How The Big Ten Took Over The World
by jesse. on Jan 29, 2010 3:57 PM EST
Email
Print[What, like we're not going to bump this? Just from a fantasy standpoint alone, it's worth your attention. - RUTS]
Initial shout out to SlingStone, who is right decent guy for a Pitt fan, for pointing out this great article on Big Ten expansion. This is the key to the whole premise, which seems absurd until you’ve read it. So take a minute and come back, I’ll wait.
Okay, now that we’ve covered the suspension of disbelief part of the conversation we can get started. Texas, it seems, could be persuaded to join the Big Ten if the conditions were right. But would a 12 team league with Texas take over the world? No. And the conference wouldn’t align right, for one reason, Penn State and Texas would have to be in the same division for competitive balance, and that doesn’t make any sense. So crap, it doesn’t work.
Unless…
The Big Ten has not ruled out any manner of expansion, including adding more than one team. So maybe we can jigger this a little. Suppose Oklahoma and Nebraska could be similarly convinced to find a new league? If we’re thinking like a University President, Nebraska and Oklahoma have more to gain from joining the Big Ten than Texas would. Nebraska is a member of the American Academy of Universities (AAU) which is said to be academic pre-requisite that Big Ten requires. Oklahoma is not, but on further investigation Oklahoma ranks 102 in the latest US News and World Report Rankings of colleges, but Nebraska is only 96th. I’d note two additional things; [1] By joining the Big Ten, and gaining entrance to the Committee for Institutional Cooperation, both schools would see significant jumps in their USNews rankings, and [2] I’m sure the influence of 13 other AAU members might speed along Oklahoma’s acceptance into that organization. In short, both Nebraska and Oklahoma are reaches academically, but like Daryl Clark, I think they are a good risk.
So where does that leave us?
East: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern
West: Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois
Umm…wow. It actually takes a while for that line up to sink in. Let it.
My unofficial research has the distance between Austin and Minneapolis at 1173 miles. Presently, the furthest distance between two points is State College and Minneapolis, a distance of 974 miles. So the distances are reasonably similar. Penn State would actually play in a more compact geographical area, and would only travel farther than they do now to play either Texas, Oklahoma or Nebraska. Which I think we could live with.
The conference as a whole would be far-flung, but the divisions are managable. The east is substantially more compact than the current Big Ten footprint. While the west is larger, it is aided by the fact that it’s furthest outlier, Texas, is the richest public school in the country. The balance of the west, is also more compact that the current Big Ten footprint.
But enough about logistics, lets talk a little bit about what football season might look like. College football kick off weekend could feature cross-division Big Ten games. In my mind they are scheduled by the league shortly after the prior season concludes to maximize the match-ups.
Imagine a world where the first week of the college football season looks like this…
12:00 – Penn State versus Nebraska
3:30 – Michigan versus Oklahoma
8:00 – Ohio State versus Texas
So were out of the gate with three National Title contenders, and nobody watched an SEC game all weekend.
We then do the standard patsy blow-out schedule, and play the first in division game. Which brings us to the Texas State Fair, and Oklahoma versus Texas at 11:45. Which is nice, but then you follow it with Penn State versus Ohio State, and Michigan versus Michigan State, and you’ve just had a second weekend that nobody, anywhere, watched anything but Big Ten football.
Thanksgiving? How about a little Nebraska/Oklahoma and Ohio State/Michigan? You like that? I thought you might.
Getting to the Championship game in this league would be an accomplishment akin to winning the Big Ten right now. Under normal circumstances, I don’t see how this is not a 2 BCS bid league every single season. Obviously, you run the risk of a rematch in the Championship game, but to the extent it’s a rematch between two of the top ten winningest football programs in history, it’s just not that big of a disappointment. Plus, I have to think the Big Ten champ is playing for the National Title 3 out of 4 years at least with this set up.
Somebody else can figure out how it works for basketball, but however it works it will be worth it.
Thanks for the fanpost! Please do not post any content from a premium site that requires a subscription. Also, if you just want to share a link, quote, or video, please consider using fanshots instead. Thanks.
121 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
It's so beautiful...
wonderful and awesome, that it won’t happen.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 29, 2010 2:20 PM EST reply actions
I pray they add Texas
That would be awesome. I am giddy over the thought
I am Laura Nichols and I like Bacon.
BSD is an addiction, and this is the first step.
Iowa used to play Nebraska
semi-regularly. Um, it did not go well…
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:47 PM EST up reply actions
When was the last time Iowa and Nebraska played though?
1999 and 2000? Iowa was wretched then.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 10:15 PM EST up reply actions
They also used to play
in Hayden’s early days. Granted, their 1981 upset of the Huskers kick-started their Rose Bowl campaign and ranks amongst many older Hawkeyes’ favorite memories as it signaled Iowa’s emergence from two decades worth of futility. But the games before and after were rarely anything but beatdowns.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 11:35 PM EST up reply actions
thanks for the hawkeyes history lesson
"It was an attrition football game and you know we like that."
QUESTION
Which corn, is the best corn?
Pitt currently has both a better football and basketball team than Michigan.
It is 6 of the 10...
best football football programs historically. Also, with PSU, Michigan, and Texas, you have 3 of the largest national and international alumni bases in one conference. Not to mention, a pre-existing cable network. Good luck to Comcast et al telling the Big Ten Network it can’t be on the basic tier with ESPN.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 29, 2010 3:00 PM EST reply actions
I'm happy to announce (although I won't be getting to use it until I go home for spring break)
that my family axed comcast for FiOS. Initial reports from my dad were extremely positive.
Suck it comcast. (and I’m pretty sure BTN came with verizon service in their basic)
I have Comcast...
it sucks, but I also tried Verizon and somehow they sucked worse. No I am too lazy/busy/cynical to give Verizon a 2nd chance. Don’t get old Dawson.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 29, 2010 4:35 PM EST up reply actions
wait...so if we stop the Earth from going around the sun we won't age anymore?
hmmm, I think I have a plan.
by The JuggerNitt on Jan 30, 2010 12:37 PM EST up reply actions
If by age we mean years
and years are measured by the days it takes to go around the sun, then yes, we would not age in the chronological sense, but biologically, we’re all going to die.
well harumph, I feel like I just wasted the past 7 hours of my life
by The JuggerNitt on Jan 30, 2010 8:09 PM EST up reply actions
It's slowing down gradually anyway.
Sometime down the line the Earth will take 400 days to circumnavigate the Sun, as it’s slowly decelerating in its orbit, until eventually motion stops altogether. Of course, it’s much more likely Earth gets blown apart by an asteroid long before this ever occurs. Either way, you and I will be dead billions of years before any of this.
Everyone but Rambler.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Feb 1, 2010 7:09 AM EST up reply actions
Comcast Sucks
I have FiOS at home, and D&E in State College, both of them have been much better to deal with than Comcast.
Waaaay too good to be true. *sigh*
Some people are born mediocre, some achieve mediocrity, and some people have mediocrity thrust upon them. - Joseph Heller
Thinking Like a College President
That is, which schools will bring in more revenue – enough that no current school has to take a cut in its current revenues. While Oklahoma and Nebraska make sense from an athletic perspective, I’d drop them, and move Northwestern to the West Division. Then, add Missouri (St. Louis and KC markets) and UConn to the East Division, some penetration of the NYC market, more on Long Island and gets the Big Ten heavily into the Northeast and the Boston market. Brings more eyes to the Big Ten Network than the Omaha and Oklahoma City markets.
Texas, however, makes a great deal of sense. The linked article has several additional posts which are worthwhile and you’re waiting for Friday afternoon to end.
I'd honestly argue UConn is less likely than Texas.
They are the very definition of a basketball school. There’s just absolutely no way they’d leave the Big East. They’re a perfect Big East school too.
Missouri? Meh. If we’re going big, why settle for them?
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 3:30 PM EST up reply actions
I agree...
I’m pretty sure if you get Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, you will be on TVs in NYC and St. Louis.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 29, 2010 3:34 PM EST up reply actions
Guys?
It seems like I have to do this every time someone says something along the lines of what you just did, but there are several million reasons (all of which look like dollar bills) why any Big East school would immediately accept a Big Ten invite forthrightly and without embarassment. Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers, UConn, Louisville, West Virginia, Cinci, even if for some bizarre reason you offered an invite to USF they’d accept it in an instant.
Also, UConn and Missouri may theoretically bring markets with them (I've never been totally convinced by that arguments).
But OU and NU have bigger fanbases and more national pull.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 3:33 PM EST up reply actions
Yes,
I love how people talk approvingly of the KC market in discussions about Missouri shifting to the Big Ten, yet deride KC as a non-competitive small-market in discussions about Major League Baseball. Which is it?
Whatever it is...
I don’t think it’s good enough to invite a team with iffy football tradition and somewhat decent basketball tradition due to a legendary coach who never made the Final Four. We already have Purdue in this conference.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 4:13 PM EST up reply actions
Their colors are even similar.
"Every player we have, someone-maybe a parent, a grandparent, someone-poured their soul into that young man. They are handing that young man off to us. They are giving us their treasure, and it's our job to make sure we give them back that young man intact and ready to face the world."
-J.V.Pa.
It's the kind of thing you hear...
…when people who don’t know anything about college football start talking about college football. Any argument that has Missouri somehow being more valuable than Nebraska is fundementally flawed.
It’s not all about market share. People watch Nebraska, they’d carry their weight. What’s better 100% of 100,000 or 1% of a million?
Just keep swimin'...
Exactly.
Plus, KC’s market is roughly
40% Missouri
30% Kansas
20% Kansas St.
10% I’ve heard of this pre-NFL game before, but never seen it aside from on Chiefs draft day…
But it IS
a college-culture city. For example, college sports don’t fare particularly well in L.A. or NYC, but they thrive in places like Chicago and Dallas. Meaning, there is already a culture of enjoying/caring about college sports in certain places. It’s why I, as a Chicagoan, watch Oregon v. Arizona or even ECU vs. UCF (yes, I have a problem). Kansas City, while not huge, will still deliver a solid percentage of their market regardless of rooting interest i.e. enough to get the BTN on basic cable. I’m not sure NYC offers the same promise. Keep in mind, Missouri is not my first choice for membership and, in fact, I don’t think the Big Ten should expand unless they can meet or exceed the Penn State Standard (yes, despite my ribbing, PSU is a great “get”).
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:13 PM EST up reply actions
In what world don't college sports fare well in LA?
UCLA sucks and draws over 60K for a football game. USC draws over 85K a game. UCLA and USC basketball aren’t Syracuse or Kentucky when it comes to pulling in the fans, but they do all right (not to mention UCLA being one of the traditional superpowers of college basketball).
On the other hand, Chicago? Northwestern does not draw well. Neither does DePaul for Big East basketball. It seems to me fans there are like Bears >> Bulls >> anything else.
You made my point for me
with the UCLA football attendance. LA is the second largest city in the country with the state flagship school that happens to have a massive alumni base right at hand and their stadium is at 60% capacity. Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State and Notre Dame all play in similar-size stadiums that sell out regardless of how down their teams are. UCLA IS one of the superpowers of basketball, so to do “alright” is a poor indicator of fan quality. Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas and UNC have all had down periods in the last decade but attendance never dropped off the way it does at Pauley Pavilion when the Bruins are less than great. USC’s attendance is the classic L.A. sports theme: when you’re good, people show up, when you’re not nobody cares. Ever watch an SC game before Pete Carroll? John Robinson’s second tenure sported a ton of empty seats at the Colosseum.
Notre Dame specifically makes my Chicago argument; South Bend is well over an hour away from Chicago but a huge portion of the people in the seats are Chicagoans. I’ve lived here all my life and no, there isn’t any support for Northwestern football. This is not because people in the are don’t care about CFB but because NU is a (relatively) small school with a national/international student body that disperses upon graduation. However, there’s no mistake that when NU plays Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan State or MIchigan, Ryan Field sells all of its away tickets and a hell of a lot of walk-ups; while no single team has a huge market share, it is the single biggest Big Ten alumni base in the country. Most of the people in the stands for NU games (basketball, too) aren’t traveling here from around the league, they already live here. Hell, Iowa sold out Soldier Field against NIU two years ago (no, there weren’t many Huskies fans).
Your DePaul “point” is somewhat an indication of how that athletic department has allowed their program to slip, but also further proof that Chicago is a major Big Ten town. Although even in that regard, when the Blue Demons played Marquette a few weeks ago The Horizon was well-attended and, no, most of those people didn’t drive all the way from Milwaukee to see the game.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 30, 2010 4:18 PM EST up reply actions
It's also not really fair to compare
USC and UCLA to Northwestern and DePaul.
Pitt currently has both a better football and basketball team than Michigan.
But that's kind of the point
LA has USC and UCLA for major confrence teams. Chicago has Northwestern and DePaul.
Well...
The city doesn’t really dictate the exact type of University that winds up in their town, that kind of happens organicly. UCLA is one of the most applied to colleges in the United States, USC one of the largest and richest private schools.
Notwithstanding all of that, had Northwestern been a pereinial top three team for the last decade, interest in that program might go up a tick.
It’s kind of like saying New York is a better baseball town than Pittsburgh is. I mean, no shit, they’ve got the Yankees and we have the Pirates.
Pitt currently has both a better football and basketball team than Michigan.
you know what
you guys can have the Mets, too, if you’d really like
by The JuggerNitt on Feb 2, 2010 12:39 PM EST up reply actions
So we're out of the gate with three National Title contenders, and nobody watched an SEC game all weekend.
Love it!
"We just forgot our pants. Nothing against the team or anything like that." -- take a guess
Volleyball
“…right decent guy for a Pitt fan.” Aw thanks.
But I was born in State College and I’m still a Penn State fan for volleyball.
And speaking of volleyball, let’s pause and appreciate exactly how good this conference would be with Nebraska, Penn State, and Texas all meeting in conference play. Outstanding. That would be 14 tournament semi-finalist teams and 5 champions since 2000. (Penn State, Nebraska, Texas, and Minnesota)
I know volleyball doesn’t bring in the money like football and doesn’t have a bearing on expansion, but it’s definitely a side benefit for those of us who follow the sport.
That would be kinda cool tho
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. "
George S Patton
by psu in the w-b on Jan 29, 2010 6:31 PM EST up reply actions
Literally
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:45 PM EST up reply actions
I wonder if baseball factors into the decision at all.
I imagine Texas’s baseball team wouldn’t be happy about joining the Big 10.
by VVeRPennState on Jan 29, 2010 4:57 PM EST up reply actions
You mean
a guaranteed conference championship every season? Yeah, that would suck.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:46 PM EST up reply actions
No way
You’re ignoring huge parts of the argument that the first article is based on . . . so while the first article (which has been hanging around for weeks and seems logical enough when read with a wide-open mind) is far-fetched this is simply absurd.
1. Oklahoma and Nebraska are original members of the ‘Big 12’ and would be loath to leave while Texas is a newcomer and wanted to be part of the Big 10 and Pac 10 before they wanted to be in the Big 12
2. Adding more than 1 team cuts the financial pie into too many pieces
3. 96 and 102 in the academic rankings won’t cut it.
All that said it would still be a great conference and I hope they (the Big 10) at the least go after Texas.
I agree in part.
The dividing of the pie is a tricky issue that involves a lot of armchair economics and speculation. I’m no tv executive, so I’ll leave it up to them to decide if 14 is reasonable for a conference.
BUT, let’s assuming the suits think it’s in the Big Ten’s interest to go up to 14.
I think Texas A&M is more likely to come along with Texas than Oklahoma for precisely the reasons you mentioned. It’s academics are better: US News and World Report #61 and AAU member. They’re old SWC members too, so they don’t have as much invested in the Big Twelve. There’s also political pressure for Texas and A&M to be paired together too.
As for Nebraska, I really don’t know. The academics may be just too low and Mizzou, although an AAU member is in the same ballpark. In which case I think they’ll either go for Notre Dame or Syracuse. Both are definitely up to par academically.
Notre Dame is Notre Dame. They may be against joining out of spite or because Catholicism doesn’t get along with the CIC and AAU. It’s a bigger problem than you might think.
Syracuse would join in a heartbeat. The monetary differences between the Big Ten and the Big East make it an easy decision, rivalries and basketball be damned.
that is a much more realistic assessment
and it makes an even bigger grab at the NYC media market by adding a basketball school with decent regional ties.
What, Syracuse?
They’d surely leave, but they’re not a good enough get for the Big Ten.
NittanyWhiteOut.com. Arguably the second best Penn State blog I know of.
They improve their football team and that's false.
Even as is Syracuse is still a relatively good get and better than any other eastern schools.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 6:37 PM EST up reply actions
In terms of money, I mean
There was a great article, I forget where, but it was saying that 11+1 has to equal 13, in that the new member has to bring in so much potential revenue that it’s actually worth it for the school presidents. Syracuse brings in very little revenue from football, which is the big producer for all the other B10 schools. Indiana, which probably has the best hoops tradition, brings in the least revenue of the B10 schools, because you need a good football program. Cuse plays in an old, outdates arena, and doesn’t have a football program that New York cares about.
NittanyWhiteOut.com. Arguably the second best Penn State blog I know of.
fair point
but you still struggle to get Texas/PSU/Ohio State money from anyone else. As the article points out Texas is a great match because of its monetary value. Who else besides ND is available (ie not SEC) with the national following they presumably would want? I don’t think Oklahoma or Nebraska meets that criteria.
Exactly
But we’re not tied, as a conference, to expanding. When the exploratory committee reports back to Big Ten offices, I think it’s very probable that we’re going to be told exactly that: Expansion makes sense, but only if it’s Texas, or Notre Dame, or some dark sheep we haven’t even considered. It’s not “we need a 12th team” and a question of who, it’s a question of “which schools are worth expanding for.”
NittanyWhiteOut.com. Arguably the second best Penn State blog I know of.
100%
right. Notre Dame and Texas are the only two schools on the table that I feel could be worth the risk of expansion. Every other school would be a 12th for the sake of adding a 12th. And as far as ND is concerned, let’s be honest, they would be keeping 1/4th their current schedule in tact!
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:16 PM EST up reply actions
There's the key.
I’ve thought this for a long time: ND, you want to keep your traditional games against the Michigans and Purdue alive? Join the Big Ten.
Otherwise, get new “rivals.”
"Every player we have, someone-maybe a parent, a grandparent, someone-poured their soul into that young man. They are handing that young man off to us. They are giving us their treasure, and it's our job to make sure we give them back that young man intact and ready to face the world."
-J.V.Pa.
If you're adding three
I think its likely that they go to different parts of the country to expand
- South/West with Texas
- North/East with Syracuse/?
- SouthEast with MD/UVA/?
What the ACC has learned
is that they really ARE a basketball conference. Save the Big East, there is no other conference whose identity is as closely tied to basketball as the ACC. There is no original member of that league (MD & UVa) who would consider leaving.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:18 PM EST up reply actions
If Texas comes
Mark my words, TAMU is coming too.
Aside from that, I’d say Cuse, Rutgers or UConn. Cuz, really, with the two big Texas schools, we don’t need an atom bomb to hit a homerun with a 14 team league.
"Every player we have, someone-maybe a parent, a grandparent, someone-poured their soul into that young man. They are handing that young man off to us. They are giving us their treasure, and it's our job to make sure we give them back that young man intact and ready to face the world."
-J.V.Pa.
TAMU
is not tied to Texas. They like to think they are, but Texas has no problem cutting ties with the Aggies and nearly did so at several points before they joined the Big XII. I wish I could find the article (it’s out there, search for it) but there was a fantastic piece written in a Texas weekend magazine that chronicled the 11th-hour formation of the Big XII. As it turns out, it was political pressure from Baylor and Texas Tech alums (who happened to include the governor, state and U.S. representatives and senators, and several large city mayors) that forced Texas to stay local instead of jumping to the Pac 10 (they actually wanted to come to the Big Ten, but the conference had a moratorium on expansion after adding a certain team from out East). It is well known that TAMU has long coveted a move to the SEC, something UT is hot as interested in.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Feb 1, 2010 2:41 PM EST up reply actions
I read that article
Ironically, the driving factor for Texas was almost all academics. Specifically, the fact the Big XII would not adopt any minimum academic standards for student athletes. It wound up being a pissing contest with Nebraska of all people.
Pitt currently has both a better football and basketball team than Michigan.
I don't know
that I’d call it irony, though. This is what continues to get lost in the Big Ten expansion discussion when it’s mentioned by sporting web sites (CBSSportsline and Fox are the worst offenders). Texas approaches the concept with the Big Ten/Pac 10 philosophy of balancing great athletics with world-class academics. There is definitely a pitch to be made to the UT higher-ups.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Feb 1, 2010 2:55 PM EST up reply actions
I don't think...
’Cuse leaves. Would not be popular with the Alumni.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 30, 2010 10:40 AM EST up reply actions
it may not be initailly popular
but I think the security of the Big Ten and the ridiculous increase in tv money would trump that in the end. The university president might have to send out a letter explaining exactly how their athletics budget will increase 5 fold, but those numbers and the stability of the Big Ten compared to the basketball/football nonsense of the Big East win in the end.
That’s not even considering the academic and research benefits. Any Big East school president would be violating his fiscal and academic responsibilities by rejecting an offer to the Big Ten.
The 'Cuse...
President is bat sh*t crazy…..The friends and relatives I have that are ‘Cuse alums are vehemently against it. Their alumni base is Boston to DC. They can see ’Cuse play road games at G’Town, St. Johns, Providence, ’Nova, Seton Hall, Rutgers, etc. They have no desire to see their team travel to and play Illinois, MSU, Wisconsin, Iowa, et al. The backlash would be significant.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 30, 2010 1:49 PM EST up reply actions
Back in the days of the normal-sized Big East, that might have been true.
In the Very Big East, we already play in Wisconsin (Marquette), Illinois (DePaul), Indiana (Notre Dame), and Ohio (Cinci). And in Kentucky not far from Bloomington (Louisville). And we’ve always played in Pennsylvania (Pitt, Villanova, used to have Temple), and despite the last few decades of rarely playing (and the last two while dealing with Greg Robinson-induced extreme sucking), Penn State’s a bigger rival than Pitt ever will be.
That's what I think as well
but I ultimately decided to ask the folks over at Troy Nunes what they think directly with this fanpost.
Yes that is true...
I will be interested in what the Troy Nunes people say. However, while playing in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana et al, they still play in NYC, DC, and Philly. Wouldn’t necessarily be the case if they move to the Big 10
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 30, 2010 3:50 PM EST up reply actions
Well
Texas didn’t seem to have any problem ditching Texas A&M before, A&M was never part of the deal the first time Texas considered the Big Ten.
It is may be a long shot that Nebraska or Oklahoma would leave the Big 12, but why exactly? Nebraska has no history with the Texas schools and they don’t play them. Oklahoma pretty much only cares about Texas and Oklahoma State. Of the remaining Big Eight schools, only Colorado [Nebraska] and Oklahoma State [OU] are any manner of a "traditional rivals".
Colorado was never really Nebraska’s rival, the Big Eight just moved that game to the end of the season because they were the best two teams in the league. The other five schools might as well be Maryland, Syracuse, and Rutgers to them, ie teams they lose to once every 40 years.
Texas and Oklahoma, by playing the first game of the season as noted above, will have a hole in their Big Ten schedule that they could fill with A&M and Oklahoma State.
Just keep swimin'...
We should also add
Florida, Alabama, USC, Arizona State (just for the coeds), and redtube dot com.
Sure, the last one is an internet porn site, but if we’re dreaming, I usually like to include some naked girls in my dreams.
by Tailgate Shogun on Jan 29, 2010 6:15 PM EST reply actions
Crap.
I need to do a You Found Us! post soon.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 29, 2010 6:38 PM EST up reply actions
havent see that in while You should!!!
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. "
George S Patton
by psu in the w-b on Jan 29, 2010 6:58 PM EST up reply actions
Let me help get this REALLY weird:
NAKED GOAT MICHIGAN PORN ERIN ANDREWS CHEERLEADER SHORTS BIKINI COUGAR HOT TUB TATE FORCIER ASSLESS CHAPS TEEN FLUTE HEELS SMUT PICTURES LLAMA MICHAEL JACKSON PRYOR STEAL FROM ME DANCE SQUAD.
If that doesn’t get us some page views, nothing will.
by Tailgate Shogun on Jan 29, 2010 7:09 PM EST up reply actions
Ahhh, the Shogun
Wise in so many matters….
"We just forgot our pants. Nothing against the team or anything like that." -- take a guess
The problem for TV with Nebraska vs. Penn St.
is that, if they had already played Iowa, it would be Nebraska vs. a one-loss Penn St….
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
Gradulations...
for displaying as your avatar the only trophy in the Big Ten stupider than the Land Grant Trophy.
You have obviously never seen
Also, congratulations on resorting to insulting a trophy in lieu of actual success against a team. You “win”.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:23 PM EST up reply actions
There is no Big Ten trophy more stupid than the LGT
None.
"In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
That goes without saying
unless you count trophies played for by Big Ten teams with schools outside the conference. Aw, neat! You never have to leave high school!
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:43 PM EST up reply actions
dont disreagrd our victory in gymnasyics oh snap LOL
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. "
George S Patton
by psu in the w-b on Jan 30, 2010 12:03 PM EST up reply actions
Does Iowa have a fencing team?
"Every player we have, someone-maybe a parent, a grandparent, someone-poured their soul into that young man. They are handing that young man off to us. They are giving us their treasure, and it's our job to make sure we give them back that young man intact and ready to face the world."
-J.V.Pa.
Does Penn State
have a women’s crew team? Yeah, take THAT!
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Feb 1, 2010 2:43 PM EST up reply actions
We could kick Iowa's ass in women's wrestling.
by ReadingRambler on Feb 1, 2010 2:45 PM EST up reply actions
You mistyped
“lick”
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Feb 1, 2010 2:52 PM EST up reply actions
So . . . .
Did anybody bother to ask if Tx, Neb, and Ok actually liked this plan?
Yeah, I thought so.
If you read the original article
you’ll find that Texas seems more than receptive. The other schools…do you really care?
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 7:44 PM EST up reply actions
Did YOU happen to
notice that a great majority of the fantasy plans move farther and farther away from PSU….our closest opponent is is western Ohio for gawd’s sake….Joe will be asking for 10 home games per year just to justify paying for the other programs….just the travel alone has to be destructive and costly.
by DerryPharmer on Jan 29, 2010 7:53 PM EST up reply actions
If you split the league up as I did above
Our travel costs will go down, not up.
Just keep swimin'...
"They" say
that PSU travel well….well let’s gear it up for road trips to Nebraska, Texas, Mo and more….I don’t know about you all, but road trips for ME to Michigan, Wisc and Champaign just about screws my budget.
by DerryPharmer on Jan 29, 2010 8:00 PM EST up reply actions
I for one would love road trips to Nebraska, Texas, and Oklahoma (or Missouri)
it isn’t like they would be that frequent, since we’d play 2 teams from the other division every year, and presumably it would rotate, so we’d only play @ each of those schools every 7 years. I could definitely get up to travel to those places once every 7 years.
by The JuggerNitt on Jan 30, 2010 1:03 PM EST up reply actions
If you add all three
then, yes, travel is a bitch. But if you only add Texas (as I hope the Big Ten will), you’re all good. First off, I strongly recommend reading the original article in question. It pretty much answers all the concerns in depth. Second, travel costs are a weird thing. Just looking at point A to point B does not tell the whole tale. For example, did you know that flying from Chicago to Des Moines, IA is more expensive than Chicago to NYC? Distance is not the sole indicator of cost. Frequency of flights between airports (because nobody is busing it from Madison to Columbus) and runway fees (look them up, they are retarded) dictate price. So Austin is far away from State College. Philly to Dallas (an easy drive to Austin; I’ve done it) is no more expensive for a PSU fan than their current trip to Iowa City. And when you factor in the whopping increase in revenue that adding UT to the Big Ten would create, non-revenue travel also becomes a whole less daunting. Forget OU and Nebraska; the names sound nice but the reality is not all that appealing.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 8:24 PM EST up reply actions
I was addressing
the more than a few Nittany Lion fans who were complaining about travel cost. As for chartered flights 1). runway fees also apply and 2). I covered the aggregate cost/gain factor of adding Texas for athletic department expenses.
Less memorable than Sam Okey's Hawkeye career.
by Kyle McCann't on Jan 29, 2010 10:10 PM EST up reply actions
here's the thing, though
and I don’t know how Texas feels about this, but if we just brought in Texas, then travel would still be a bitch for them. If we bring in OU and Nebraska (or TAMU), Travel is a bit less daunting.
by The JuggerNitt on Jan 30, 2010 1:06 PM EST up reply actions
Furthest distance isn't Austin-Minneapolis
It’s Austin-State College, at a whopping 1550 miles. (Granted, that’s not much more than WSU-Arizona or Miami-BC.)
Right, but we'd be in different divisions...
and we wouldn’t necessarily play every year. Six of the eight teams we play every year would the closest teams to us. And to make an exception every couple or years to go to Nebraska, Oklahoma or Texas would be worth it. Missouri, not so much.
Just keep swimin'...
OK, Jesse
with our logistics in mind, maybe we could rent a nice tour bus with friends and family and go together.
by DerryPharmer on Jan 29, 2010 8:06 PM EST up reply actions
My head would absolutely explodificate
If this 14-team scenario with UT, OK, and NE happened. That would be just nuts.
i'll need a check-up
no earthly way my nervous system could come close to full operation with the week-in week-out scheduling this set-up could produce every year
Because it's a Bowl Game!!
-My wife when asked why she didn't tell me she was having contractions Jan. 1 2007
That was a good read
…I did not realize how much the BTN brought in for the schools. I knew it was a pretty penny but that’s a BIG FREAKING PENNY. I think the Texas argument makes sense outside of ND.
"They say in Happy Valley that if God wasn’t a Penn State fan, why is the sky blue and white?" Fortt said. "Who am I to argue with God?"
I take kid like glee in making more dinero then the golden dome
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. "
George S Patton
by psu in the w-b on Jan 30, 2010 12:06 PM EST up reply actions
oh i think we all share in that glee...
"They say in Happy Valley that if God wasn’t a Penn State fan, why is the sky blue and white?" Fortt said. "Who am I to argue with God?"
up here in the northeast corner ndistis is a big problem.....
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. "
George S Patton
by psu in the w-b on Jan 30, 2010 12:15 PM EST up reply actions
Everyone needs to remember...
that when the discussion of Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas started on the 11+1=13 post it was a “what if” discussion. I don’t think anyone thought it was a realistic possibility. If it happened, it surely would elevate the Big 10 above the SEC as a football conference. Those three add a glitz that ‘Cuse, UConn, Rutgers, and/or Missouri just wouldn’t. ND’s own inflated sense of its standing in the current landscape prevents them from being an option.
Never mistake effort for achievement.
by Esteban d' Amur on Jan 30, 2010 10:52 AM EST reply actions
I don't think this is how it would be:
In my mind they are scheduled by the league shortly after the prior season concludes to maximize the match-ups.
They’d likely rotate the inter-divisional matchups, and so we wouldn’t have an opening week like that every year. We’d also have matchups like this
Texas v Purdue
Nebraska vs Northwestern
Oklahoma vs Indiana
Penn State vs Illinois
Ohio State vs Minnesota
Michigan vs Iowa
Not saying there’s nothing redeeming in those matchups, but let’s not pretend like it’d be the big 3 or 4 from each division facing off against each other every year.
I don't think there is any way they rotate them as you suggest
They would set up the big games to start the year. That’s not say Penn State is a guranteed participant eery year. A team like say Iowa, who’ll be preseaon top 10, maybe they get in this year to the exclusion of Michigan, who has had back to back losing season.
Just keep swimin'...
I mean I see how that would generate good matchups
but then there would be a very real chance that some teams might not play each other during a given decade, and if that’s the case, why even be in the same conference? Perhaps they can do something akin to “protected rivalries” so that one of the 2 interdivisional games rotates as usual, and the other one is scheduled based on what would make more interesting matchups for that given year.
by The JuggerNitt on Jan 30, 2010 2:01 PM EST up reply actions
details scmetails
Do something useful and figure out how we get Alabama and Florida to join too.
Just keep swimin'...
Alabama might join because they always want to prove that their 55 national titles are no fluke.
Florida wouldn’t because it would require playing in cold weather.
by ReadingRambler on Jan 30, 2010 4:51 PM EST up reply actions
"Florida wouldn’t because it would require playing in cold weather."
No, Florida wouldn’t because it would mean they wouldn’t get to play all but two of their games in the state of Florida.
by mvrck on Jan 30, 2010 6:42 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Black Shoe Diaries
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
SHOP THE BLACK SHOE DIARIES STORE
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
