BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Jim Sterk is protesting the SEC expansion by quitting.

 

Obviously Sterk didn’t have the power he thought he had. Has Mun Choi’s fingerprints all over it.

 

The Big Ten could add one from the west and one from the east.

Iowa State? Their big issue is that they don’t make enough money and they only bring the Des Moines TV market. While it’s the same size as Omaha, at least taking Nebraska brought in an entire (and a surprisingly affluent to some) state.

Kansas makes the most sense from the western side. For the east... Temple? Make a play for Boston College? Philly and Boston are big TV markets.

I find all of this extremely fascinating.

 

I find it fascinating also because of all the machinations involved.

But as to Big 10 expansion. The Big Ten added Nebraska rather than Missouri even though Missouri has three times the population and hence television households as Nebraska. The belief was that the Nebraska football program would add enough to the Big 10 brand that it would offset the loss of television households.

Many thought the Big 10 at that time thought was making a mistake passing up a larger market. I believe the Big 10 belatedly reached that conclusion because when they added Rutgers it was sure as hell not for the athletic tradition.

I don't think the Big 10 will go after Temple because Penn State already covers that market. And the remaining Big 12 schools are in relatively small, unattractive markets. But the Big 10 has demonstrated that it can get ACC schools to jump. I would think that Florida State would be attractive as a school located in a state with over 20 million people and the history of fielding really good teams. And I think Florida State would be happy to join the Big 10. Then who else could the Big 10 recruit assuming Notre Dame is unavailable?. The Miami and Palm Beach television markets when combined are the same size as Boston. Maybe Miami. Or Georgia Tech (I think Atlanta is now a larger television market than Boston) or Clemson. I would think all these schools would leave the ACC for more money in a heartbeat.

 

Markets don’t matter as much any more. More important is overall interest and following as streaming services aren’t bound to markets like cable was and have a more a la carte framework. A couple of good threads about this, including by David Hale, Andy Staples, and Stu Mandel.

in that case, Nebraska is probably a more valuable property than Rutgers. But Nebraska has lost some of its brand cache in the meantime.

 

If I’m the Big 10, plan A is a courtesy call to Notre Dame, plan B is North Carolina and Va. Tech and plan C is scooping up 4-6 PAC-12 schools, geography be damned.

 

The B1G would certainly want UVA over VT.

 

But ABC/ESPN and Fox are still spending big money on college sports. The impetus for the move of Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12 was the new television contract that the SEC was signed. ESPN and regional cable channels still generate massive revenues from cable subscriber fees.

 

If the goal in selecting a new school is number of people who will watch its football games, the Hokies seem like the better bet. If the goal is anything else, they’re missing the point of all this.

 

Think about the teams we’re discussing for the Big Ten to get compared to who the SEC is landing to add to its stable.

There’s only one conference now. Ohio State and Clemson are islands. Very lush, verdant islands, but islands.

 

Are Syracuse and Cincinnati just not that desirable?

Virginia Tech does have some football history, but they have not been a powerhouse for a few years.

 

Ohio State will kill the Big Ten with its own bare hands before recognizing UC as its equal.