Rutgers to join Big Ten Tuesday
November 19th, 2012 at 12:33 PM ^
Because larger conferences are brand new ideas and the details are being worked out as the expansions happen. What makes you think we are stuck forever at 8 games?
November 19th, 2012 at 12:38 PM ^
Because we tried the 9-game thing and it died on the vine before it even started. Why? Because teams objected to the loss of home games that they could buy from bodybag teams like Eastern Michigan. None of the objections to a 9-game schedule disappear just because of two extra teams in the conference.
November 19th, 2012 at 2:06 PM ^
Didn't the conference just add two body bag teams in the form of Maryland and Rutgers?
November 19th, 2012 at 3:23 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 4:50 PM ^
Well, yes, but we'll be forced to visit them instead of buying a home game.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:39 PM ^
With the new playoff coming up, snacky cakes will be frowned upon for strength of schedule reasons.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^
The teams that have legitimate hopes of making a playoff are far outvoted by the teams that are constantly trying to tread water financially and need the snackycakes more than they need an extra non-moneymaking road game. Especially since we just added two more of the latter.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^
Look on the bright side. The addition of Maryland yesterday and Rutgers today probably does mean the end of the idiotic Legends and Leaders division names.
So there's that at least.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^
then it is worth it for expansion to happen. Leaders/Legends can't be disposed of soon enough.
Sadly though I think Delany & Co are going to dig in their heels...sigh.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^
Most of us feel the same way about this movement. We don't want it. But Delany, and the AD's don't care about what we want. They only care about what makes the athletic department, and the conference money, which is their job. Adding RU and Maryland wil allow the Big Ten to renogtioate a television contract, that all of this movement is about. The media markets that RU and Maryland provide have the AD's and the TV netowrk licking their chops.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
The crook.. :/
November 19th, 2012 at 12:13 PM ^
Don't assume all east-coasters are for this. I would rather have to travel for a more legitimate college Saturday experience, than allowing a couple semi-commuter schools into the conference.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:17 PM ^
Lame.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:18 PM ^
How will this get more people watching the B1G Network when these are awful teams we're putting out there?
So the SEC adds a team that knocks off the number 1 team in the country. And we add two teams that get into pillow fights with FCS teams.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:36 PM ^
It's actually pretty easy - there are actually fans of these teams (believe it or not), and those fans like to watch their team on TV. Before their teams were in the B1G, they watched their teams on whatever network aired their team's game (or didn't at all because the games weren't worthy of any air time). Now, they will watch their teams play on the BTN. This means more viewers for the BTN.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:21 PM ^
This should really help the perception that the Big Ten is weak.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
NEW CONFERENCE ALIGNMENTS PLEASE!!!
November 19th, 2012 at 12:25 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 12:28 PM ^
I predicted that Delaney was going to come up with some magic, and net FSU instead of Maryland.
I was very, very wrong.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:39 PM ^
Sorry, but how does FSU at all make sense in the B1G?
November 19th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^
It doesn't, but I'm having trouble rationalizing Maryland to the B1G as anything but a cold-hearted cash grab. I was hopeful that if we were going to try to make a move from the ACC, it would be the team that would actually make the conference a bit more relevant, instead of simply a bit bigger.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:45 PM ^
The era of "making sense" is officially dead.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:06 PM ^
Sure, but at least Maryland makes a little bit of sense, beyond just the money-making aspect: it's within a reasonable distance of the existing B1G footprint; FSU isn't anywhere close geographically.
November 19th, 2012 at 2:04 PM ^
Maryland. Delaney is a fraud. This is our big gambit? Fucking Rutgers and fucking Maryland? I hope this blows up in his fat face and not 1 tv set adds the B!G network as a result of this.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:19 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 12:29 PM ^
We are going to describe to our grandkids the the glory days of College Football pre-BCS!
I can imagine the stories now.
Can we scrub the ideas of the BCS and the super conferences? Please!
November 19th, 2012 at 12:32 PM ^
How long do we have to continue the "sky is falling" mentality? Is there a standard or playing it by ear?
November 19th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^
The Conference remained virtually unchanged for 40 years. In the past three years we have experienced dramatic changes (Addition of a 12th team, realignment, championship game). The main issue I have along with other fans is the competitive viability of a Rutgers and Maryland. Are these teams going to be the equivolent of another football Indiana? I would prefer to see the competitive balance of the conference remain strong.
Fans were excited about Nebraska because of what they offered athletically; Maryland and Rutgers, not so much.
November 19th, 2012 at 12:40 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 12:44 PM ^
In order to fully dilute the conference I say we add Utah State, Wyoming Community College -West and Ft. Lauderdale College for the Blind. Their mascot is the flying couldn't-give-a-fuck and he looks mean. Seriously though this is an awful day for the B1G. Probably the dumbest thing I have seen. Let's add two schools that actually bring value to the conference instead of a cash grab?
November 19th, 2012 at 12:50 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 12:54 PM ^
Ok, can everyone stop saying how Maryland and Rutgers are going to help get MICHIGAN exposure in the East? HOLY COW! It is RUTGERS! No one cares about that glorified commuter school. When was the last time you saw someone with "Rutgers Pride". No one cares about that piece of turd school. I'm glad we're now content to add Minnesota's and Indianas (except without the Midwestern-ness, history, traditional rivalries, college towns, or any benefit other than some bull-shit money grab). "Oh, I live on the East Coast so now I can go to more Michigan games!!!!" Thanks a-hole, you're so selfish you'd rather see the brand dilute itself to Big East levels than drive to Penn State? Rutgers is a JOKE! Did they even have a football team pre-mid200s? Ditto with Maryland, all I know about the football team is they used to have a really fat coach. Hey, at least you can get tickets cheaply, since no one else seems to want to go to Maryland or Rutgers football games.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:08 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^
I don't really understand the ultimate purpose of all these moves. I mean, I understand the purpose is to get more money from TV, but what it the ultimate purpose of getting more money from TV? To pay ADs and coaches more money? To build more lavish stadiums? What is the end here? Where does the money go, and how does that really *improve* anything?
November 19th, 2012 at 12:57 PM ^
Big Ten football is now 40 miles away, which is good, but I doubt that Michigan at Rutgers will really even seem like a Big Ten game. It'll be called that, and the B1G logo will be on the field and the uniforms/uniformz, but will it *really* be a Big Ten game?
November 19th, 2012 at 1:02 PM ^
I would like 2 extra wins a year!
November 19th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^
So the BTN gets on a basic tier in NYC, and the network is now worth $4M more per school. Does that mean Dave Brandon gets a big raise, and hires six more brand managers/marketers?
Dave Brandon gets a big raise, hires six more brand managers -- and for that to happen, the fanbase has to accept Rutgers in the B1G, and a more senseless schedule, and all the rest? How does that make any sense whatsoever? Where is the "progress" and the "improvement" in that?
November 19th, 2012 at 1:04 PM ^
This is literally terrible news...not sure if anyone remembers when Michigan played UCONN the army of guidos who showed up in AA. Well folks..Rutgers is like UCONN's big bro with a blow out, crotch rocket motorcycle, and a barbwire tatoo around the naval section...I cant wait!
November 19th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^
This is a fucking disaster, and every single AD who votes for this needs to lose his job. So does Delaney. The gullible idiots who think that there's going to be some massive windfall of cable carriage fees are going to be sorely disappointed when the local cable carriers tell the BTN to go fuck themselves, because nobody on the East Coast gives a crap if they miss the Maryland vs Old Dominion football game. The conference once known as the Big Ten is now destroyed. In its place is nothing but a financial and marketing arrangement.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:11 PM ^
I love how they did this with no input from anyone but the TV networks. Well played.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:16 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^
Those people already get tons of college football, including tons of Big Ten football. They get three nationally televised Big Ten games every week on the Disney networks. Satlellite subscribers get the BTN. The only games of interest that this expansion adds are the shitty contests that will be on the Big Ten Network like Maryland vs Rutgers or Rutgers vs Akron. Anyone thinking that the local cable providers in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are going to have no problem extorting the carriage fees from all of their customers so that the nonexistent fans of these shitty programs can see them play MAC teams and I-AA teams is gullible as hell.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:54 PM ^
BTN is already standard on one of the two major cable provider in NYC (Verizon), so you don't think this would help get them on Time Warner Cable? And seriously, throwing in a weak OOC game as your rationale? Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska and OSU all play conference games on BTN, so there's just as good a chance that Michigan vs. Rutgers games will be on BTN.
November 19th, 2012 at 2:08 PM ^
Rutgers football isn't going to put any pressure on Time Warner in the NY area to put BTN on basic cable. No one gives two shits about Rutgers football here. If they did the Big East wouldn't be falling apart.
November 19th, 2012 at 2:13 PM ^
If the BTN is already standard on one cable network than I though, then this is even more retarded than I thought.
Anyone who gives a crap about Michigan vs Rutgers on the BTN already has the BTN, because that person is a Michigan fan. That's why it doesn't matter if Michigan vs Rutgers is on that network. Rutgers vs Michigan is simply replacing Indiana or Northwestern vs Michigan. Nobody in New York City who doesn't care about the BTN is suddenly going to care about it because Rutgers is suddenly on it. If these lucrative new markets are going to make so much money, then the ACC and the Big East should be drowning like crazy in cash, because they have had those markets for years. But they aren't because nobody cares about Rutgers or Maryland football. They are garbage programs with a garbage following, and the shitty revenues generated by their athletic department compared to the Big Ten mean reflect that. That's why this "TV markets" argument is complete bunk. The Big Ten already has a huge presence in these markets, and it makes more money than the programs who are native to these markets. As I said above, the country gets to see three nationally televised games on Disney networks every weekend. People talk about TV markets as if it's the 1950s and there's no such thing as satellite TV or multiple ESPNs.
This is what is known as a "dilutive acquisition'.
November 19th, 2012 at 1:30 PM ^
November 19th, 2012 at 1:54 PM ^