JeepinBen

November 30th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^

A big part of the Rutgers/Maryland move was to secure the New England market, and the B1G is geographically set up to have no overlap with other major conferences. This is a stab into a market that is definitely SEC country and is a 2nd tier program in it's state. Annexing Big East or northern ACC (non-SEC overlap) makes sense. GT makes none.

Which means of course the B1G will do it. #Leaders #Legends #Inthecommunity

markinmsp

November 30th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^

 Personally, I see the SEC snatching up VaTech and NCState now, and Big12 pulling in FlaState and Clemson. (I would have added Miami(FL) but their present issues may put a merger off. Only if it is mandated by FSU addition.)

 ACC could asphlode!

zeda_p

November 30th, 2012 at 11:31 AM ^

Depends on how you classify. UGA is the big state school but Tech is way harder to get into.

The other thing to consider about GA is no one shows their support for teams unless they're winning. For example, before Saban came to Alabamastand, you'd see an "A" on cars.. maybe a couple of times a week. Now you see almost as many as UGA's. Alabama is like Georgia's elite community college, they ship a lot of students there.

Tech hasn't been good in football since '90 but back then, you'd see about 55%-45% in favor of UGA. Still not bad. Also Tech have a bigger bball and baseball following than UGA.

I'd say most non-alumni support UGA for football (because they're better) but cheer for Tech's bball and baseball teams.

931 S State

November 30th, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^

Kind of a stretch to say the GT is way harder to get into than UGA.  The Hope Scholarship is a huge incentive to keep the best hs school students in Georgia in the state and UGA's enrollment has imporved because of it.  You pretty much have to be top 10% of your class to get into UGA.  This wasn't true 10 years ago.  

I think GT is the obvious choice for the next addition to the B1G.  Big TV market in what is arguably the center of the college football universe.  UGA, Bama, Auburn, Florida, Clemson, FSU, Tennessee, and South Carolina are all five hours or less driving distance.  Also a big advantage for current B1G schools to get into the talent laden south on the recruiting trail too. by adding GT to the conference.  Good tradition in hoops, although not so much success lately, and a good baseball team are also nice adds.  

If the B1G makes this move I think Texas or Florida State would be the next obvious choice for the 16th memeber.  But Texas probably won't happen because of $$ and FSU's academics will probably keep them out. 

StateSmells

November 30th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^

UGA fans think of GT as their annoying little brother who has fans that come out of the woodwork once per decade or so when they do something good (sound familiar?)

The difference is that GT is a better school.  UGA fans are generally annoyed by those "GT nerds".

Oh, and GT is in downtown Atlanta, so not a bad place to be.

LSA Aught One

November 30th, 2012 at 11:57 AM ^

People don't really understand the geography of the US unless they've been to the states in question.  In the minds of most midwesterners, anyone who lives east of PA wears a big buckle on his hat and hunts with a muzzle-loader while simultaneoulsy dumping tea in the harbor. 

The post was meant to say that the Rutgers add secured NY/NJ DMA and that the Maryland add secured Baltimore/DC DMA.  A GT ad could get the Atlanta DMA, which is the 9th largest TV DMA in the country.  Check out this LINK.  Do I agree with this add? No.  Would it increase the TV viewing area to a scary level?  Yes.

 

markinmsp

November 30th, 2012 at 11:30 AM ^

None? Don’t be too sure. Access to a major and growing media center like Atlanta makes total sense with what Delaney is doing. I believe he covets that sort of media exposure in the south. My contention if it is true is UVa is next. Only bad part is we will fill before we get into NC. This is not about head-head competition with the SEC. SEC would never take GT. Major conferences will now only add one team/state to open new cable markets = more subscribers = more money.

LSA Aught One

November 30th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^

So, the moves earlier this month added:

1.  NY DMA - 7.4MM Households

8.  DC - 2.4MM

27.  Baltimore - 1.1MM

We already had:

3.  Chicago: 3.5MM

4.  Philadelphia: 2.9MM

11.  Detroit: 1.8MM

15. Minneapolis: 1.7MM

26. Indianapolis: 1.1MM

32. Columbus: 930K

34. Milwaukee: 900K

39. Grand Rapids: 720K

43. Harrisburg: 715K

54. Wilkes Barre/Scranton: 581K

67. Flint/Saginaw: 446K

69: Green Bay: 442K

72: Des Moines: 430K

75: Omaha: 414K

This add would give the B1G the 9th market in the country at about 2.3MM viewers.  This would be the 5th largest market in B1G Network coverage. This is the equivalent of Indianapolis and Columbus combined.  For Delaney's purposes, this makes perfect sense.

931 S State

November 30th, 2012 at 3:10 PM ^

DMA driven additions:

Texas: #5 Dallas 2.58M, #10 Houston 2.21M, #36 San Antonio 881k, #45 Austin 705k

Florida State: #14 Tampa-St Pete 1.8M, #16 Miami-FL 1.62M, #18 Orlando-Daytona #1.45M #38 West Palm 794k

UNC: #25 Charlotte 1.13M, #37 Greevil-Spart 846k, #44 Norfolk-Portsmouth 709k, #46 Greensboro-W Salem 695k

Texas and UNC fit academically.   Texas seems highly unlikely right now, but I guess things can change quickly.  FSU gets us on almost most as many TV's (maybe more if you include the markets in the panhandle which I didn't include here), but they probably don't fit the academic pedigree of the rest of the conference.

Approx Viewers in Major Markets: Texas 6.3M, FSU 5.6M, Carolinas 3M.

 

 

 

dahblue

November 30th, 2012 at 3:42 PM ^

I think the somewhat undiscussed elephant in the room is whether or not folks in DC and NY will actually watch the BTN.  I say...nope.  The east coast and mid-atlantic region just don't care about college football.  On top of that, NYC doesn't care about Rutgers (thus sharing the sentiment of the country at large).

Based on population stats alone, I can understand the moves making sense (though I kidna prefer tradition and whatnot), but stats don't tell the whole story here.

michchi85

November 30th, 2012 at 10:49 AM ^

If you are going to 16 teams in the league (whole different debate) it makes sense to add Georgia Tech.  I think adding Maryland and Rutgers was to get into areas where adding that 15th and 16th team would make more sense to the East coast georgraphy.  Who will 16 be??  I'm going to say Virginia.

lhglrkwg

November 30th, 2012 at 12:09 PM ^

Virginia and Virginia Tech are attached and you have the VA State Government backing that arrangement. The Virginia and North Carolina schools will mostly likely stick together just because state governments won't want them split up.

markinmsp

November 30th, 2012 at 12:27 PM ^

 Actually that is not correct. The VA politicians just wanted UVa to use it’s influence to get them in a more secure conference (ACC) when it looked like the BigEast was crashing.  (Correct me if I misunderstood, Wahoo.) They don’t have the leverage now. With both in the ACC they may have to fend for themselves; as I doubt one of the stronger conferences will take on both. IMO UVa will go to the B1G and SEC (which has already said it wants into VA) will take VaTech.

VSS

November 30th, 2012 at 1:58 PM ^

Please stop repeating this myth. UVA and VT have been together for less than ten years. As long has VT doesn't remain in a dumpster-fire of a conference, than the legislature is not going to obstruct things. There are certain circumstances present in the instance where the legislature got involved. 

Needs

November 30th, 2012 at 12:43 PM ^

BC isn't an AAU member. They're akin to ND, strong undergrad, some grad programs but almost none in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math) or academic medicine (and really no room to expand those fields within a glutted Boston academic market). 

But they don't bring the athletic cache of ND, which meant the Big 10 was willing to overlook their research profile.

LSA Aught One

November 30th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^

If it's only about viewers, Delaney should go for  BC.  It wouldn't be any worse than Rutgers or Maryland and it would add 2.4MM viewers to the fold.  That would then give the B1G network viewership in:

1. NY

3. Chicago

4. Philadelphia

7. Boston

8. Washington DC

9. Atlanta

11. Detroit

That is pretty dominant in terms of viewership.  The only non-contiguous markets in the Top 11 would be:

2. LA

5. Dallas

6. San Francisco

10. Houston

markinmsp

November 30th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^

 Only point I would contend is they may feel Boston has never really supported college sports, especially any specific one. The market tends to be segmented fairly equally between BC, BU, Harvard, Holy Cross, MIT(some degree), and UMass. So you take what market you did have and essentially watered it down even more, support-wise.

 I know a similar contention could be made about NYC, but it’s also the overwhelming size/prestige of the market and Rutgers is still the major collegiate sports presence there and you also get NJ in the bargain. (If you call it a bargain.   /kidding)

michgoblue

November 30th, 2012 at 10:50 AM ^

Is this a joke or serious?

If serious, they might as well stop calling the conference the BIG 10, and just give it a new name.  There is virtually no resemblance to the Big Ten conference - only 2/3 of the teams are originally from that conference (less than 2/3 once an inevitable 16th team joins to make it even).  And, the geographic footprint is no longer the midwest, as the real Big Ten was.  This is stupid!

/no promise to end rant - I suspect that it will continue for much of the day in the upcoming 20 expansion threads - apologies in advance.