  The physics of the orbitally excited baryons simplifies drastically in the
large Nc limit. The states are arranged into irreducible representations of the
contracted SU(4)_c symmetry, with mixing angles determined exactly. The ratios
of the strong couplings N* -> [N\pi]_{S,D} are predicted in this limit, with
results in agreement with those following from the quark model (with the large
Nc mixing angles). We present a phenomenological analysis of the observed
nonstrange baryons from the perspective of the 1/Nc expansion, including
constraints from their masses and strong decays.
