to offset Texas's ambitions, whatever they may be. And for once, they'll be in a conference with a school that gives them a run for their money in revenue (OSU) as well as several schools that equal or outclass them in tradition (OSU, Michigan, Penn State come to mind, and as always, the team that fought them the most in the Big12, Nebraska). There is a DEEP tradition here in the Big10 that, no offense to Kansas, KState, Ok State, ISU, Baylor etc. those teams can't match. The Big10 isn't going to just hand over full control of the conference for Texas to get even richer off of, while it's charter members do not. (I chuckle because I can see JoePa telling them where to go lol).
All in all, by adding teams like Rutgers and Mizzou for what they bring to the conference OUTSIDE of athletics, makes joining the conference that much more attractive to Texas. Get a peice of that big ole' media market that could stretch from NYC all the way down to Austin. Add in the fact that in this case, Texas can bring A&M with them, which seems like a priority to them right now, AND keep their rivalry with Nebraska, I think it'll be hard for them to turn down that offer. Just the media contract alone will be something the sports world has never seen before. Not to mention all the revenue they'll be getting that they never would have had access to (thank you Rutgers, now go finish 12th lol) and tell them so long as it doesn't majorly interfer with the Big10 network, they can keep LSN to keep all of Texas updated about what is going on, I think everyone can be made pretty happy in this deal.
Sorry about the book, but...thoughts?
You're missing one of the biggest enticements for Texas to join: the billions of available research dollars via the CIC that only Big Ten schools have access to. Remember, you're dealing with university presidents and regents here, people who value academics as much or more than athletics in most cases. This has to be weighing heavily into their decision, and I'm sure UT faculty is hoping like crazy that Texas joins so they can begin applying for those grants.
If Texas A&M is really looking at the SEC, how big would the Big Ten getting Rutgers (which may scare Notre Dame) and then they join the Big Ten, followed by Texas who refuses to join the PAC-10?.... That'd be the grandslam expansion plan by the Big Ten's standards.