You really should read what Delany said.
Yes, Nebraska is a fine school with great sports. So is Notre Dame. So are the several others that are being offered by fans and sports writers as candidates.
Yes, higher ratings, breadth of "footprint," expanded content all equal increased TV revenues.
CIC. $5.6 BILLION divided by 12 is $467 million. There is no sports program in the nation that takes in that much each year. Big Ten schools get $22 million from TV of which $6 million is from the Big Ten Network. Doubling the Big Ten "footprint" may double the BTN revenues, but the BTN is in competition with ESPN, ABC/NBC/CBS, Fox, PPV, streaming internet video, etc., so there would be a decrease in the $16 million. All that aside, a $6 million increase in TV money is a tad over 1/78th of the per school CIC funds.
Whichever school it is, if it even happens, better have some big bucks to add to the CIC pot. Otherwise every Big Ten school (plus U of Chicago) will lose a lot of money to gain a pittance.
But that is not the point either.
Population growth demographics is the point. The population growth of the areas containing the Big Ten schools is growing at a noticiably slower rate than other parts of the country. The expansion is to address this. Why? What's changing?
Student EnrollmentTax BaseFaculty RecruitingAthletic RecruitingMedia coverageSponsorshipsSporting event attendance (filling the stadiums)
That's the short list.