That's the thing. The B10 is ALREADY premier, and new conference alignments won't change that as their current membership and structure make them premier.
And if you disagree, tell me how and why the B10, if they remained at 12 members, would be excluded from any future championship-determining structure. Wouldn't happen, ergo 16-team leagues are not necessary.
First, the nation's population is shifting to the south, therefore they have to expand. Even though they have some of the biggest markets, that doesn't last forever. Add the fact that this is, was, and always will be, about getting ND into the fox 12. nebbie was lucky that they offered a national name that was acceptable to osu, mich, and psu. They also thought that 16 was the end goal last year. They would have grabbed three more teams, if ND would have said yes to them.
Second, and hawkfan is actually right about this one, sort of. The markets themselves don't matter, really at all. It is nice to say that you pick up Rutgers, and you get the NJ/NYC market, but that isn't really the point.
hawk was right, Syracuse, and Rutgers don't have the pull to get into the markets that they need. Other than Orange basketball, there is no real pull there to put the fox network on basic cable.
They make the money based on basic cable subscriptions. In iowa, there are too many hawk fans that demand to see their team, that the cable companies had little choice but to put the fox 12 network on basic cable. Everyone is charged for it, even if they never watch one second of it.
nebbie put the fox 12 footprint all the way to the Rockies, and plain states. fox also has the big contract with the pac whatever and they now have regional and conference network tv deals with teams from PA to the pacific ocean.
They absolutely want UT, but the network is a problem. UT knows that at the end of the day, they will be able to pick the best of all of the options that they will be offered. fox will make concessions, but they also know that they have to be careful, because they can't upset the current big boys, whether it's osu/mich, or usc/??
