re: Is anyone else NOT surprised by Missouri's level of play this year?

The best info I had on expansion was that the negotiations had reached the point that the coaches had been advised they'd be coaching in the B1g the next season. And that's when the junior membership thing came up. They wanted to phase in the membership over several years, and the first year there would have been no conference revenue at all; it would have been 5+ years before full conference revenue was paid. We backed off at that point, and Nebraska bit. Nebraska is a big enough program to absorb that revenue hit; we weren't. The money issues killed it.

It's correct to say that it wasn't the attractiveness of the B1G as much as it was the desire to escape the big 12. No one thought the SEC would even be an option. When it came out that the SEC was a possibility? The fans and alumni went on a major campaign to push it, emails, calls, letters - the groundswell of support for the SEC move was huge.

Should add - yes, there was a contingent among the academic types that wanted the B1G. But that faction wasn't driving the bus on this. They were mouthy, but they were definitely the minority.