Outside of Michigan, Oregon and Ohio State, does anyone in that conference excite you as an opponent? I love the USC rivalry but cannot think of them as a Big 10 team. Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, Illinois, Rutgers, Purdue, Maryland, UCLA, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan State, Wisconsin go from mildly amusing at best to absolute crap. Penn State is a good team but Good Lord are they boring - just put them down for 10-2 and move on. Washington is kind of a cool place but they will shrink to obscurity again soon enough. I think that is everyone. Might have missed a few.
As a fan who loves to travel to support the Irish the last places I want to be are in the towns most of these teams play in. The last thing I would want is to be in a conference but I am afraid eventually we have no choice.
We need to find a way into the SEC. Might hurt the overall record but it would be a hell of a ride - especially if you have ever been to many of those towns.