I suppose there is no explanation for Rutgers and Maryland being in the former Big Ten except for the New York City and D.C. television markets ... although we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. I'm not optimistic ... and I'd love to be privy to Delaney's market research before adding those universities. I think the "Big" Ten is looking more and more like the mediocre ACC (in football).

If Delaney had a real sense of what's what, he would have pushed for this line-up ...

East

Indiana

Michigan

Michigan State

Northwestern

Notre Dame

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

West

Illinois

Iowa

Minnesota

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Texas

Wisconsin

and assuming Notre Dame wasn't too wussy to affiliate with a real conference. That's a football conference that would be on a par with the SEC, and it would consist of some excellent universities (for the most part).

It is a real shame that Notre Dame won't be part of the eventual Big Ten ice hockey conference.