As a Temple fan, I cannot wait for them to fall back into inelligibility. Which probably occurred by week 3 of the current season...
I look forward to a Rutgers-Wisconsin rivalry And by rivalry, I mean getting shellacked by the Badgers.
The Big Ten Will be changing their official name, though they will still be known as the Big Ten. It's just that Big Ten will now be a shortened name for Big TElevisioN Contract Conference.
I've been reading the fan reactions to this and the folks from Maryland don't even want this. They want to stay in the ACC mainly because of basketball. Big Ten fans aren't for this and neither are the fans of Maryland and Rutgers. But hey, who gives a **** what the fans want when there's $$$$ to be made.
I haven't read this whole thread, but here goes: I think this move is ridiculous. "Who cares what the fans think when there are $$$$ to be made" pretty much sums it up. Geographically aligned conferences were much better for the fans and the players even if they weren't as profitable. As it is, it's difficult for both fans and players to travel 800 miles to a game (yeah, I know we have airplanes but my point stands) assuming they have other lives--and the players are supposed to, you know, be working on their college degrees. Here is a good blog post on the number-crunching and how this move isn't going to help anyone other than the coffers of university athletic departments.
I'm going to guess that the Maryland move isn't what they were expecting when they put this together:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/8685541/acc-votes-add-louisville-cardinals-source-says ACC adds Louisville while Big East adds Tulane and ECU.
So much for re-establishing the Memphis/Louisville basketball rivalry. What a joke this has all become. I miss being a kid throughout the 70's, 80's and even going into the early 90's, growing up in Big 10 country, and the ONLY thing that mattered was getting to the Rose Bowl. It was much simpler and, dare I say, more innocent back then.
I look at this more from the perspective schhols with good basketball programs with low level football, like St John's, Nova and G-Town. It's moving in a direction where your basketball status evaporates if you don't play BCS caliber football.
This is just what the Big Ten needed to get ever one to fear them ag....oh wait no they need to get better players of High school when it comes to football. Unless they are just doing this for basketball then go for it. But if it's for football then I'm going to sit here and laugh.
The latest rumors from the last few days have been about GaTech possibly going to the Big 10. Right now, GaTech is denying that there have been talks.
Because Baltimore/DC/NY area provides zero great prospects? Because giving Ohio State a trip to the east coast EVERY Season is going to hurt recruiting. Yes, expanding to Maryland and Rutgers was 90% about money and TV sets. But, it's also about opening up those fertile recruiting grounds. Ohio State is a perennial top-ten team without those prospects. Mix them in, and you've got the makings to put Ohio State in 3 of every 4 four-team playoff brackets.
Penn State's traditionally had a lot of talent from Northern Virginia, so I wonder how that'll weigh into the situation with Maryland as a Big 10 school.
Penn State's opinion means nothing for the next four years or so thanks to the Jerrry Sandusky fueled NCAA Sanctions.
... Sorry, I'm not quite connecting the dots here. The Sandusky situation will (and has) deservedly hurt recruiting nation wide. I'm curious to see how Maryland's move to the Big 10 will change the specific Northern VA/Maryland recruiting for Penn State, which is a different issue.
This is getting ridiculous. Big Ten got its even number and its conference playoffs. Let that be an end to it. If I were the NCAA, I'd stop setting obnoxious, undeserved sanctions that hurt players and start putting my foot down about conference realignment and start moving schools back to geographic conferences. Good for the Big Ten for making a profit from BTN. I like BTN. I'm watching it now, as a matter of fact. But other conferences can just get their own networks ...
And, it's official: The Basketball Seven are leaving the Big East. My money is on those teams keeping the Big East name, and the Big East no longer existing for football. UConn and Cincinnati are the schools most in limbo right now. Tough to see any major conference wanting them unless they are poached again. Could see Cincinnati to the MAC or back to CUSA.
Nobody wants UConn, it seems. Wonder if Xavier, Butler, or a similar school will join the Basketball 7.
