I think adding Missouri, Iowa State, Kansas, and Kansas State to the BIG would be great however I know its a long shot.
I guess the biggest thing I don't understand about the BIG is their interest in schools like Rutgers on the east coast. The area is primarily interested in professional sports and the product those schools put on the field isn't very good either.
I think if they could bring in the 4 schools listed above they would have more followers than bringing in schools like Rutgers not to mention local rivalries they would have with Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. I know that football is the key to making it all happen but you would have to think that the egos of the BIG would love to have the additional strength in basketball and basically dominate college wrestling.
You nailed it. Adding a team like Rutgers does absolutely nothing for the B1G. Sure Rutgers is located on the east coast in a huge tv market but nobody out there even cares about Rutgers at all. Where a university is located doesn't automatically give you that tv market... demand is everything.
This is taken straight off of the BTN website...
"The Big Ten Network is available to up to 73 million homes nationwide. The Big Ten Network is available across North America on satellite providers such as DIRECTV, DISH Network and Shaw Direct (Canada), telco companies such as Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse, and on cable in 22 of America’s top 25 media markets.
The network has cable distribution agreements with Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox (Cleveland), Insight Communications, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, RCN, Service Electric, Shaw (Canada) and more than 250 additional cable operators across North America. Customers of DIRECTV and DISH Network have access to the network regardless of where they live. Verizon FiOS and AT&T’s U-Verse are rolling out the network across the country.
Cable subscribers inside the eight Big Ten states receive the network on either an expanded basic or digital basic level of service. Outside the eight states, excluding St. Louis, Omaha and Louisville, cable operators who carry the network make it available on a variety of packages. Select markets where the network is available are listed below. If you do not see your city listed here, contact your local system office to see if there are plans to add the network. "
Adding a team like Rutgers would bring very little demand so the local cable companies would have little interest in ******* their customers off by jacking up their bills for programming they have no interest in watching. It gets a bit sticky when you get into large tv markets like that. Sure there might be 50 to 100k Rutgers fans crying to get BTN but what about the other 19 million people that live in that tv market? Will those 19 million people have to foot the bill for the tiny percentage of Rutgers fans that wouldn't want to pay for the "sports pack" or the equivalent package from their cable company? Doubt it.
There is a big difference between our situation and that of OSU or TT. First off, Iowa isn't the whale that is OU or UT. Second off, nobody is trying to attract Iowa. Iowa is already in the Big Ten and they are going to stay there. If we were both in the Big 12 right now, maybe we could package ourselves together and try to make a push for the B1G, but that just isn't the case. U of I can lobby for us, but they just aren't in the power position that UT and OU are, so we can't leverage them like OSU and TT are doing with their in-state cohorts.
One point that hasn't seemed to have gotten a mention, and I apologize if I've missed it, is that the teams from the Big XII seem to all be heading to coastal conferences. This essentially leaves a vacuum in the heartland, which was once THE mecca for collegiate sports. ISU and MO would be great expansion candidates and keep the B1G roots where they belong. Forget about TV's (although they'd pick up several with KC and St Louis markets). The academics and commonality of backgrounds is astounding. I could also see adding KU & KSU to round out to 16 (and their grades are no worse than Nebraska's).
In an IDEAL world, I want us, Mizzou, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh in the Big Ten.
Then I'd like to see true geographic divisional alignment. 9 conference games, play all 7 of your division opponents and 2 crossovers with no protected rivalries.
Basketball I would like to see a 16 game conference schedule where you play everyone once, plus your one designated rival twice (home-and-home). Let's say Pitt-PSU, Mich-OSU, IU-PU, ND-MSU, Ill-NW, Minn-Wisc, ISU-Iowa, and then Nebby-Mizzou.
WEST
Nebraska
Mizzou
Iowa State
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern
EAST
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Pitt
Penn State
In an IDEAL world, I want us, Mizzou, Notre Dame, and Pittsburgh in the Big Ten.
Then I'd like to see true geographic divisional alignment. 9 conference games, play all 7 of your division opponents and 2 crossovers with no protected rivalries.
Basketball I would like to see a 16 game conference schedule where you play everyone once, plus your one designated rival twice (home-and-home). Let's say Pitt-PSU, Mich-OSU, IU-PU, ND-MSU, Ill-NW, Minn-Wisc, ISU-Iowa, and then Nebby-Mizzou.
WEST
Nebraska
Mizzou
Iowa State
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern
EAST
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Pitt
Penn State
A man can dream....
I like where your head is at. Especially the Basketball schedule. The rivals might be MSU/Mich and OSU/ND though. I think that would fly more with the majority of fans in Michigan, and OSU and ND can feel important together.
I posted this on the mega thread, but it's buried already. Can you believe it?
I put together this spreadsheet out of curiosity. I wanted to put data in here that would allow me to sort the data in different ways and see how ISU compares to other schools regardless of their conference affiliation.
Not sure anybody else will use it, but I love my spreadsheets.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Originally Posted by Pille1895 
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks