Why the SEC can’t ignore what the Big Ten might do
Why should the SEC care if the Big Ten expands? It’s a reasonable question and I get it a lot.
Obviously, the SEC has a great thing going with four straight national championships in football. The league has 14 years remaining on a $3 billion TV contract with CBS and ESPN. The SEC has sold out football stadiums from Athens to Tuscaloosa and competes on a national level in every sport it sponsors. Life is good.
So why mess with a great thing? Why not let the Big Ten do its thing while the SEC keeps doing what has made it so successful?
Here’s why: “If you are a commissioner your No. 1 job is not to take care of today,” said former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer. “Your No. 1 job is to look at least 10 years down the road to where your conference is going to be and where the competition is going to be.”
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive told me recently that the his conference will have a plan in place should the Big Ten expand to 16 teams, which could totally change the landscape of college athletics as we know it in just a few years. The SEC may never execute the plan, but there will be a plan.
The SEC cannot rest on its laurels because they have seen the numbers that I am about to share with you. These come from some very good reporting by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune.
Right now it is a given that from its various shared revenue sources (TV, bowls, NCAA basketball tournament, etc.) the Big Ten pays each of its schools about $22 million per year while the SEC’s numbers are somewhere around $17 million per school. But:
**–The Big Ten Network has already succeeded beyond anybody’s hopes in a short period of time. Right now 45 million people subscribe to it, but and additional 75 million homes have access to it. It is available in 19 of the 20 largest TV markets in the country.
**–The Big Ten received a $60 million rights fee up front last year for the BTN from Fox Sports (which owns a 49 percent stake). Then the BTN made an additional $66 million in profit. Advertising revenue was up 30 percent last year in a down economy.
**–Greenstein reports that if the Big Ten expands and chooses the right schools, league officials have seen estimates of revenues doubling by the 22015-2016 academic year.
**–And this is the best one of all from Greenstein: For every BTN subscriber in the eight-state footprint of the Big Ten, the league gets 70 to 80 cents a month. For every subscriber outside the footprint it is about 10 cents. So guess what happens if the Big Ten starts adding states like Nebraska, Missouri and New Jersey to their footprint? Not only do the subscriptions increase but the income the Big Ten gets from those subscriptions goes up as much as eight-fold in that state. If Nebraska joins the Big Ten, how many homes in that state will sign up for the BTN? I’d say just about all of them.
If you are Mike Slive and the SEC presidents, do those numbers get your attention? You bet they do.
Yes, the SEC has the competitive advantage now. But remember that there has been a spike in coaches’ salaries in the SEC because the funds were available from the new TV contracts. Remember we told you that a year ago only two coordinators in this league were making $500,000 or more. Now there are a bunch of them in that salary range. And that number will grow.
What if every Big Ten school is suddenly making $35 million a year and the SEC is still at $17 million? Over ten years that’s $180 million more per school that is invested. Would that not make a competitive difference over a decade?
That is why the SEC can’t ignore what the Big Ten may do.
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212 comments Add your comment
bob
May 24th, 2010
5:58 pm
I don’t get any of the money, nor care about anybodies GPA.
Who is on TV Saturday?
bob
May 24th, 2010
6:05 pm
If you expand to 16 teams, that means 7 division games. Do you rotate other division opponents once every 8 years, or not at all? Kinda makes it 2 conferences. Not really that great of a plan for me.
Tide Rising
May 24th, 2010
7:22 pm
SEC Rocks,
Yep. We sucked for tha last 2 decades from 89-2009. I guess sucking means 4 sec titles 89.92.99,2009 in 20 years, 2nd only to Florida in the sec, 7 division titles which is 2nd most in the sec behind Florida, and 2 national championships. Not to mention one of the winningest programs of the 90s with Stallings averaging 10 wins a season. What did AU do during the same time frame of the last 2 decades 89-2009? Mmmmmh. One sec title in 04, 2 seccg appearances 97, 04, ZERO national titles. What was that about us sucking relative to AU over the last 20 years?
Chris
May 24th, 2010
7:29 pm
Bama has gone 17-1 in the SEC since they beat Clemson 34-10 and everyone acts like Clemson just did the unfogivable that night. Well, here are some Bama vs SEC scores from that same year:
Bama 49 Arkansas 14 at Arkansas
Bama 41 Georgia 30 at Georgia (Bama led 31-0 at the half)
Bama 29 Tennessee 9 at Tennessee
Bama 32 Miss. State 7
Bama 36 Auburn 0
and in 20009
Bama 35 Arkansas 7
Bama 32 Florida 13 (well, I guess 32-13 is better than 34-10)
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:35 pm
“I guess sucking means 4 sec titles 89.92.99,2009 in 20 years”
Tide Rising was b!tching to someone about living in the past and here she is living in the past.
Nothing like a hypocritical hillbilly from Tuscaloser.
“One sec title in 04, 2 seccg appearances 97, 04, ZERO national titles. ”
That will change when USC goes on probation for cheating…….
“What was that about us sucking relative to AU over the last 20 years?”
Dubose anyone? Price anyone? Shreveport bowl anyone?
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:35 pm
Utah beat up Bama……
Just saying…….
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:38 pm
Alabama 2007
L 23–26 to UGAY
L 34–41 to LSU
L 12–17 to Miss State LOL
L 14–21 to LA Monroe LOLOLOL
L 10–17 to AU
Yep, rammer jammer bammer got slammerd in 2007.
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:40 pm
Whoops
L 14–21 to FSU
Bama went on to finish 6-6 in the regular season before heading to the Shreveport Sulfur Bowl to beat Colorado…….30–24
Beast from the East
May 24th, 2010
7:50 pm
Gump,
Why ya ragging on Bama. Didn’t they just go 14-0?
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:53 pm
“Why ya ragging on Bama. Didn’t they just go 14-0?”
Because she said that Bama has had fantastic seasons from the 90s until now…… Just pointing out her flaws and her hypocrisy on living in the past.
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
7:54 pm
“Didn’t they just go 14-0?”
They sure did and I never railed on them for that. I do think it’s interesting that Bama fans make fun of Auburn 2004 for playing the Citadel when Bama played a few easy teams themselves.
Just sayin……
Theron Sapp
May 24th, 2010
8:02 pm
1.) I’m sick of all you morons talking about academics. Most of you can’t even spell.
2.) Georgia Tech is not going to be invited into the Big 10. Tech has absolutely nothing to offer the Big 10. There is no TV market for Tech; they are a very distant second in paopularity even in their home town. And if their fans won’t turn out to see them play FSU and North Carolina, why would they show up for Northwestern and Minnesota?
3.) Georgia Tech is also not going to be in the SEC. See #2 above for part of the reason why. The other reason is that the University of Georgia would be stupid to allow this to happen. Right now, the Tech athletic program is virtually bankrupt. Why would UGA give a bankrup rival $17 millon a year? For this same reason, the SEC is also not going to include FSU or Clemson. Florida and USC won’t allow it.
4.) If the SEC does expand, the only school that counts is Texas. Get Texas and the college football dollar war is over. Texas is game, set, and match. With Texas would also come Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and hopefully TCU for the DFW market. This is the only thing that makes sense for the SEC, so you can bet that they boys from Birmingham are working on a way to pull the trigger if the Big 10 forces them to do so.
XpatHeel
May 24th, 2010
8:08 pm
Take ‘bama and the Gators out of the discussion and what do you have….?
A very mediocre $ec group that on any given Sat. would NOT be able to beat the top 10 teams from the ACC on any kind of consistent basis.
I give ‘bama and UF all due credit and praise…they have dominated the game and their conference the past few years. But it’s amazing that the rest of you bozos hang your credibitlity on their coattails year after year.
The head to head match ups over the past couple of years should tell you there is NO dominance by the $ec over the ACC. And you should go ahead and get ready to put out the humble pie, because this season, there will be clear examples that your dominance…past ‘bama and UF…just doesn’t exist any more.
Delbert D.
May 24th, 2010
8:28 pm
OB-1
10:39 am
Delbert, how about the ACC with new members U Conn, Kentucky, Alabama and Auburn, and trading Miami for UGA.
OB-1 – Sorry for the delayed response. With the shifts I envisioned, the SEC West (except Alabama and Auburn, plus Kentucky), go west to to Join the University of Texas’s new conference. Don’t mess with Texas, they do what they want, according to the mantra. They will demand to be in charge. Ole Miss and Miss. St. are Tier 3 academic schools, and Kentucky, LSU and Arkansas are tied for #128, dead last in Tier 2. I don’t care much for Miami, because they may as well be in Puerto Rico as far as travel is concerned (unless some sort of all-Florida conference is conceived-which I can’t see). They could be Big East, Texas’s conference, whatever.
Your scenario makes sense, but I think the SEC would get a better sense of belonging if they merge, rather than join the ACC. Depending on what happens with BC, the new conference could be the Southeastern Coast Conference or something like that. The TV market from Alabama through Georgia, northern Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland would be very competitive. That’s the whole of the southeastern coastal states, plus Tennessee.
BWH Dawg
May 24th, 2010
9:06 pm
Whatever happens, I hope the SEC does NOT take GTU back. Bobby Dodd made a terrible mistake, and I hope GTU pays for it the rest of their sorry athletic existence. GTU grads love to act like mental snobs and therefore we SEC fans can be athletic snobs. GTU is in trouble financially, and I hope the school stays that way. Your legendary coach caused the problem, and I don’t want the SEC he shunned many years ago to fix it now. THWGT forever!!! I would not pull for GTU on the team plane with one engine out.
Tide Rising
May 24th, 2010
9:13 pm
Forrest Gump,
You brought up the comment about us sucking for 2 decades. So since you wanted to talk about the last 2 decades I simply obliged with the obvious comparison of what AU did vs Bama over the last 2 decades. Sure, we had some lackluster years but is there anybody in the last 20 years that didn’t have some bad seasons? Anyone? Including AU? Anyway, the point is that over that time frame which you brought up our successes have been much greater than Auburn’s. 4 sec titles, 2 national titles, and 7 trips to the seccg vs 1 sec title, ZERO national titles, and a measley 2 trips to the seccg. That really sucks.
And it was you of course since you and SEC Rocks are one and the same. Nice try at disugising yourself but the obvious giveaway is that you ended up saying ma’am when addressing other posters. Nobody on here is childish enough to do that except you.
Last of all it was kind of funny when you brought up some of our low moments such as losing to Miss. State. Especially considering that you lost to Miss. state in 2007 just like we did. Ooops. I guess you forgot that one when you were making fun of us losing to Miss. State.
I guess you must also have forgotten that you lost 4 in a row to Miss state from 1997 through 2000. Ouch!Forget that one also did we???
Tide Rising
May 24th, 2010
9:18 pm
Forrest Gump,
You gotta get over playing the Citadel in 2004. Bama fans don’t rag you about it and we really don’t care you playng them. The only point myself or any other Bama fan has made to you about your lost shot at a title in 04 is that your ooc schedule is what killed your bcs ranking relative to OU. That’s not ragging you since all of us in the sec or the acc have played double A teams a few times. That’s just pointing out the obvious that it was the difference in you guys not getting into the bcs title game and OU getting in. That’s all.
Delbert D.
May 24th, 2010
9:19 pm
” I’m sick of all you morons talking about academics. Most of you can’t even spell.”
“…distant second in paopularity .”
Oops.
Academics is the reason schools exist. Schools are the reason *college* football and all the other “college” sports exist. Now, it could be done another way. There could be the Tuscaloosa Red Elephants playing the Baton Rouge Tigers in some sort of minor league football. Would that satisfy anyone? Does anybody attend any minor league sport to any extent? Would sponsors support them?
We can look to the UK for the answers. The English Premier League dominates soccer. The year I lived there, Leicester (my home team) finished at the top of Div.2 and got promoted the next year to Div.1 (same as the premier league at the time.) Zero TV coverage. Not even highlights. In Div.2, 15,000 fans. Not like Aston Villa, Liverpool, or Manchester United and their huge followings.
In today’s “FBS” college football, fewer teams play payers and fewer schools offer “crip” courses and majors under the scrutiny of the NCAA. But they are out there. You have to look deeply sometimes to see just what some of these majors and courses are. Not every school tries really hard to offer first rate education for its own sake. At least one school in the ACC has a major in “Parks and Recreation Management.” At least one school in the SEC has a major in “Sport Pedagogy.” Somebody has to fill positions in whatever is out there in those fields, but getting these degrees don’t look to be as tough as Chemistry, Philosophy, Engineering, English Literature, Management, Business Administration, Political Science or Modern Linguistics. But for maybe 1 out of 20, they may get someone a shot at the NFL.
Theron Sapp
May 24th, 2010
10:26 pm
Sorry for the typo, but my point remains: not one of these sports programs has any serious interest in academics. If they did, they’d be thinking about how to invest their spare millions in laboratories or libraries, or maybe in scholarships for students who are talented intellectually rather than athletically. But they don’t–not in the Big 10, or the SEC, or the ACC, or at any other of the FBS schools. All they care about–and all their fans care about–are wins. So why don’t we just stop insulting each other academics? I repeat: the people who are doing all the trash talking on academics don’t know anything about academics, and don’t really care. If you are denigrating the academic standards of another university, it’s because you’re a loser, period.
Go Jackets
May 24th, 2010
10:31 pm
If I’m Swofford I’m looking to move now and not wait. If the domino’s start then the ACC future is in jeopardy. I would advise a preemptive move and look to lock up existing members and get commitments from other targets ASAP.
thunderbull56
May 24th, 2010
10:31 pm
Should have happened a long time ago.The Big Ten see’s a football championship on the nearer horizon than most.Me,I have a notebook full of possible conference realingments to better serve the PAC 10,WAC,MW,Big 12,Big 10(11),ACC,Big East,SEC,Conf USA,etc.When all are large enough for a playoff,it’s much easier to seed a national playoff.And yes the whiny bowl hosts can be hosts the this aberration.
IL Jacket
May 24th, 2010
10:35 pm
Theron, Texas will not join the SEC because it has a
better economic deal and because of the academics. You can try to ignore it, but in the last analysis it is the University Presidents making these decisions, not athletic directors. Sorry, that is just the way it is.
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
10:38 pm
“The only point myself or any other Bama fan has made to you about your lost shot at a title in 04 is that your ooc schedule is what killed your bcs ranking relative to OU.”
WRONG! What did Auburn is was……..THREE UNBEATEN TEAMS. TWO OF THOSE TEAMS WERE RANKED HIGHER.
Auburn’s SOC was MUCH tougher than Oklahomas and USC. USC HAS to play teams out of their own conference because the PAC-10 SUCKS. You know it and I know it.
Going undefeated in the SEC is TEN times tougher than any other conference. Period. Only 6 teams have done that in the SEC in 30 years. Bama and Auburn did it twice.
Now, EF off.
Forrest Gump is the most famous Bama grad
May 24th, 2010
10:40 pm
“sec titles, 2 national titles, and 7 trips to the seccg vs 1 sec title, ZERO national titles, and a measley 2 trips to the seccg. That really sucks.”
No, what really sucks is going undefeated in the SEC and getting left out of the national title. Bama fans rail on Auburn for not beating USC two previous years.
When’s the last time Bama beat USC?
Gen Neyland
May 24th, 2010
10:55 pm
The solution : The SEC East will merge with the NFC and the SEC West will merge with the AFC. Any questions..?
Reptiles Rule
May 25th, 2010
12:22 am
Congrats…UF just won it’s 20th(!) SEC All Sports Trophy…They should just retire it…Amazing…Great academics…Great athletics…and did you know that the University Athletic Association gave 6 MILLION dollars to the academic programs at UF recently?! Amazing in these times when many athletic programs are bleeding red…Kudos to Jeremy Foley and Pres Matchen!!!!!
Golden Rules
May 25th, 2010
1:53 am
Tony – what is the likely hood that the SEC does something unexpected that catches everyone by surprise? Something other than just simply following the Big 10
Golden Rules
May 25th, 2010
2:05 am
Kgator79 Who would have thought that there are thousands of High School Graduates at this very moment fretting over whether to choose Alabama, Tennessee, Miss. St. or ugump over Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, or Princeton. Decisions decisions.
Whata think….maybe they are all flipping a coin right now.
LOL what a gator putz
MoparDawg
May 25th, 2010
4:04 am
Come on in Georgia Tech. Ole painless is waitin’.
Tennessee Tom
May 25th, 2010
6:29 am
Does the ACC play football???
Big time?? Not
May 25th, 2010
6:39 am
Re: “Home town school” Four tickets, four hot dogs, four cokes…..
Dawgbreath
May 25th, 2010
7:06 am
Why do you ACC chumps use the academics crutch? Everyone of you will find ways to get marginal athletes in school and none of them study to be doctors or lawyers. The whole student/athlete thing is a farce. We pay to see football players who major in stuff like African American Studies. Hanging on to this so called academic superiority complex makes you look uneducated.
Navigator
May 25th, 2010
7:12 am
I love it when these folks say things like: “I don’t like these team, we need these teams.” Are any of you in touch with reality? Do you not realize that fans personal opinions don’t count, at all. Any changes in the conferences will be based on dollars and cents, not fans. TB is absolutely correct when he says the balance of power could shift and for a long time. It has been too many years ago that the SEC wasn’t involved year in and out with the National Championship. Do you not remember when such teams as Michigan, Ohio State, Miami, FSU, Southern Cal were the names you heard regularly? Until Mack Brown and Stoops came to the Big 12, they weren’t in the picture either, and by the way when is the last time you heard Nebraska mentioned either.
OB-1
May 25th, 2010
7:22 am
Tennessee Tom, another question. Does Tennessee play football????
Show me the money. « Get The Picture
May 25th, 2010
7:22 am
[...] me the money. Jump to Comments Read Barnhart’s latest thought piece about SEC expansion. It doesn’t touch on tradition or rivalries and what makes the best [...]
OB-1
May 25th, 2010
7:39 am
Dawgbreath, As an ACC fan I do not use academics as a “crutch”, I freely admit that the top of the SEC is better than the top of the ACC, right now but maybe not in the near future. If though that the middle of the conferences are pretty equal as is the conferences are in basketball. The only reason academics are brought, by me, is when expansion is brought up. Conferences are associations of colleges and universities that have a common bond. Some conferences/schools put more emphasis on research or higher academic accomplishments, the Ivy League will not give out sports scholarships, that is just the way it is. As Delbert D stated colleges were started for higher education not for sports. Research grants bring in more than triple what the two “big” sports can generate. What suprises me alittle is that Vandy and Florida has stayed in the SEC so long. Actually dawgbreath the ACC doesn’t “find ways to get marginal athletes in school”, as you stated, but they try to find the best athlete. We also want athletes who can read and write higher than the 8th grade.
TexasAlum00
May 25th, 2010
10:41 am
Nice article! A quick not-so-fast-my-friend to the poster who says Texans don’t care about the SEC. Not true.
The SEC network just started getting beamed into Dallas last season. I watched several SEC games on the network last season due to not wanting to sit through another crappy big 10 game. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and got into the league. It was fun seeing the Hogs, Rebels, Tigers, etc.
Further, as a Longhorn, I now have a keen interest in Alabama football. Namely, I will cheer for whomever plays them, and I’m salivating for a re-match. It would be nice if that could be for the conference championship someday.
kgator79
May 25th, 2010
11:05 am
Golden Rules….
Yeah you mean like Stephen Ali for Florida who was accepted by Harvard but chose to come to Florida instead?
ObjectiveOrville
May 25th, 2010
12:46 pm
“The SEC has sold out football stadiums from Athens to Tuscaloosa”
Hehe, this made me laugh. How many other stadiums are in between these too cities?
===============================================================
Wow, you must be a Georgia fan. (It is in alphabetical order. Back to your coloring books.)
I have always wanted the SEC to expand: Ga.Tech, Texas, Miami, FSU, Va. Tech, WVU (even though some of these schools are a better fit elsewhere for different reasons).
How can we, as fans, influence the de-commercialization of cfb? That is an article I want to read.
Hax0r the BCS.
ObjectiveOrville
May 25th, 2010
12:50 pm
Navigator
May 25th, 2010
7:12 am
I love it when these folks say things like: “I don’t like these team, we need these teams.” Are any of you in touch with reality? Do you not realize that fans personal opinions don’t count, at all. Any changes in the conferences will be based on dollars and cents, not fans. TB is absolutely correct when he says the balance of power could shift and for a long time. It has been too many years ago that the SEC wasn’t involved year in and out with the National Championship. Do you not remember when such teams as Michigan, Ohio State, Miami, FSU, Southern Cal were the names you heard regularly? Until Mack Brown and Stoops came to the Big 12, they weren’t in the picture either, and by the way when is the last time you heard Nebraska mentioned either.
========================================================================
I remember when Nebraska won 3 national championships in 4 years. We would have seen Nebraska vs. Alabama for the national championship (possibly) last year had they not been cheated in the Big12 championship. By the way, I am not a Neb. fan. I just like cfb.
OB-1
May 25th, 2010
12:56 pm
ObjectiveOrville, I also have always wanted expansion, UF, UGA, Bama, UT, and Pitt to join the ACC. I would suggest though that you don’t hold your breath, I’m not.
Lunchtime links: Rainey, Howard stand out | theSPORTSpage Arkansas
May 25th, 2010
1:03 pm
[...] Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weighs in on why the SEC can’t ignore what the Big Ten might do regarding [...]
Golden Rules
May 25th, 2010
1:13 pm
Thank you dawgbreath for proving so many points
Golden Rules
May 25th, 2010
1:16 pm
Kgator79…Stephen Ali is your argument as to why the SEC is comparable academically to the Ivy League? Tell me the truth…you’re and idoit aren’t you?
Lunchtime links: Rainey, Howard stand out | Hog Country Online
May 25th, 2010
1:24 pm
[...] Barnhart of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution weighs in on why the SEC can’t ignore what the Big Ten might do regarding [...]
OB-1
May 25th, 2010
1:34 pm
Golden Rules, I think I can answer Kgator79, no but it’s obvious you didn’t go to either as your spelling and grammer is atrocious.
“Stephen Ali is your argument as to why the SEC is comparable academically to the Ivy League? Tell me the truth…you’re and idoit aren’t you?”
Should read:
Stephen Ali is your argument as to why the SEC is comparable academically to the Ivy League? Tell me the truth…you’re an idiot aren’t you?
Adam B.
May 25th, 2010
1:48 pm
Just a quick dose of reality.
The Big Ten has a larger alumni base than any other conference.
The current Big Ten footprint has a higher total population than any other conference.
Academically, the Big Ten and the ACC are neck and neck for the best academic major conference (depending on how you quantify this, both can be termed the leader, but no this conversation does not include the Ivy League, etc.)
Member schools are getting more and equal dollars from their conference than any one else.
What does this all tell you. First, the Big Ten alumni live around the globe, where ever they live, the interest in the schools continue and they will watch and talk about the schools.
Lay people are fans of their schools, often their local schools. Example: If GT joins the Big Ten the fans will watch their school and pay attention to the competition. That way they are prepared to for Iowa to come in and whoop their butt again.
Academically the Big Ten will take the smartest students. Simply, the majority of the SEC schools are a joke academically. US News and World Report says that the SEC only has three schools in the top 95. By comparison ALL of the Big Ten schools are in the top 75. Where are the smart kids going to choose when they have also been watching Big Ten sports for years?
So when it really comes down to it, the Big Ten is making a power grab that will have an impact for generations. The Big Ten really doesn’t care about the SEC because we know the SEC has a temporary reign. The blocks are lining up perfectly for the Big Ten, soon you will see our members getting their $35 millions dollar share of Beg Ten revenues, our new facilities we be constructed, the top coaches will follow the dollars and Big Ten dominance will return.
HuskerinOhio
May 25th, 2010
1:58 pm
In my opinion living in big 10 country and a nebraska fan the whole expansion is about two teams. Nebraska and Notre Dame. Everything else is just cover. Here is my list of reasons (1) Both schools have a national following, if you do not believe investigate, there husker groups in every state that take over establishments on game day (2) Nebraska AD Dr Tom has never wanted to be in the big 12 that is one of the reason he retired (3) The SEC grabbing a Texas or Oklahoma is to big of a threat, the south is to much of fertile recruiting ground (4)NU and ND will put people in the seats. NU has sold out every game for over 30 years, and have you seen the Husker fans take over a stadium, the answer is Yes (5) Instant Rivalries, ND and Michigan, NY Iowa.
project220
May 25th, 2010
2:16 pm
If the Big Ten expands its footprint, it stands to make more cash with the added TV sets it gains. What would the SEC gain by expansion? They have 14 more years on their current deal, they would have to split the current $204 million from 12 to 16? That would put each school at $12.5 million. Where would the SEC make up the difference? Would the current schools vote to go to 16 schools and lose $4.5 million a year for the next 14 years?
OB-1
May 25th, 2010
2:33 pm
Adam B, for the most part I agree with what you say as seen below the ACC has the better average in the US News Report, then there is the AAU membership, the ACC has 5 members where as all of the Big 10/11 are. Then there is the matter of the Public Ivy Schools published by Dr. Moll who picked eight schools who he felt could compete academically with the Ivy League but with less money, two ACC schools – Maryland and Virginia, and one Big 10 Michigan were picked.
ACC Rank
Duke 10
Virginia 24
UNC 28
Wake Forest 28
Boston College 34
Georgia Tech 35
Miami 50
Maryland 53
Clemson 61
Virginia Tech 71
NC State 88
Florida State 102
584 = 48.6
Big 10
Northwestern 12
Michigan 27
Illinois 39
Wisconsin 39
Penn State 47
Ohio State 53
Purdue 61
Minnesota 61
Michigan State 71
Iowa 71
Indiana 71
552 = 50.18