Report: Georgia Tech in mix for B1G as well

Georgia Tech is much better for academics.  Both schools (Maryland and Georgia Tech) receive very similar rankings from most college rating systems.(Like USNWR)  Both are AAU acredited schools, but Georgia Tech just received this rating two years ago.  Maryland has been an AAU school since the 60's (link). Both are large research institutions and very comparable, but there are plenty of things were one school out preforms the other academically.

As far as basketball goes Maryland has been a very good school for the past 10-20 years at least.  They have a national championship to their name from 2002.  I think many would argue that they have been the better program over the past decade or so.

Although I will sede that Georgia is a good TV market, I also think it is incredibly dominated by the SEC when it comes to college football.  The College Park park area is ripe for a new college football TV market.  The only succesful nearby teams are PSU and Virginia Tech; both many hours away.  Plus there is not one consistantly decent football program in Maryland.  This could begin to bring and entire sports crazy state (Ravens, Orioles, local lacrosse all have phenominal following) into the fold of the Big Ten.

not true at all.  ccording to ARWU, which is waaaaaay more respected than US news, maryland is #38 university in the world, rutgers is #61, and GT is in the #101-150 range.  U of M is #22.  US news is junk, man.

http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2012.html

Yes. This would be a great add. Great academics. Great tradition. Geographically weird though.

I would be able to attend a Michigan game every two years!

Head asplode at the thought of defending the option nearly every year...

But I agree about academics, football, and expanding the footprint into the southeast region.

That said, as somebody who participated in a decidedly non-revenue varsity sport in college, it is going to create a travel nightmare and I would guess a strain on some of the ADs across the B1G.

It's not so much TV ratings as TV sets the Big Ten seems to care about. If Ga Tech gets the Big Ten Network on basic cable in Atlanta, that's a lot of money (as is DC for Maryland or NYC for Rutgers ... though I'm sceptical that the Rutgers fanbase is going to be able to force Jim Dolan's hand),

I'm not getting this vibe at all. Because Maryland and Rutgers are being referred to as a package deal and Rutgers is a steaming shitpile, they get lumped in together.

Maryland is a great school. The problems are that they're decent at basketball, but suck balls at the other major sports and don't do anything for the market. The east coast, especially DC and New York, are already full of Big Ten and SEC alumni and even those who aren't don't give a shit about Maryland or Rutgers sports.

If this is about academics, then Maryland and GT are fine grabs. But then why don't we get Boston College too? GREAT academics, and big market (Namely: Boston).
Now, I don't believe that's a good idea, and probably none of you do either. And any argument you can make agaionst Boston College, you can pretty much make against Maryland, and even Georgia Tech.
 

Why the Northwestern hate?

They are the face of ACC basketball.  I don't see them going anywhere.  Virginia and VT would be good fits, although my preference would be VT because they actually have a decent football program these days.

I'm opposed to expansion... But if it happens I'd be okay with the UVA move. It won't happen, but I'd love to get some B1G football here. I'm not sure what the boys in bow ties and the girls in sun dresses would think of visiting B1G fans.

We already only play Wisconsin and Penn St. 2 out of every 5 years. Why should we give up more of these games for Maryland, GT, and Rutgers?

Essentially, this ends the B1G as a conference: it's two conferences with a common championship game.

If you institute a pod system that is constantly rotating you can play everyone multiple times in 4 years. Sure you aren't going to develop long term hate, but everyone will see one another.

I agree, the tv market share is a non sequitur point of view. However kind sir, you are only using academics as your point of adding these three schools. They are find academic institutions, but athletically --to use a corporate term -- they are non-value added. They bring little to nothing of relevance and prestige. No ties to any school in the BiG sans Rutgers and PSU's FWB situation.



Nebraska is/was a football powerhouse, and decent academically. If we can't find someone or others damn similar, it's just a joke to change, and in my humble opinion hurts our brand rather than adding to it.

B16 TEN

It means something in that increasingly the goal maybe to cover as much geography as possible.

To a degree, but Atlanta is at least as much a UGA town as a Georgia Tech town, even though Tech is in Atlanta.

It does not. The Falcons and UGA Bulldogs own that market, as much as any team does.

I'm not sure what "market" really means.  I think that a lot of people focus on the how rabid the fans are in the area.  However, in BTN terms, they're probably thinking about how many TV sets in are in the geographic area.  This might allow BTN to become part of the "standard" package in the Atlanta area (and possibly all of Georgia).  That's probably 5-8M new subscribers who are paying $0.50 - $1.00 in fees to BTN each month (depending on how it gets bundled.  That's a lot of potential revenue for BTN.

My point is that it's not so important that the team is widely regarded in the area, it's about how many TV sets that will be picking up BTN.  That's the entire driving force behind Rutgers.