Expansion was inevitable and is more than football

Submitted by mi93 on

Apologies for the new thread, but I wanted thoughts on this and know it would have been lost in the mix.

Does the expansion water down football?  You bet.  Does it reek of a market/money grab?  Uh-huh, but a for-real playoff forced that hand and this is another pre-emptive strike.  Four teams is already assured and getting to 8 requires bigger conferences to create defacto early rounds.  And the conference will likely now add Men's and Women's Lacrosse to make a total of 28 Big Teh(14)n sports with content that the East coast will enjoy.

This is also about academic standards - believe it or not.  The conference still holds that as criteria and we just added two research universities - the big dogs in their states - that are members of the American Association of Universities.  Only Nebraska is not a member (and only because the AAU chose to no longer recognize their medical center as a research entity for the NU-L campus).

Those standards are why ND will NEVER be asked to join the Big Ten.  They are not a respected research university - just a cash demanding whore.  When the conference moves to 16 teams, expect Missouri, Pittsburgh, Iowa State, Kansas and Virginia (regardless of recent moves by some of them) on the short list.  And unless Syracuse can demonstrate a Nebraska-like research bounty, they won't be part of the conversation.

Delany's madman visions aside, the presiden't have final say, and they're not all Gordon Gee.

justingoblue

November 19th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^

BC is a small, private school without much research presence, they spend less than $40,000,000 each year on research. For comparison, the Big Ten average is about $465,000,000. They would place last in the CIC in terms of dollars spent (ND also would finish 14th [current 12 + Chicago + ND or BC]).

Georgia Tech would rank 6th in the current CIC, Duke 3rd and Pitt and UNC both 7th. Maryland will be 9th.

 

Tha Stunna

November 19th, 2012 at 6:42 PM ^

You stated expansion was inevitable and based it on nothing... The Big Ten will have a spot based on ranking whether it's 10, 11, 12, or 14 teams.  If the idea is that somehow the added conference depth from Maryland and Rutgers will give the Big Ten an autobid to the giant playoff, I think that's stupid.

If we absolutely had to expand, we should have picked up Texas A&M (who I don't like, but actually adds a lot of value by virtue of being in Texas) + one other (don't really care between the alternatives).  Somehow the most valuable brand in college athletics ended up taking two second-rate schools in a desperate attempt to follow the SEC and ACC.  This is only good for people who hate college sports (and Rutgers and Maryland fans, who I assume probably do).

Newk

November 19th, 2012 at 6:54 PM ^

For a moment, I'll entertain the notion that academic considerations played a significant role in this move.

Now, will someone explain to me how exactly current institutions benefit from adding additional members, even one with large research budgets? Does the CIC or some other entity pool that money and share it out? I doubt that, but I'm not sure. And if that were true it would hurt schools like UM that bring in much more than the others. Don't individual researchers (read, faculty) have to propose projects and fight for funding anyway?

So how do UM, OSU, Wisconsin, etc. benefit, in terms of research or academics, from having this new association with Rutgers and Maryland? I don't think they're all sharing the wealth, but if someone knows, please fill me in. Perhaps it encourages cooperation, but there was nothing really hindering that before. When looking for collaborators, academics tend to go to their discipline, their professional associations - not to Big Ten media days.

If it's more general than that, I'll just say that prestige is not concrete, it's not something you can add up. Adding ND or Duke might conceivably add prestige that wasn't there, since those schools have a lot of cachet, but adding a merely respectable institution like Mayland can't do anything but water down the overal academic standing of the conference - as though anyone cares about the average ranking or endowment of the Big Ten institutions. Seriously, to whom and in what circustances could the academic standing of a conference matter? Students don't apply to conferences. Professors don't accept positions from conferences. And, unless I'm mistaken, research grants are not awarded to conferences - they're awarded to researchers.

Ultimately, as a fan I'm disgusted because I don't see that this adds anything of value to me (or to the players, for that matter). I hope we start paying them - that's the only legitimate use of all this extra cash.

Newk

November 19th, 2012 at 7:30 PM ^

That is somewhat informative, though underwhelming. It sounds like most of the collective action under the aegis of the CIC is administrative and logistical - stuff that saves money and creates conveniences. That explains why Maryland, say, would want to join. But there's surely a point of dimishing returns for those already in, unless the Rutgers ilbrary system has a lot of stuff that isn't in the amassed collections of the current membership, or Maryland happens to come up with some nifty way of saving money on light bulbs.

2Blue4U

November 19th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^

From http:www.aau.edu

"Federal academic research conducted by AAU universities totaled $18.9 billion in FY 2009, or 58% of all federal research funds provided to colleges and universities."

 

Doesn't hurt to have a presence near Washington D.C. ...

 

How about Mid-East and Mid-West as the new division names.

 

Sheiks vs. Steaks

 

Drbogue

November 19th, 2012 at 7:12 PM ^

BTN: What a great rivalry between PSU and Maryland! PSU is 35-1-1 against Maryland. It's like saying we have a great rivalry against MAC team

Brodie

November 19th, 2012 at 10:05 PM ^

well, not really. It'd be more like saying we have a rivalry with Indiana... a school in our geographic region whom we've historically played nearly every year but always beat. Maryland was one of a number of schools like West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse that PSU used to play annually creating a sort of de facto northeastern football conference in the days before the Big East played football. And one of the complaints we keep hearing is that we'll only see Indiana once every 6 years so I guess it is kind of a big deal to us? 

Maryland, PSU and Rutgers forming their own little eastern version of the historic Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin thing is fine by me. Anything that keeps the Lions from developing a serious border war with Ohio that could detract from the Game is good in my book. 

Buck Killer

November 19th, 2012 at 7:18 PM ^

This place is a prison on planet bullshit in the galaxy of this sucks camel dick! Rivalries are being ruined every week. Fuck!

BlowGoo

November 19th, 2012 at 10:54 PM ^

Aaaaaannnnndddddd both creampuff football programs are going to Leaders.

And Legends gets Illinois from Leaders?

So, as I see it, Legends gets one weak program. Leaders downgrades a weak into a creampuff, and gets another creampuff to boot, right?

So am I missing something or does this setup favor Ohio again?

GoBlueNC

November 19th, 2012 at 11:36 PM ^

is a joke in football.  They only get bowl-eligible when they beat the rest of the sorry ACC like BC, Wake and NC State.  Basketball is irrelevant to this discussion and there are not enough TVs down here to matter to the BigTen Network.