Home-turf feel makes Michigan basketball's New York minute in the Big Ten Tournament special
Posted in a thread, but thought it cool enough for its own.
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Article/Home-turf-feel-makes-Mic…
While I'd prefer the Big Ten doing more stuff in its traditional footprint, they should absolutely come back to MSG. This was super cool.
Maybe we are a big enough deal now that MSG will bounce some other conference next time.
The reason the Big Ten had to play a week early is because the Big East has a contract to play their tournament in MSG through 2026. MSG can't "bounce" the Big East even if it wanted to.
And there is NO WAY the Garden is going to bounce St John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Seton Hall, and Providence for the B1G. They all have way more NYC alums than Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana. MSG is the Big East's floor, and the Big East is MSG's conference. There is, however, a perfectly good arena in Brooklyn we could use. It's not the Garden, but it'll do.
Those schools do not have nearly as many alums in the city as Michigan or Penn State, and Michigan is the most popular college team in Manhattan. St. John's barely draws, and Seton Hall and Providence have literally zero presence here. The Big East's contract goes through 2026, but after that I hope to see the Big Ten move to the final weekend in MSG at least once every three years if at all possible.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-is-new-yorks-favorite-college-team-15…
I'm from New York--and given the tradition between the Garden and the Big East tournament I don't think they get displaced by what is, after all, a Midwestern conference. And I have a hard time believing that Michigan has more NYC alums than St Johns, which is a commuter school in fucking Queens, or Seton Hall, which is northern Jersey. I'll grant you Georgetown. And all those eastern Big East schools have a lot of NYC players, which means their parents and relatives at games, students commuting. The Big East tournament is still a really big deal in the City, which is why the contract is insanely long and binding.
I think Beilein hit the nail on the hammer though. With our alumni base, we can play just about anywhere on the East Coast and outdraw other teams.
I'm good with going to Brooklyn or East Rutherford instead. Only thing I would change, regardless or location, is make the tournament end the day before Selection Sunday. I think we get screwed having the last game right before the announcement.
Let's finish before Selection Sunday! I know we'd be turning down money from CBS, but the reward of Big Ten teams being properly seeded would be worth it.
I hope you are joking. It's a dead zone for pre- and post-game, and would have no-where near the atmosphere. Unless you mean the Prudential Center, in Newark, which at least is near mass transit link to Manhattan.
I think that's another stupid Delany move. For the last 15 years or so, the conference tournament has ended right before the start of the selection show.
I think all conference tournaments should be finished on Saturday and no games at all on Selection Sunday. It was originally like that when we won it in 1998.
I find your thread title short and lacking in detail...
I agree, that it's a big insane to hold the tourney in NYC, it is definitely to our benefit as opposed to most of the Big Ten.
We definitely have more people here than the Iowas, Minnesotas, and Nebraskas of the conference. Besides us, I feel like only PSU has a similar NYC presence (yes, that includes Rutgers/Maryland)
Number of alums in NYC area, according to Linkedin:
Rutgers 153,346
Penn State 39,736
Michigan 25,070
Maryland 21,407
Wisconsin 13,034
Indiana 10,751
Ohio State 9,509
Illinois 8,836
Michigan State 7,990
Purdue 6,323
Minnesota 5,530
Iowa 3,213
Nebraska 1,760
there are 7,990 jizz-moppers in NYC
They were all there...
MSU numbers look OK ....zillions of fast food places in Gotham City...
We also have a significant number of "subway alumni" in the NYC area as well.
Oh, you don't mean that kind of Subway, do you?
Guilty as charged.
I knew we had a good presence there, but was shocked by this:
"according to a New York Times report from 2014, are the most popular college team in 32 of Manhattan’s 48 zip codes as well as the second-most popular team in eight more."
The most popular college team in >60% of the zip codes in Manhattan, that is awesome!
I did some reseach, back when we added Rutgers.... We are the most popular team south of Central park and across the bridge in Brooklyn.
As an alum in New Jersey, I selfishly would love for it to come back. I get the reasons why it would not. Particularly if the Big East is given the monopoly on the week before the actual tournament. Though, Brooklyn I'm sure would present a similar pro-UM atmosphere if they go to the Barclay's.
I went to the games Thursday and yesterday. Thursday was a bit of a sleepy crowd. I'd say it was marginally pro-UM, but having attended Big East Tournament early session games before, I don't think that's any different than most first round(s) games for any conference at any site. The atmosphere yesterday was electric and was very, very visibly pro-Michigan in the arena. I think it'd be a real boon to UofM to be able to take advantage of NYC being a home-away-from-home situation again.
It would be sweet to go back to MSG again. With the Big East starting on Wednesday, I wonder if a Friday-Tuesday setup would work. It would take away two days of sitting, but CBS usually doesn't do weekday games. I think CBS could still get their money's worth either by broadcasting the Monday semifinals and Tuesday final or by broadcasting two Saturday second round games and two Sunday quarterfinals.
Wouldn’t make much sense, you would still have to play the weekend before since selection Sunday is that weekend.
I don’t think there is any question that NY supports Michigan. There may be more alums there than any other metro area, period.
Every 6-7 years or so......
lol--In a few short weeks y'all have gone from "What the fuck did we let the Rutgers University Eyeballs in the B1G for?" to "We can boot the Big East out of the Garden!" That's a Beilein-like turnaround.