Disagree all you want - 1.5 million people caring in a metro area of 15 million people isn't going to convince the cable operators to put the BTN on first tier, which is where the $$$ is made.
By the way, Big 10 Conference football is on in NYC quite a bit already anyway.
Totally agree with you. I don't think Rutgers being in the Big 10 would force the cable companies to add the BTN. I think that is a major issue with Rutgers.
However, I read a couple months ago that slightly more than half of the revenue comes from advertising, not cable company subscriptions. Even if people that live in NYC don't have the BTN, a greater fraction of them are going to be watching the games on it somewhere if Rutgers has a tie to the Big Ten...which means more viewers.