The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When the Big Ten first initiated a search for a 12th team, I was roaming the halls of Bradford High School and Bill Clinton was getting settled into the White House.

Now, my daughter is roaming the halls of Bradford High School and a pair of two-term presidents have come and gone.

But since 1990, the Big Ten has been holding steady at 11 teams.

That doesn’t mean the league hasn’t flirted with expansion.

The major hang-up in the previous three explorations into expansion has been Notre Dame. For too long the Big Ten looked at the Irish as a natural fit, only to be rebuffed each time. But as silly as it may sound, Notre Dame doesn’t bring as much to the table as a school like Rutgers would.

The Scarlet Knights are competitive in the wide range of sports necessary for inclusion. Rutgers would give the Big Ten a presence in the Philadelphia-New York corridor, a natural rival for Penn State and most of all a chunk of the biggest media market for the Big Ten Network to air.

Scheduling for hoops would be easy, while football would be broken into two divisions to provide a Big Ten Championship Game. The easiest way is straight geography:

Western Division — Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.

Eastern Division — Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers.

While previous forays into expansion have fallen flat, expect the Big Ten to get it done this time. The league will be better off for it.

Book it

The prediction skid reach full force with a doubled-up loss. The Cubs didn’t trade Milton Bradley and watched as the Boston Red Sox inked former Brewers centerfielder Mike Cameron. My record drops three below break even at 26-29.

In full-fledged desperation mode, I’m tripling up on NFL games. Give me the Chargers (vs. Bengals), Eagles (vs. 49ers) and Panthers (vs. Vikings) to win.

Mike Larsen can be reached at mlarsen@kenoshanews.com