Why Wisconsin Might Not Be Stuck in the East

by bsencore on Sep 2, 2010 8:35 AM EDT

As BSD correctly pointed out in yesterday's main post, Wisconsin is the real loser in the new divisional arrangement. The Badgers don't get to play Iowa on a regular basis, lose out on the Nebraska sweepstakes, and are the only team who really has to play outside of their own geographical area.

So what gives? Why would the Big Ten screw over one school just to maintain perfect competitive balance, when there is no such thing? Why would they ruin the only logical arrangement of divisions: East and West?

The answer is, they wouldn't.

The answer is, maybe, more expansion...

Everyone knows that Jim Delany and the Big Ten have had their eyes on the expansion prize for a long time. And Nebraska wasn't their only objective. The conference has looked east, especially to the New York City media market.

If we assume that they haven't simply abandoned this long-term goal of making as much money as humanly possible (a reasonable assumption), then we have to assume that at some point in the not to distant future, the Big Ten will move from 12 schools to 14.

And those two schools added (if the idiots up at South Bend don't want in) will probably be schools like Rutgers and Syracuse — institutions with good academic records, competitive sports teams, huge alumni bases, and access the the NYC market.

Maybe it won't be those two, but as long as the schools they add are in this general vicinity, they'd have to be added to the "East" Division with Penn State, Ohio State, etc. A move like this would further hurt Wisconsin, which would now have to travel all the way to the coast for games.

Except, in order to add two teams to the Big Ten East, in order to keep the two divisions balanced, one team would have to move from the East to the West. And who might that be....

How about Wisconsin?

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.

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

It’s what I expect as well; Delaney seemed sly when discussing possible further expansion last night.

by Nittanian on Sep 2, 2010 11:59 AM EDT reply actions

Living In New York

I can say that Penn State IS the new york city media market. PSU gets more coverage than Rutgers does across the board. I’d say if we’re going to expand somewhere, we might be better off going south than East. Rutgers / Syracuse just aren’t interesting enough for NYC media to care.

by RoBo_Cop on Sep 2, 2010 12:17 PM EDT reply actions

I agree

I say we go after 2 of Maryland, UVA, and VaTech

I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.

by psupride on Sep 2, 2010 2:10 PM EDT up reply actions

While I agree that there will probably be more expansion

I think that Wisconsin moving from the East to the West (with the addition of schools like Rutgers and Syracuse) would be less likely than a complete division reshuffling, otherwise things would be WAY too unbalanced.