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Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

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Which Teams Should the Big Ten Add? (please limit to four selections)

  • Boston College

    Votes: 32 10.2%

  • Cincinnati

    Votes: 19 6.1%

  • Connecticut

    Votes: 6 1.9%

  • Duke

    Votes: 21 6.7%

  • Georgia Tech

    Votes: 55 17.6%

  • Kansas

    Votes: 46 14.7%

  • Maryland

    Votes: 67 21.4%

  • Missouri

    Votes: 90 28.8%

  • North Carolina

    Votes: 39 12.5%

  • Notre Dame

    Votes: 209 66.8%

  • Oklahoma

    Votes: 78 24.9%

  • Pittsburgh

    Votes: 45 14.4%

  • Rutgers

    Votes: 40 12.8%

  • Syracuse

    Votes: 18 5.8%

  • Texas

    Votes: 121 38.7%

  • Vanderbilt

    Votes: 15 4.8%

  • Virginia

    Votes: 47 15.0%

  • Virginia Tech

    Votes: 62 19.8%

  • Stay at 12 teams and don't expand

    Votes: 27 8.6%

  • Add some other school(s) not listed

    Votes: 25 8.0%
  • Total voters
    313
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Jake;1716920; said:
That's been the puzzling part to me all along. Setting aside the fact that Rutgers football hasn't done much of anything since the invention of leather helmets, when did NYC become a college football city? College basketball may hold some sway, but football is about the NFL.

Does anyone really believe putting a Jersey school without a strong heritage in a conference with a bunch of schools in "flyover country" is going to bring NYers to their TV sets? It doesn't matter, in my opinion, that these schools have strong pedigrees. They're Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska - speed bumps to the west coast in many NYers minds.
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This is completely anecdotal, but I was living in NYC when Rutgers had their emergent season, and Rutgers football was extremely popular in sports bars and a popular topic of conversation at work and in the sports sections... It might just be that, as it is right now, BEast football is a terrible product.

Rutgers-PSU would be a strong product in Jersey, NYC, Phila (which is a shithole)... Not to mention there are TONS of B10 people along the I-95 corridor that would love to get better access to the B10 network.
 
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Buckeyefrankmp;1716915; said:
This is not expansion related but how far does the Big Ten network reach? Is there a coverage map somewhere?
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Brighthouse cable picked it up about two years ago down here in Florida. I think last year between BTN and cable tv I was able to watch all of the Buckeye games at home.
 
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jwinslow;1716917; said:
1) I'm not sure you need people watching Rutgers (which isn't going to happen often, especially after getting worked in the B10 East). You merely need the NYC TV sets to add the BTN on basic packages due to their proximity (10 miles away).

2) Folks won't watch Rutgers, but they might occasionally watch ND, UM, PSU, OSU, Neb play rutgers or simply play other games on the BTN.
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Jake;1716920; said:
That's been the puzzling part to me all along. Setting aside the fact that Rutgers football hasn't done much of anything since the invention of leather helmets, when did NYC become a college football city? College basketball may hold some sway, but football is about the NFL.

Does anyone really believe putting a Jersey school without a strong heritage in a conference with a bunch of schools in "flyover country" is going to bring NYers to their TV sets? It doesn't matter, in my opinion, that these schools have strong pedigrees. They're Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska - speed bumps to the west coast in many NYers minds.
Click to expand...


To put Jake's point another way: Yes, there are many millions of people in NYC; and some of them went to Big 10 schools. But how many NYC residents care about college football at all? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question. Marketing studies, which I'm sure have been done, are notoriously inaccurate, or at least wildly imprecise.

One could pose the same question about Washington DC vis a vis Maryland. If a big city doesn't care about college football, how valuable is it?

My point here is, the honest answer to that question is: No one knows.
 
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IIRC CFB is growing in popularity rapidly...to the rate of being the most popular sport in the US by 2020. IMO this is one of the reasons the B10 wants the NYC/Jersey/DC/Philli markets...millions and millions of viewers. IIRC the B10 has 3 times as many viewers as the B12...Just imagine the impact of adding ND and Nebraska...forget about it. Game set match...easily the most watched conference in the US hands down. This is why the B10 not looking at BC mystifies me. I know they are a sdmaller school but they fit in academically and the bring the catholic fanbase...them and ND would lock down the catholic fanbase completely...65% of Massachussetts is Catholic...I know I know its a pro town in Boston but still it will help lock down that market as far as CFB is concerned.
 
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[quote='BusNative;171693;7]This is completely anecdotal, but I was living in NYC when Rutgers had their emergent season, and Rutgers football was extremely popular in sports bars and a popular topic of conversation at work and in the sports sections... It might just be that, as it is right now, BEast football is a terrible product.

Rutgers-PSU would be a strong product in Jersey, NYC, Phila (which is a shithole)... Not to mention there are TONS of B10 people along the I-95 corridor that would love to get better access to the B10 network. [/quote]That runs counter to my experience. I was living in northern NJ at the time, ~45 minutes from Rutgers, and no one was watching Rutgers football. The highest level of interest I saw was from some friends who were Rutgers grads, and they thought it was great that the program was having a good year (so they heard), but not great enough to actually entice them to spend 3 hours on a Saturday watching a college football game. Incidentally, the BTN was already available on local cable if you ponied up for the sports package, which was like $10 more a month. And I think that was entirely due to PSU fans and transplanted fans of other B10 schools. Maybe adding Rutgers would have bumped it to basic in northern NJ, although I'm skeptical. I strongly doubt it would put on basic in the heavily populated parts of NYC.

jwinslow;1716917; said:
1) I'm not sure you need people watching Rutgers (which isn't going to happen often, especially after getting worked in the B10 East). You merely need the NYC TV sets to add the BTN on basic packages due to their proximity (10 miles away).

2) Folks won't watch Rutgers, but they might occasionally watch ND, UM, PSU, OSU, Neb play rutgers or simply play other games on the BTN.
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Rutgers is ~10 miles from the southernmost tip of Staten Island. But to anyone who knows the geography and population of NYC, that's not the proper distance to mark. Staten Island, while technically part of NYC, is the boondocks to pretty much all New Yorkers - and in reality it is a bit of a boondock. When people talk about "The City", they're talking about Manhattan, and that's 40 miles and a world apart from New Brunswick. Even in Brooklyn, the closest part to Rutgers of NYC that is in any sense "NYC", New Brunswick NJ is a place that many people have heard of, but don't really know where it is. Or care.
 
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zincfinger;1716953; said:
Rutgers is ~10 miles from the southernmost tip of Staten Island. But to anyone who knows the geography and population of NYC, that's not the proper distance to mark. Staten Island, while technically part of NYC, is the boondocks to pretty much all New Yorkers - and in reality it is a bit of a boondock. When people talk about "The City", they're talking about Manhattan, and that's 40 miles and a world apart from New Brunswick. Even in Brooklyn, the closest part to Rutgers of NYC that is in any sense "NYC", New Brunswick NJ is a place that many people have heard of, but don't really know where it is. Or care.
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Except that the NE Corridor is FULL of NYC commuters... the cultural distance (if there is one) is much smaller than that 40 or even 10 miles for alot of people... not sure if that adds B10 network interest in the city, but its not as if New Brunswick is so very isolated from NYC...
 
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Mr.Blonde;1716955; said:
I get the Big Ten Network on Comcast here in Seattle.
It comes bundled in with some of the regional Fox sportschannels.

Best $5 I spend.
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Same here for Comcast in Dever. For $5 a month I get BTN, NFL, MLB, and NBA channels. I am addicted to the BTN and watch it every night.
 
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[quote='BusNative;171696;1]Except that the NE Corridor is FULL of NYC commuters... the cultural distance (if there is one) is much smaller than that 40 or even 10 miles for alot of people... not sure if that adds B10 network interest in the city, but its not as if New Brunswick is so very isolated from NYC...[/quote]I disagree; I think the cultural divide is enormous. Or perhaps stated more accurately, the cultural divide is enormous and largely one-sided. Yes, there are a lot of people who live in NJ and work in NYC, and partly (but not only) for that reason, NJ is generally quite aware of the goings-on in NYC. There are not many people who live in NYC and work in NJ, and partly for that reason (but not only) NYC is largely uninterested and unaware of the goings-on in NJ. It was kind of surprising to me at first (although it makes more sense to me now), for one of the cultural and financial capitals of the world, how insular NYC truly is.
 
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Ttown;1716966; said:
Back to topic. I haven't seen much about the B10 contacting more schools or their interest.
Under threat of being dinged has anyone seem more? Got an update on Barksdale?
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I am under the impression that 'any news?' posts are welcomed and encouraged here. :wink:

I think that the lack of 'chatter' on the BigTen's part is telling. I think the cards have been very close to the vest on the BigTen side of things all along, with the exception to PBC's posts...which seem to have stopped or slowed. I believe the ball is pretty squarely in Texas' court at this point - and they've got meetings tomorrow and a legislative meeting on Wed, so news may be a bit slow until then...unless aTm officially jumps, and the (organized) chaos continues.

This whole process has been fascinating and I look forward to reading PBC's book. :biggrin:

Oh, and TOP

:wink: :p
 
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