B1G to consider another round of expansion?

[49r]

Could we have 14 teams in the B1G by Monday?

ESPN: Maryland, Rutgers to Big Ten?

Personally, I'm not terribly excited about going beyond 12 teams, no matter who they are...

[Norm Peterson]

Yeah. I think they either should stay at 12 or go to 16, but the next 4 teams need to add something other than just the fact of having another school.

[cipsucks]

Boy, this kinda came out of nowhere. After the big12 survived, I figured the realignment movement would take a breather for a few years. Maybe not.....

[49r]

And I was just starting to feel comfortable with the B1G as it was.

Well, c'est la vie. At least it might help us with tapping into that east coast basketball talent.

[tcp]

the dark side of television domination of sports. this is about tv sets first and maybe a little recruiting exposure second. it'll get worse, unless and until universities return to their traditional missions.

[PAhusker]

stupid...its obvious they only want maryland for DC ratings and rutgers for NYC..however, NYC is not a college town at all, and if it is, its a syracuse/st. johns town..rutgers has no NYC presence at all

[runsoastowin]

It doesn't matter if they actually care to watch. It just matters that the BTN gets put in every cable package out there.

I am actually a little surprised that the traditionalists of the Big Ten are so amenable to this. I know Delaney is working toward the money, but it is surprising to me that the Big Ten Presidents would be excited about this. Perhaps the money is what is exciting for them as well. I am not excited about it, because it will just dilute things. Maryland joins and automatically becomes the worst football team. And sure, maybe their basketball team has success from time to time, but we don't really need any help in the basketball area right now.

At a certain point, you must begin to wonder if the money is really worth it. We will see what happens, but I'm not super excited about it.

[Tallbaby21]

Ugh. Can we just go back to the Big 12 already?

[UnicamMan]

My guess is it will be Maryland and another team that is NOT Rutgers. A big name team or it doesn't make sense at all.

[jimmykc]

49er: ces't le guerre might be a better Frenchy term as all the conferences scramble for the best tv deals and the institutions of higher learning elbow for the most loot. At any rate, this news should make at least one of our occasional posters quite happy.

[Tony]

Who started all this?!

[cipsucks]

Who started all this?!

Texas.

[49r]

49er: ces't le guerre might be a better Frenchy term as all the conferences scramble for the best tv deals and the institutions of higher learning elbow for the most loot. At any rate, this news should make at least one of our occasional posters quite happy.

I agree, jimmy, this whole process does remind one of a game of Risk. These super conferences amassing valuable territories in a battle to acquire as big a slice of the media dollars pie as possible.

[49r]

Who started all this?!

Texas.

Jim Delany, with a seemingly innocuous statement in late 2009, started it. It tipped the first domino on the path to the super conference era.

[NebraskaRon]

What to say?

I don't know about Rutgers, but as a Maryland grad and 30 year Husker fan, it is difficult for me not to be ecstatic about adding the TERPS to the B1G.

Why Maryland? It is easy to look on the surface and say it is all about money and TV screens as many above have observed. Let's look deeper -- it was not about money when Big Red was added and I don't think it is about money now.

So what IS it about?

• First academics -- Maryland is a highly ranked public University. They would rank in the upper third of the B1G in academics immediately. Academics is a much bigger part of the equation than some recognize.
  
• Prior National Championships in football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, women's basketball, women's lacrosse and women's field hockey -- and that is just from memory. Quite a few National Championships to add to the B1G.
  
• Basketball and Football on the rise both with new coaches the last two years -- basketball will be much more competitive this year that expected and football in 2 years when the young players develop.
  
• Great basketball facilities in basketball, acceptable in football, and excellent in Olympic sports.
  
• And, yes, money and TV does make the list.
  

At least for me, I hope what we hear is more than rumors -- would love to have them invited to the B1G party.

[hhcmatt]

First academics -- Maryland is a highly ranked public University. They would rank in the upper third of the B1G in academics immediately. Academics is a much bigger part of the equation than some recognize.

Until recently, Rutgers was much more known for academics than sports. Not sure if anyone else remembers but someone put up a website in the 90s that caused a lot of outrage stating that Rutgers should drop it's academics so that it wouldn't become....Nebraska.

These are the types of schools that the Big 10 targets....there is a reason Missouri still hasn't heard back from the league.

[49r]

Until recently, Rutgers was much more known for academics than sports. Not sure if anyone else remembers but someone put up a website in the 90s that caused a lot of outrage stating that Rutgers should drop it's academics so that it wouldn't become....Nebraska.

These are the types of schools that the Big 10 targets....there is a reason Missouri still hasn't heard back from the league.

Frank and Deborah Popper. Rutgers faculty. They promoted the idea of de-populating parts of Nebraska and Kansas. "Buffalo Commons". It was a bit of a bone of contention back in the day.

[Silverbacked1]

I think it is because they messed up when they named the different divisions.

Now they can call them east and west without getting egg on their face.

[HuskerFever]

What happened to the days when geography played a factor in conference alignment? But on another note, all things aside, I really think the Big Ten is all about "fit". Nebraska passed the eye test with "fit" in the conference, which made it seem like a good addition. Do they mesh well with academics? Athletics? Culture? Research? Enrollment? Leadership cooperation/involvement?

Then you also need to look at what the ideal size of the conference should be. If I recall correctly, the Big Ten was thinking about 14 teams from the start (while looking at Nebraska) adding someone like Notre Dame and +1 if they were going to go through with it. Then they said that they weren't going to add teams just to add teams and reach 14. Like it or not, I really think we're going to see some additions to the conference. I, for one, would like to see the Notre Dame + 1 formula even though I'm not a huge fan of their program (I still respect it).

[HuskerFever]

......not to mention, I know there's a business side to things. But expanding a conference just for money and to grow the market reach isn't always the best formula in creating a premiere conference.

[bison husker]

It's all about the TV sets not about those two teams having people actually watching them. It's all about money which might not be a good thing.

[HuskerFever]

It's all about the TV sets not about those two teams having people actually watching them. It's all about money which might not be a good thing.

You're absolutely right. I think it's BTN's strategy to force their programming on the cable networks (regardless of the demand of BTN by the residents). If it was about people actually watching the network, they are greatly mistaken. New York, in particular, could almost care less about collegiate sports. It's all pro out there in the northeast.

[kldm64]

Money is ruining college sports. It's very sad. It would be a joke if the Big 10 added these two teams. The Big 10 is already a laughing stock in football this year and this would only make it worse. It would also take a very strong Big 10 basketball conference and make it worse as well. Adding these 2 teams would weaken the conference. But if it bring more revenue, then it will happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't.

[bison husker]

Money is ruining college sports. It's very sad. It would be a joke if the Big 10 added these two teams. The Big 10 is already a laughing stock in football this year and this would only make it worse. It would also take a very strong Big 10 basketball conference and make it worse as well. Adding these 2 teams would weaken the conference. But if it bring more revenue, then it will happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't.

Yeah it would hurt basketball for sure with Rutgers, but Maryland is usually pretty good but not lately. Money is all the big wigs see anymore.....very sad imo.

[HuskerFever]

Yeah it would hurt basketball for sure with Rutgers, but Maryland is usually pretty good but not lately. Money is all the big wigs see anymore.....very sad imo.

You would think that these media contract deals would help lower these kids' tuitions.