I don’t see Maryland getting dropped. It’s competitive enough that it can hang in most sports besides football. Is that enough? Well, if football is the major driver, maybe not.
Rutgers? It’s only in a handful of sports and it’s not competitive in any of them. I still don’t understand what it’s doing there, beyond “it gives us a footing into the New York City market” which … is NYC really that interested in Rutgers?
i am not sure rutgers campus is that interested in rutgers. but it provides a reason to broadcast in NYC and when stuff is on tv it draws eyeballs. more eyeballs with NYC included.
But, the BigTen has a contract with national TV companies. Their games are going to be shown in NYC whether NYC likes it or not. It will draw the same number of eyeballs whether Rutgers is in the conference or not.
Stealing Pitt or BC would have been a better idea.
Or Syracuse. BC would have been a non-starter because it’s not in the Association of American Universities.
Which, BTW, both USC and UCLA are members of, cause the B1G is a conference of prestigious academic-focused institutions that happens to offer athletics, not an athletic conference that happens to also provide academics.
I was in grad school at nebraska and faculty back then did dream of being associated w the big 10 more than any other conference for this reason.
Are they joining the Legends or Leaders division?
B1G has provided Notre Dame numbers of what the TV deal will look like with them included. They are now waiting to see what color the smoke is from South Bend
When does ND’s deal with playing ACC teams end? According to wiki, they are scheduling ACC games thru 2034. I assume that can be stopped if ND joins a non-ACC conference.
This seems an odd requirement, as BC is a decent enough university in most rankings of US national universities. It’s more highly ranked than a number of the schools in the B1G. That made me google.
Syracuse is not in the AAU, and neither is Nebraska. They both left in 2011, the year Nebraska joined the B1G.
All of the current AAU members are solid institutions, but there are other very highly rated universities not in the AAU. Maybe they don’t want to pay the $80k/year membership fee?There are also some past members that don’t look too prestigious. Was The Catholic University of America ever considered one of the top universities in the country before they left in 2002? Clark in 1999?
Used those names as divisions in fanstasy football. Then we switched to hungry and starving (gopher coach tim brewster left nothing behind but hillariously out of touch sound bites).
So you’re telling me your chili is hot?
LA Times today said, “great move, they’ll have a higher Strength of Schedule which will put them in CFP contention…”
Getting into a conference with better teams and a higher strength of schedule is expected to lead to more CFP opportunities for UCLA and USC and better recruiting pitches as top athletes want chances to compete against the best for the top prizes.
Uh, still have to win the games, which means getting the top recruits (which means opponents NOT getting the top recruits), which means setting BETTER NIL agreements than their opponents, etc. Maybe using the “Hollywood nearby” as a plus.
Or, cheating better than your opponents. Maybe if it prevents the top local players hunting for a National Championship from leaving the area, maybe that will lead to better teams that can compete.
So, what will happen to the Pac12/Big12? I think they don’t get top recruits, don’t get invited to CFPs because of their weak schedules – Big 12 teams’ were already weak-sauce, but now they might get shut out of the Power 3. Some might even turn off the football spigot altogether, save a shit-ton of money and headache (literally and figuratively).
I think the contest for ND will be interesting. And what NBC gets as compensation. Not sure what NBC currently pays ND annually of ND gets for its away games. As much as what each Big10 team gets?
Oh, and someone should tell USC and UCLA about the 9AM (PT) start times for four or five of their games.
More likely just one or two, like when they have to play someone unwatchable. Forngood foes…They will agree to make those the 4pm eastern games and tv will get a double dose of B1G 10 games thst day.
UCLA/Maryland kicking off at 10:30 pm EST is going to to glorious.
Utah, Colorado, and the AZ schools are talking with the Big12 today.
There is still talk of Washington and Oregon joining the B1G. Wonder how powerful the alum of WSU and OSU are to see if they can mandate at the state level that they have to go as a pair with their big brothers ala Baylor in the Big12 initially.
Big 12 might actually be 12 again?
Nope, they were already about to be 12, now they’ll be (at least) 16.
Well, they were about to be 11, then 14 then back to 12 but might go to 16 or maybe even 18 depending on timing.
TX and OU were scheduled to leave after 24-25 while BYU first scheduled to join in 23-24 with the other 3 saying 24-25, then the other 3 moved up to 23-24. Now if they manage to get some of the PAC 12 teams in before TX and OU leave they could be above 16 for 24-25.
