<p>From what I am hearing it will almost certainly be Rutgers. The NY television market is the key and there are many Big Ten alums there. Divisions will be east and west with Purdue in the east along with the MI schools, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. Looks like the east would be most powerful as the top two, top to bottom, sports programs (Ohio State and Penn State).</p>
<p>He’s not really answering the question. Looks like they are considering as expected.</p>
<p>[Rutgers</a> AD: ‘We are a proud member of the Big East’ - Chicago Breaking Sports](<a href=“Chicago Sports News, Schedules & Scores - Chicago Tribune”>Chicago Sports News, Schedules & Scores - Chicago Tribune)</p>
<p>I would love to see Pitt join. Bring that old rivalry back.
I read that ND has no interest.
I’m neutral on Rutgers…not crazy about it…but would love to see a championship game at the end of the year.
When is this supposed to be wrapped up?</p>
<p>If it is Rutgers I would divide the conference as follows-
Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Indiana and Purdue</p>
<p>Penn State, Rutgers, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota and Wisconsin</p>
<p>Keeps natural rivalries intact and has some competitive balance.</p>
<p>Iowa and Northwestern could switch depending which school is a bigger rival to Illinois. I figured Iowa’s big rival is Iowa State.</p>
<p>Nah. There are thousands of UMich alum in the east who’d *love *to attend Michigan games in NJ–if it’s Rutgers, they need to put UM in the same division.</p>
<p>If it is Rutgers I think you will get your wish- Penn St Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan St.</p>
<p>tom1944,</p>
<p>Yes, Iowa’s big rival is Iowa State. For some reason, the rivalry between Northwestern and Illinois is rather lame and mild. Perhaps because Northwestern sees UChicago as its main academic rival, the rivalry with Illinois has been diffused.</p>
<p>Tom–That’d be cool; I could sit with all my Rutgers alum friends and root for UM, and against everyone else. :)</p>
<p>(after all, I paid enough taxes for that Rutgers stadium…)</p>
<p>Not really sure why any Big East schools would be interested. The Big East is the best basketball conference in the land. In football, because of its size, the Big East offers its 8 football playing members benefits that larger conferences don’t have (4 lucrative non conference games and an easier path to a BCS bowl with only 8 teams).</p>
<p>Honestly, the Big 10 is way overrated. In temrs of success on the field, I am not sure there is much difference between the Big 10 and Big East. Yes, the Big 10 have some schools with a huge stadium and fan support - but I don’tthink thats a draw for other potential schools. And when you factor in what a Big East team would give up in basketball, I don’t see any of them making the jump</p>
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<p>Yeah, I know I wouldn’t want to give up my six “byes” in the conference tournament either…</p>
<p>Rutgers is good in men’s basketball? Did I miss something?
I do remember the LADIES being good though…</p>
<p>Big Ten Basketball isn’t good? Do you remember the final last year?</p>
<p>It is about money and football drives that train. Also look at the bowl games available to the Big 10 in comparison to the Big East. It is no contest.
Also academically being added to the Big 10 is a plum get for any of the schools being discussed with the exception of ND.
If barrons is reading this thread I am sure he can explain further. The Big 10 is an exceptional brand name.</p>
<p>Tom1944, that’s why this situation is so much of a “Chicken or Egg” situation. Yeah, the Bowl revenue that’s typically earned by the Big 10 is probably much more than the Big East gets with its usually one ‘big money’ bowl bid (Cincinnati, this year). Yet, the Big East team purse is shared only with 7 other conference members, whereas the Big 10 share is divided 11 ways, 12 if expansion occurs. Now obviously the Big 10 is always likely to get mutiple BCS bids, unlike the Big East. But I’d guess that the Big East spends less on sports than the Big 10 anyway. I’d guess that only 1/2 of the Big East have stadiums that seat over 30,000 people, as opposed to the huge stadiums and fixed costs at Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Wisconsin-Madison, Minnesota-Twin Cities.</p>
<p>I read that each team in the Big Ten received more money from their network than ND receives from their contract.
Do the 8 Big East basketball schools get a piece of the football revenue?
While I want RU in for sports I really believe Big 10 membership will really be an academic plus. It will make RU a better destination for NJ kids.</p>
<p>Most of the B10 stadiums are old and fully amortized. Many teams have done remodeling and expansions funded by the new seats, suites and club seats. Even with the expenses net football revenue increased markedly.</p>
<p>berryberry61 </p>
<p>When you have zillion basketball teams in the Big East, of course there gonna be more good teams there. The thing is Rutgers is not really getting much benefit as it doesn’t usually have a strong team. Also, Big East has crappy identity; a 8-team conference in football all of a sudden becomes a 16-team conference in basketball and half of those teams are technically in other conferences when it comes to football. Not to mention the higher academic prestige associated with the Big 10. Here are the reasons why.</p>
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<p>I agree it’s not going to happen, but why do you think the current schools would not allow that? Aside from geography, Texas seems like an ideal fit.</p>
<p>I think it’s Rutgers, for all the reasons mentioned. They’ll ask Notre Dame again, and be spurned again. But Rutgers opens up the NY/NJ market for TV and for recruiting and creates an instant natural rivalry between Penn State-Rutgers. Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan are geographically much closer to Rutgers than to Minnesota, the western outlier in the conference. Dividing a 12-team conference into Eastern and Western divisions would actually reduce most teams’ travel costs (assuming you play all division rivals each year and 3 non-division conference opponents). It would also create a lucrative conference championship game to compete with the SEC and Big Twelve for TV dollars. For Rutgers it means academic prestige, more TV revenue, more bowl opportunities, and a higher national profile in football due to the Big Ten’s network contracts and additional exposure in big markets through the Big Ten Network. It’s pretty much a no-brainer all around. Syracuse is a small-market school, Pitt is a middle market that the Big Ten already has through Penn State, Cincy is a middle market and a bad fit academically, and the Big Ten already owns that market through Ohio State.</p>
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<p>@hops_scout</p>
<p>Actually, some years back, UT actually approached both the Pac-10 and the B10 about joining their conferences (the big factor was academics).</p>
<p>UT joining the B10 isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but that scenario likey would result in the B10 expanding to 14 teams, since the Texas legislature wouldn’t allow UT to leave unless A&M was part of the package.</p>
<p>As for ND and $$, each B10 team makes quite a bit more from all the B10 TV deals than does ND from NBC and its share of the BE BB deal.</p>
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<p>@bluebayou</p>
<p>ND gets $15 mil from NBC.</p>
<p>Each B10 school get more than $20 mil.</p>
<p>Actually, the B12 is very concerned about Mizzou (or other schools) leaving the B12 for the B10.</p>
<p>First off, the $$ isn’t even comparable - Mizzou would make a lot more in the B10 than the B12 (esp. since the B12 doesn’t have equal shares w/ UT taking a disproportionate % of the B12 TV revenues; and even then UT doesn’t make as much from TV as each of the B10 schools).</p>
<p>Second, academics (particularly research) - is probably an even larger consideration for moving (reason why a school like Cincy isn’t even in the discussion).</p>
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<p>Rutgers, by itself, probably doesn’t bring enough to the table to warrant an invite (maybe if the B10 totally raided the “old” BE by taking Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers - but none of them are traditional FB powers in goodstanding).</p>
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<p>@ Sam Lee</p>
<p>That’s b/c the Illini keep losing to the Wildcats (5 losses in the past 6 yrs).</p>
<p>NU actually has a more intense rivalry w/ Iowa and Wisconsin (they tend to be good games).</p>
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<p>It’s called $$ and academics (where the research $$ equates to the billions).</p>
<p>And the BE is hardly the “best basketball conference in the land.”</p>
<p>The B10 and ACC have significantly more appearances in the Final Four than the BE over the past decade or so.</p>
<p>So k&s who do you think it will be?</p>
<p>By the way I think your post was very good- although I am clearly hoping Rutgers has just enough to get the invite.</p>