This isn’t your dad’s Big Ten anymore, and come 2014 it won’t resemble the one I hold dearly, either.
The “three yards and a cloud of dust” era is all but dead in Big Ten country, giving way to the expansionist fervor that has engulfed college football. Being part of a region means as much as a team’s mascot in terms of conference realignment, seeing as San Diego State has become the westernmost outpost of the Big East.
With the Big Ten announcing deals to add both Maryland and Rutgers to the conference, the initial reaction is … Why?
It’s obviously not to increase the competitiveness of the conference like longtime B1G commissioner Jim Delany claims.
Maryland has been a middling football team in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the past decade, with only four winning seasons during that span. And the B1G obviously wasn’t looking at more recent results, as the Terrapins have won only six games during the past two seasons.
Their basketball team can claim a national title in the 21st century, but 2002 seems like an awfully long time ago, as the Terps have missed the NCAA Tournament five of the past eight years — including the last two.
Rutgers currently leads the Big East with a 5-1 conference record, so an argument can be made that it is a legitimately competitive college football program. But they also lead a conference that risks having their BCS bowl bid usurped by a Mid-American Conference winner if either Kent State or Northern Illinois can jump into the top 16 of the BCS standings.
And its basketball team hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 1991, and is a perennial bottom feeder in the hoops-crazy Big East.
So when Delany wants to sell fans on Maryland and Rutgers as great additions to the conference, what he means to say is that they’re great schools for the conference’s wallet.
The deal was a no-brainer for Rutgers and Maryland, as both athletics departments are hemorrhaging cash like the Scarlet Knights lose basketball games. Maryland cut seven varsity athletic programs in July — though Wallace Loh, the university’s president, pledges to explore reinstating the teams he cut. Rutgers’ athletic program is operating on a $25 million deficit.
The move to the B1G is a financial windfall for the schools, as Maryland alone stands to make $100 million more by 2020 than it would in the ACC as a result of the switch, as reported by Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel.
The two B1G additions will allow Delany to enter the East Coast markets and try to force the 51 percent Fox-owned Big Ten Network onto cable packages that include Fox News and the YES Network (recently purchased by News Corporation, which owns Fox), according to Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel.
If the cable networks in the region refuse to carry that package, it would likely lead to an uproar from customers, essentially guaranteeing the B1G a foothold in East Coast cable packages. That increased viewership could earn the B1G anywhere from $100 to $200 million more annually. So it’s a no-brainer, money-wise.
But for the longtime Wisconsin fan, the Purdue student and the exuberant, replica jersey-toting Michigan State fan, this deal is a sham. It dilutes one of the nation’s most prestigious conferences for a cash grab.
I spent a good deal of my Saturday afternoons in Ann Arbor during my childhood, living and dying with the Michigan Wolverines. More than a week ago, they still played in a conference that was still unique to a region as any.
Now, I’m not even sure this is my conference anymore.
Christian Hoppens is a sophomore studying journalism and a sports writer for The Post. Send your thoughts about the new conference additions to ch203310@ohiou.edu.