Maybe the league can convince the U. of Chicago to take football seriously again. Chicago was an inaugural member of the Big 10’s predecessor, and dropped football in the 1930s (or thereabouts) when it thought sports was starting to overwhelm the school’s academic mission. There’s your 12th member right there.
I dunno, their academic standards aren’t the best.
If creating a football program out of thin air weren’t an issue, Marquette would be a great choice.
A conference must have at least 12 members to have a championship game. Same reason why the Pac-10 also doesn’t have one.
:dubious:
You should really go to a Kansas vs. Mizzou basketball game and take in the atmosphere if you believe this. The games against Neb. (just football) and Kansas are the biggest and most anticipated games of the year. A quote by Kansas coach Bill Self from a few years ago summed it up nicely, “Kansas St. is our rival, but Missouri is our enemy”.
I could understand the argument for getting rid of Northwestern, say, circa 1992 and before. But since them, their football program has been more than competitive (including Rose Bowl, Citrus Bowl, and now an Alamo Bowl appearance, among others.) The basketball program seems to be on the up-swing (they’re second in the Big Ten right now, and pecking at a Top 25 ranking). Plus in the less sexy sports like tennis and golf they do quite well. (I’d add women’s lacrosse, in which they’ve been pretty much unstoppable in the last 5 years, I mean simply insane, but that’s not a Big Ten sport.)
You keep beating this like we don’t understand your point.
We all get it.
Rutgers is NOT a NY school. Yes, it’s close enough geographically, but that doesn’t mean that the greater NY area follows Rutgers football like it means anything. If it is such a financial draw, why wouldn’t the ACC have grabbed it from the Big East instead of taking Va Tech, BC, or Miami? Hell, Va Tech is in Blacksburg, VA, not a booming metro area. The ACC could have easily poached Rutgers and it didn’t.
I think you are vastly overestimating the potential financial impact and appeal of Rutgers. We can all agree that there would be added viewers from the NY metro area. But it’s not enough to tip it to be the first choice for the Big 10, IMO.
And if that doesn’t work for you, Rutgers has no natural rivalry in the Big 10, unlike a university like Pittsburgh. The renewal of the Pitt-PSU rivalry would be huge, on the level of Michigan-OSU for the people of PA. Most that can remember the games of that rivalry know how big it was, and I know alumni from both universities would love to see the rivalry renewed.
If JoePa is in favor of Pitt moving to the Big 10, that removes a potential stumbling block. I don’t know how this type of thing works, but if a sitting conference school wanted to block another school from entering, PSU may have been able to keep Pitt out. Without that hurdle, Pitt may be closer than other schools at this point.
When JoePa speaks, does the Big 10 listen more attentively? Just how much influence does a team thats only been in the conference for 20 yrs have? Since it is JoePa and (his 40 something years of head coach), does PSU have something more than 9.09% of the vote?
Not officially. In fact, what I’ve been reading implies that JoePa is not all that powerful in the Big 10. However, the conference seems to discuss these types of things (expansion) and consideration is given to sitting schools that have reservations about a particular school joining.
That doesn’t mean that if JoePa says that he doesn’t want Pitt in, that the other member schools couldn’t override him. My guess is, though, that they’d want a unanimous choice.
In reading the link provided above indicating JoePa is in favor of Pitt joining the Big 10, the article is a bit less optimistic. It is well known of JoePa’s anger at Pitt for snubbing his All East conference dream in the early 80’s, so unless he’s had a huge change of heart (or his heart gives out), he may not be as excited about Pitt joining as implied. The article also mentiones 2 other Big East schools, including Rutgers and (I think) Syracuse.
:rolleyes:
I was clarifying “new subscribers” in response to what you said:
I think that it’s perfectly acceptable for me to try to be a bit more specific than “new subscribers”; potential viewers may have the Big 10 network available to them, but don’t bother watching right now.
The point is if your team joins the Big 10, you will have a vested interest in watching it and other Big 10 competitors. Others who are Rutgers haters might want to watch them get their clock cleaned by Northwestern. It elevates the general interest in the area. It increases the interest in sports pages, sports talk radio and sports on the local news.
So, Rutgers crushed UCF in the St. Petersburg Bowl last night for their 3rd straight bowl win and 5th straight bowl appearance. This is alinkto the sports section of the NY Daily News. The game isn’t even mentioned, unless you drill down through the college football section. Rutgers is just not a big deal in NYC sports. I wish it were, and it may get there eventually, but it isn’t now. The NY Times did have the story on their main sports page, and the NY Post did not.
I actually used new subscribers in response to what YOU said.
Let’s review your posts in this thread. The first five…
THAT’S beating a dead horse. Some of us that actually READ the whole thread got your point. You added nothing of significance to your argument in any of subsequent posts.
So, save your :rolleyes: for another time.
No one denies your “point”, except for the fact that
- the ACC blew right by Rutgers and the super-jumbo-deluxe TV market in the NYC metro area for a school like VA Tech, and their booming population of Blacksburg, and
- this:
See? NYC doesn’t give a crap about Rutgers. No one cares about Rutgers, except maybe Rutgers grads. I don’t know why this is, but it is. They have a ton of alumni, but it doesn’t matter. Maybe decades of sucking in sports has made the alumni focus on other things.
Trust me… the ACC had consultants do all of the number crunching and thought nothing of skipping Rutgers. The Big 10 will no doubt do the same thing.
And if they expand to include anyone buy Notre Dame, I’ll be amazed.
Hey, has anyone talked about the pros and cons of adding Rutgers yet?
Here are a couple of opinions:
U of M blog.
San Francisco Examiner.
Also, at the time that the ACC expanded, Rutgers was among the worst programs in all of college football. They have since played in 5 straight bowls, winning 4; they have also expanded their stadium.
For the record, I’m not a Rutgers grad, but am a NJ native.
More rumblings about Texas joining the Big 10.
I have it on good authority that this is not going to happen. Keep in mind that I work at a large state university in Central Texas… and two people one step away from the person in charge said that it’s an “honor” of sorts, but never going to happen. Good fodder for talk radio though.
I couldn’t figure out whether to revive this zombie or start another thread
ESPN is reporting that the Big 10 has extended invitations to Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, and yes, Notre Dame.
Any football (OK, ok, ok… American Football) thread at this time of the year is welcomed.
IMHO, Notre Dame will turn them down.
Rutgers and Missouri may well accept.
Nebraska?
What would the Big 12 be without the Cornhuskers?
The Big Ten(+4) zombie is on the march! Weird, the local San Antonio paper ran a story about the future of the Big XII in relation to Big 10+ expansion. The article put it out there that Connecticut would be one of the Big East invitees…which was out of left field to me. Maybe Connecticut acts as a safety school when Notre Dame inevitably says they’re too pretty to be seen with the likes of the Big Ten rabble.
Also, note that 4 accepted invites would mean a league of 15 teams…someone will get disinvited if all four say yes (unlikely).
If true, all very reasonable invitations. Now…who will say yes…??? 
Since I am strongly opposed to the abomination that is the BCS, and believe that the only way to a real tournament is for all associated conferences to have a playoff, any odd number would be a hard sell for me. Of course, the Big 10 already has 11 teams, so maybe something could be worked out. A deal might be worked where the Big 12 could have 14 teams and the Big 10 could have 12.
As an aside… does anyone here think the conferences will change their names if the number of teams becomes absurdly different than the name? How is the Big 14 any less prestigious than the Big 12?