Big Ten offers invites to Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Rutgers
I'm surprised no one has posted this.
http://host.madison.com/sports/college/article_3f48eefa-5c60-11df-9a57-…
[mod edit: ESPN reports, per WHB Radio, that the Big Ten has extended offers to Notre Dame, Missouri, Nebraska and Rutgers - information linked. Since these reports came out, Nebraska has stated it has no such offer and Missouri will not respond to speculation.]
You wouldn't want Syracuse, the 11-time and back-to-back defending national champions and the greatest lacrosse program in NCAA history?
Rutgers also hasn't beaten Syracuse head-to-head in any sport this year, including...
Syracuse 31, Rutgers 13
what a boring day around here...
(Whispers: SARCASM)
Hmph, embedding tweets doesn't work, lets try this again.
From @edsbs:
The Big Ten will offer Brandeis, Burkina Faso, and my friend Steve membership in the Big Ten, according to our source. #mybutttoldme
Missouri- adjacent to Big Ten territory, some rivalry connection, football/basketball competence, decent institution
Nebraska- See Missouri, except not basketball. Added bonus of Big Ten style football, traditional powerhouse
Notre Dame- Because you have to invite them at least, though I don't really want them anymore
Rutgers? No where near the traditional Big Ten midwest territory, not a traditional powerhouse in basketball or football, and not a stellar enough institution to raise the academic level of the conference. Rutgers doesn't have a current major sports following in New York, so why would it add more to the Big Ten? By that logic, the Big Ten should add Army too. Rutgers does not have the marketing pull that people seem to think it will have for the conference.
Call me old fashioned, but to me a conference should embody a certain geographical area, if possible, and Rutgers/Texas are fun ideas, but they just don't fit. The Big Ten is a midwest conference, so personally I am not comfortable going and farther south than Cincy or farther east than Syracuse or farther west than Nebraska. Add Pitt before you add a school like Rutgers.
Rutgers adds absolutely nothing in terms of sports cache. But as we know its:
can we send MSU to the MAC and get Central Michigan to replace them?
MSU academics are too low.
Where's Pitt? They are a team that should be considered before Rutgers and Missouri! I know Pitt/Penn State isn't a big rivalry right now, but with some time I see it becoming one of the bigger rivals in the Big Ten.
In a 2005 survey of northeastern college football fans conducted by ESPN I posted in another thread, Rutgers isn't even in the top-10 of favorite college football teams, behind Pittsburgh (#3), Syracuse (#4), Michigan (#6), UConn (#7), and Ohio State (#8).
If Michigan or Ohio State can't deliver the NYC market, why would Rutgers?
In NYC-specific surveys I've seen previously, Syracuse basketball ranked significantly higher (and is the most popular college sports team of any school or sport) in and of itself than Rutgers football.
Because we're going to be the Big 15? Nonsense. That's all this is.
can you make a five fit in between the letters T and E like this?
Has a weird shaped penis.
Hypothetically if this was real:
1) All 4 accept, we have 15 teams now, who is the 16th team?
2) All but ND accept, we have 14 teams now, stop or get 2 more?
Based on extending an offer to ND, I imagine that if ND says "yes" the 16th offer goes to Syracuse. If ND says no the offers go to UCONN and Pitt? Personally I'd go with Mizzou, Nebraska, Syracuse, Pitt, and UConn.
Like it or not, I think that Syracuse and Rutgers are a coupled entity.
There's no way that if the Big Ten wants to claim NYC, they let Syracuse AND UConn go to the ACC (SU is unquestionably on the top of the ACC's wish list - which should tell you all you need to know about the value of Rutgers).
It will not be UCONN as they are not an AAU school.
By that same logic Notre Dame is out.
just reported the same with a text blast. they tend to not speculate on such matters except when the idea smoke implies fire.
The Big Ten only offered Rutgers in case Nebraska fell through. It was a contingent offer. If Nebraska is willing to make a verbal commit, Rutgers offer will be rescinded. Of course none of this matters until National Signi- - - -
I'd rather just drop NW and go to 10.
I agree because dropping our best academic institution is a great decision for a conference as academically focused as the Big Ten.
When Indiana is the lowest ranked Big Ten school at #71, how much more sense does adding #96 Nebraska and #121 Missouri make?
It makes sense in terms of athletics and wile those two schools would then be the worst in the conference, they still are both long time members of the AAU so on the graduate level(where money is mad academically), they both are pretty decent. You can't seriously be suggesting you would rather us kick out NW can you?
No way on kicking NW out, there's no chance in hell that's even remotely considered or intelligent.
Outside of USNews, Missouri (IIRC) tends to grade out pretty well. They also just finished a $1BILLION (i think that number is right) fundraising campaign to spend on facilities and other academic stuffs.
I'm somewhat partial to Mizzou because I think in the Big10 they will rapidly climb the rankings so people that look at USNews at the be all end all of academia can breath easy knowing their fall back internet bragging point is still intact.
....people need to stop obssessing about USN&WR college rankings. They are not the sum total of a school's value. In fact, Michigan is dramatically undervalued when only considering the USN&WR undergraduate rankings. Our graduate and professional school rankings put us among the elite of the elite U.S. universities. I'm kind of tired of this meme that USN&WR rankings are determinative. They are not.
I'd rather drop you
Asked whether the report has any validity as it applies to Nebraska, UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman said, "None whatsoever."
BIG TEN ADDING USC!!!!!!
I like this group of schools
Because there's no way we get Notre Dame unless we blow up the Big East in the process, and taking away Rutgers does *not* affect the Big East much at all - they replace Rutgers with Memphis and call it a day, and Notre Dame will stay in the Big East for non-football sports and retain their beloved football independence.
Most likely the back-channel convo with ND will go something like this:
“The Big East is done-for, regardless of what you say. If you accept, we will take either Pitt or Syracuse, for a total of 16. If you decline, we will take both Pitt and Syracuse. Either way, there is no more Big East as you have known it.”
Yes, that would perfectly, 100% address my concern. I didn't bother to do the math that 11 + 4 = 15. Your situation makes complete sense.
Me likey.
Could be just one more head fake, but the timing and strategy make total sense.
(1) Timing: Most conferences have a June 30 fiscal year end and require their members to give 12 (or more) months notice to leave. Any schools invited need time (a month??) to complete their own analyses and obtain necessary internal approvals. Both sides also need time to negotiate at least the major terms of the deal. Additionally, I would think the B10 is in a slightly stronger negotiating position if it makes a move before the B12 and Pac 10 have time to complete negotiations on their expiring media contracts.
(2) Strategy: By taking Rutgers, the B10 makes major inroads into one of the Big East's strongest media markets (NY/NJ/Phila) and prevents any other conference (i.e., the ACC) from trying to beat them to the punch. Missouri and Nebraska balance out each other in that the first has great media markets and the second is a traditional football power on the upswing. The best part: ND will have to worry that, if it turns down the B10 invite, the B10 might respond by taking two additional Big East teams (Syracuse and Pitt), thereby destroying the Big East and leaving ND with nothing.
What happens to the other major conferences? The ACC and SEC probably start fighting over WVU, Syracuse, Pitt, and Louisville, and the Pac 10 probably gets serious about expansion and goes after Colorado (and Utah??). As the Big East begins to disintegrate, ND might come crawling back to the B10 with far less negotiating leverage. Similarly, if the B12 loses Colorado, it will no longer have St. Louis, Kansas City or Denver -- its largest media markets outside of Dallas and Houston. In such an environment, the B12 might actually unravel, making it possible for the B10 to at least make a run at Texas and Texas A&M.
The worst case is that the B10 picks up Nebraska (traditional football power) and several excellent new media markets for BTN while making life miserable for awhile for everyone else (especially ND). Being at only 14 teams, the B10 also keeps open the possibility of going up to 16 teams in a second phase of expansion if attractive teams become available as things play out. Score one for Delaney.
If I remember correctly, the Big East instituted a rule that a school has to give 30 month notice before they are allowed to leave the conference (done in the wake of the ACC "raid"). Plus, isn't non-conference scheduling done something like 4 years in advance for football? How would the FB schedule look in the interim for these schools, which are leaving one conference, but haven't officially joined thier new one, especially if the new Big10 FB schedule goes from 8 to 9 conference games (don't know if this would happen, but it's got to be a possibility, right)?
JeffB
Non-conference games usually aren't scheduled too far in advance, save for the long term contracts between teams (like us and ND). We didn't schedule the UConn game for this fall until about a year ago. However, conference games are usually scheduled 4 years in advance or so.
Any team that joins the league will not officially do so for a few years. Penn State actually started playing Big Ten games I think 3 years after they announced they joined the league.
Big East rule is 27 months. And, yes, non-conference scheduling is an issue, but most of those agreements are relatively short and even have out clauses provided there is a certain amount of notice (the agreements are all over the place in terms of amount of notice, penalty payments, etc, depending on who had the leverage when they were negotiated). This is another reason the B10 would want to get this done sooner rather than later, so that any notices that need to be given can be given as soon as possible.
It's been said before, but I'll repeat it: NOBODY is trying to beat the Big Ten to the "Rutgers punch." They are completely off the radar in NYC.
Can the SEC make a legitimate play for Syracuse or Pitt, do you think? WVU and L'ville make some sense I think, but I have a hard time imagining the first two. Additionally, what happens to the SEC when Arkansas goes to the Big XII to replace Neb/Mizzou? They'll lose a serious recruiting footprint and important buffer zone. I mean, if you've got to lose an entire state, Arkansas is the one to lose, but I think it could be a significant loss.
I honestly don't want to see the Big 10 expand to 16 teams. Pretty soon, there will only be 3 or 4 conferences in America. It ruins the parody of college sports. HOWEVER... I am all for the Big 10 throwing the first punch. As much as everyone rags on the Big 10, they sure are the first conference to innovate the college sports landscape. They did it with instant replay. They did it with the Big 10 Network. They're going to do it with the first "mega" conference.
Parity. Unintended pseudo-homophone is still kind of funny though.
A pseudo homo-phony.
I heard an interview this afternoon on Sirius XM (Mad Dog Radio) with the former AD of Rutgers.
Basically what they were saying is that Rutgers is only in the fold if ND does not accept the invite. If ND does accept (assuming Nebraska and Missouri do), Rutgers would then be the 15th team, and either wouldn't get it, or would come along with another Big East team (Pitt, most likely).
If ND did not accept, Rutgers would make it 14, then the Big10 would either stop at 14, or add Pitt and probably Syracuse.
Of course, the former Rutgers AD was taking credit for them being involved in the conversation in the first place, since he worked on upgrading the stadium (to about 52,000 capacity), just for this situation (no, seriously, he said this). He also said that 70% of the state of New Jersey had a red "R" on the windows of their cars, and that NYC loves Rutgers, too, so take that for what its worth.
JeffB
Absolutely false that 70% of cars have R decals on them. The number is still very small. There are more restaurants that have R decals in them, though, for what it's worth. That's up from zero.
NYC sports fans are notoriously impatient (same for Philadelphia fans while we're talking about NJ). However, tradition is important to them. The Yankees and Giants often invoke tradition in their promotions. Since the B10 has tradition, Rutgers could get a bounce, but ONLY IF THEY ARE SUCCESSFUL. Prior to Rutgers, most college fans watched Penn State, but that was a little further out. There could be more collective interest if ND were to join the conference. Regretablly, I see as many ND shirts around here as Rutgers shirts. ND creates a lot of storylines that would generate some buzz IMO.
to include comments from schools involved
why can't we just make them all play each other?
any school in the country that wants in, enter your teams. do a country wide, multi-sport weekend long tourney. the schools with the best results get to be in the big ten, the number of teams accepted is at the discretion of the conference based on results.
this would be great to watch on BTN
The college football landscape will look as such five years down the road:
Big 10: Including Mizzou, Neb, Pitt, Syra, Rutgers
ACC: Adds Cincy and UCONN
SEC: Grabs WVU and L'Ville
Pac-10: Adds Utah and Colorado
What's left of the Big 12: Texas State legislature establishes a "Texas Football League", comprised of Texas, A&M, Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Kansas. Texas annexes the states of Oklahoma and Kansas in the process. Teams play year-round.
Notre Dame: Takes its football and goes home and wonders what it did wrong.
it has a buy out-as I remember it about 3 million dollars.
Everything I have read says $5 million.
I like all but Rutgers. The others make a lot of sense in terms of sport and geography. Rutgers only makes sense in terms of tv revenue. I'd prefer Pitt.