ESPN sources reporting Maryland ACCEPTS big ten invite. Rutgers voting tomorrow

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Gopher07 said:
FWIW, they can't "accept" the invite because they haven't been extended one yet. What will happen is, the B1G schools will meet and decide to extend an invitation to Maryland (or not) based on their application for membership.
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done and done. see below.

From ESPN:

"Once Maryland's board voted and faxed a letter of application to the Big Ten on Monday, the conference's council of presidents unanimously approved the Terrapins' admission, a source said. Maryland, along with seven others, was a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953.

Sources at Maryland believe the Terps will be able to negotiate the current $50 million exit fee from the ACC to a lower amount. The additions of Maryland and Rutgers would spur the Big Ten, then, toward negotiations on a new media-rights deal when its first-tier rights expire in 2017.

ESPN on Saturday reported on the negotiations between Maryland and the Big Ten.

"The question is what's the future" of the ACC, Maryland regent Patricia Florestano told ESPN.com on Monday. "We've got to look to the future." Asked if the future of Maryland athletics is brighter in the Big Ten than in the ACC, Florestano said, "we perceived it that way."
 

The one word that comes to mind about all this to me is this: BOLD

I can see why people aren't "wowed" by the move of Maryland & apparently Rutgers as early as tomorrow. Clearly, TV sets is an easy reason to see why. But I also think it's about expanding into a market that hasn't really been tapped yet. New York City is an untapped college football market. DC has Maryland, but it really hasn't been tapped into. I think Delaney's thinking is "they aren't hot beds now, but that can change when Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State & Nebraska start coming to town & bringing their fans."

Rutgers to NYC sports fans probably won't be much more than what Northwestern is to Chicago sports fans, at best....but with all the alumni in the Chicago area, Northwestern still gets on the sports scene. College football isn't on the radar in NYC right now; that's because they've been playing in the Big East. The Big Ten is a completely different animal that change the game. Teddy had a good take regarding DEMOGRAPHICS being a huge player in this. Michigan, PA, Ohio & Illinois are all amongst the top 10 in declining population along with Wisconsin & Indiana. The DC market is the highest growing population. Government ain't getting smaller either.

Will it work? Who knows. I can see why it doesn't move the needle, but if Jim Deleany is anything, he's a visionary. It's a bold move, but it could pay off, and pay off big time!

As for Minnesota, our closest conference foe is 4 hours away already. There are lots of options to fly into with Rutgers & DC is a pretty easy flight too. A flight's a flight at this point. Travel will be fine...don't forget the $$$ that will help those travel costs. Besides, it's not like they'll probably be adding conference games; Maryland & Rutgers will just replace the other teams on the schedule. We're not adding a trip to DC or Jersey....just a substitution.

A bold move, and bold can be good.
 


With how big conferences are going to be in 5 years (16 teams each), I would absolutely love it if conferences went not only to 9-game conference schedules, but maybe even 10-game schedules. If we end up with two divisions of 8 with 8 conference games, the Leaders and Legends might as well just be two different conferences.
 


howeda7 said:
UVa makes sense for TV, but not if Maryland is the other team. They both bring DC. All UVa adds is Richmond/Hampton Roads. Not enough to justify it. GT would make more sense than Rutgers as it adds Atlanta. I don't buy the Rutgers adds NYC line. PSU is probably already more popular in NYC than Rutgers.
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I think Rutgers is more popular in NYC than you think. However, with FOX looking to buy a major share in the YES network, look for the BIG network to be packaged with that when going to the cable networks in the NYC area.

1) Highest rated game in NYC market history was Rutgers Louisville in 06' with 8.1 million viewers. Oh yeah and the empire state building was lit up Red for Rutgers.

2) Rutgers has the highest rated college football games ever in the NYC markets on the following channels: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and SNY

3) 4 out of the top 5 highest rated games ever on espn in the NYC market were Rutgers games

4) 5 out of the 5 highest rated games in NYC market history on ESPN2 were Rutgers games.

5) ESPN showed RU games exclusively on ESPN3 in 2011 as a ploy to get cablevision to buy the espn3 package. Cablevision bought the package.

6) In 2006 NFL Network was begging to buy the exclusive rights to broadcast the RU bowl game to get more subscribers but the governor of NJ stepped in and put a halt to it.
 

If I had to guess, I don't think they stop at 14; I think they'll look at 16 (speculate on the other two, I'd guess two of the UVA/UNC/Georgia Tech combo). Once you get to 16, you have some options. I could see 4 pods of 4 (Minnesota/Iowa/Wisconsin/Nebraska). Then schedule alternates versus other pods. Going straight division plus one game against the others, you'd see some teams once a decade. Pods could give you some options.

Will be interesting to see what they do.
 

If Rutgers and Maryland join the Big Ten, I suppose they would go in the Leaders division, and if so, someone would have to go to the Legends division. They might move Wisconsin over, or they could move Illinois over. Either would make the divisions more geographically balanced. Moving Wisconsin over might make the legends division top heavy. Or they might just add one to each division, and make it even more geographically unbalanced.
 

FireDaveLee said:
If I had to guess, I don't think they stop at 14; I think they'll look at 16 (speculate on the other two, I'd guess two of the UVA/UNC/Georgia Tech combo). Once you get to 16, you have some options. I could see 4 pods of 4 (Minnesota/Iowa/Wisconsin/Nebraska). Then schedule alternates versus other pods. Going straight division plus one game against the others, you'd see some teams once a decade. Pods could give you some options.

Will be interesting to see what they do.
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This, the UVA and UNC rumors are looking really interesting to me. 16 teams, I'm guessing, is the ultimate goal. It will be interesting to see how fast that happens.
 



http://espn.go.com/college-football...es-weakness-latest-expansion-college-football

Now that the adoption papers are all but finalized, the Big Ten is the proud father of two more bouncing baby programs. Say hello to the runts of the family: Maryland and Rutgers. The Terapins arrived Monday, the Scarlet Knights are expecting to join Tuesday.

Surprising? Sure. But anybody who thinks this is a total stunner needs a refresher course in geography. And TV rights economics. And recruiting.

You actually could see this coming. If nothing else, you could see why the Big Ten might order something a la carte off the expansion dinner menu.

Eight months ago I wrote that Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany would never allow his conference to be geographically outflanked by the ACC. "I could see him sending in a Big Ten Special Forces unit to extract Rutgers from the ACC's possible grasp and Maryland from the ACC altogether. Rutgers hasn't made much of a secret of its fondness for the Big Ten. And who knows -- maybe Maryland is ready for a change too. ... That would give the Big Ten 14 members and a strong presence in Pennsylvania, the mid-Atlantic states and the New York/New Jersey areas."

And then just for fun, I added: "But if 16 is the number that counts, why stop there?"

Anyway, if I could look at a map and see the Big Ten's vulnerability, so could Delany. He knows his league's strengths. More importantly, he knows his league's weaknesses.

Would this have happened had the Pac-12 not backed out of its "collaboration" with the Big Ten earlier this year? Remember? The two conferences were going to form a super-alliance of sorts, which would have featured increased Big Ten versus Pac-12 scheduling in all sports, including football.

In short, it was a way to avoid actual expansion, conference realignment and, as Delany put it at the time, "collateral damage." It was also a way to add "value" to both leagues (translation: $).

But even in December 2011, when the soon-to-be-doomed partnership was announced, Delany said: "It doesn't mean you can't expand one day."

The collapse of the collaboration and the ACC's aggressive expansion plan made this an easier decision than you think. The Big Ten couldn't afford to watch Penn State become an island in a sea of ACC schools (Syracuse to the north, Pittsburgh to the west, Boston College to the east (and maybe UConn too). That's simply too much valuable TV and recruiting real estate.

So Delany secured Rutgers and Maryland to give his conference that East Coast/mid-Atlantic market presence. In return, Rutgers gets instant league stability and Maryland receives a football upgrade.

Now the question becomes: Is the Big Ten done adopting?

I don't think expansion was ever Delany's first choice. That's why the Pac-12 alliance had so much appeal to him and the Big Ten presidents.

But when it fell apart, and the ACC formed its own alliance with Notre Dame, and geography began to work against the Big Ten, Delany decided he couldn't sit on his hands. In essence, it had become a zero-sum game.

Rutgers and Maryland are members of the prestigious Association of American Universities -- almost always a prerequisite for Big Ten admittance. And just for fun, I'll throw out two other programs that are AAU members: Kansas and North Carolina. So is Georgia Tech.

I'm just saying.

There are all sorts of possible trickle-down effects of today's announcement:

• The Big Ten could stop at 14 teams or go all-in and expand to 16.

• The ACC could hit the expansion gas pedal.

• The Big East could suffer another cluster migraine.

• Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, who is a registered expansionist, could start kicking the tires on two to four programs.

Whatever happens, this isn't the end of realignment and expansion. These days, you're either in or you're out.

The Big Ten is in.

Who's next?
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If the Big Ten expands all the way to 16 teams, will they still keep the protected crossover game? You would play 7 games against the teams from your own division, so if there are 9 conference games, that would leave only two games against the teams from the other division. If one of them is against a protected rival, that leaves only one game. You would play the other teams in the other division only once every seven years. Once one of those teams played a game at your home stadium, you wouldn't see them at home again for 14 years.

It seems to me at that size, the protected crossover game doesn't make sense, but it might still be kept just to allow Michigan and OSU to play every year and still be in different divisions.
 

The B1G needs to become a nationwide interest like the old NFL did years ago..

Bring on Maryland, Rutgers, USC, KS State, KS, NDSU, Minot State, MSUMoorhead, Oregon, Idaho State, UNLV, Arkansas, any team that has ever had competitive football, And the B1G will put the NFL to shame.

The TV exposure would blow up the internet. Come to think of it, blowing up the internet is a damned good idea, right AJ Parker???
 

Jim Delaney is the best commissioner in college sports. And it's not even all that close.
 



RodentRampage said:
If the Big Ten expands all the way to 16 teams, will they still keep the protected crossover game? You would play 7 games against the teams from your own division, so if there are 9 conference games, that would leave only two games against the teams from the other division. If one of them is against a protected rival, that leaves only one game. You would play the other teams in the other division only once every seven years. Once one of those teams played a game at your home stadium, you wouldn't see them at home again for 14 years.

It seems to me at that size, the protected crossover game doesn't make sense, but it might still be kept just to allow Michigan and OSU to play every year and still be in different divisions.
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I think they'd do 4 divisions of 4 and rotate the divisional crossover/matchups like the NFL does.

East: Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State
Central: Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana
South: Illinois, Northwestern, X, X
West: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska

For example.
 

It will be interesting to see what shakes out in the next couple of months.

I don't know about adding UNC/uVA or Gtech to the big ten.

Rutgers get us NYC, MD gets us DC. What do we need next? If you look at markets to target, Georgia Tech brings Hotlanta and UNC brings a lot of history in BB and a quality FB team who desperately wants to fill their seats like MD does. If you bring both of them on board, the Big Ten is now the premiere BB conference in the country and has the widest and deepest football market (more $$$$). I am all for tradition and like playing IA and WI every year...but without the $$$$ we lose everything.

In 2016 the Big Ten will negotiate it's next Tier 1 TV contract. With the addition of MD (DC) Rutgers (NYC/NJ) GTech (Atlanta) & UNC....we can expect to see our total package almost double in value. That means we start getting 50 mil per year instead of 25. This expansion matters.
 

Just a reminder for those with access to TV and/or BTN2Go. The University of Maryland is hosting a 2 p.m. CT press conference in College Park with University President Wallace D. Loh, University System of Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan, Maryland Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson and Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany. BTN will have live coverage beginning at 1:30 PM CT of this. Following the press conference, BTN’s show will cover the story with guests and analysis.

Who else will be watching live this afternoon?
 


MadtownGopher said:
I think they'd do 4 divisions of 4 and rotate the divisional crossover/matchups like the NFL does.

Leaders: Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State
Legends: Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana
Lords: Illinois, Northwestern, X, X
Lieutenants: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska

For example.
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FIFY
 

KrisHumphries said:
The Big Ten went from adding only elite teams like Penn State and Nebraska to adding for the sake of adding. BOOOOOO!!!!
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This.

For those saying they're excited for having Maryland in hoops - well, if that's the case, why not just add Kansas? This is clearly about the BTN and money - Baltimore/Washington DC TV market. And now we just won't really have a conference anymore - it's more like a loose confederation of teams. Dumb - we could've stayed at 12 forever. Now, we're likely to have the same affinity with teams in the other division as MAC schools. We'll see them maybe a couple times per decade.
 


Nice job Delaney trying to sweep the Barker fiasco under the rug.


;)
 


nokomismod said:
Maybe because we sit on the western edge of the conference, but I would rather see Kansas instead of Rutgers.

Will this mean one extra conference game in Football?
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I'd rather see South Dakota St. than either of these schools.... notice that I didn't say NDSU.
 

John Galt said:
I'd rather see South Dakota St. than either of these schools.... notice that I didn't say NDSU.
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and this is why you are not in charge of running a major conference or negotiating tv contracts. hey commish, let's go recruit a school from a state with less than a million people and little, if any, recruiting territories. nothing but a silly and purposely snarky comment on your part trying to bait someone into getting into it with you on the stupid south dakota, north dakota crap. but thanks for playing.
 

supadupafly said:
and this is why you are not in charge of running a major conference or negotiating tv contracts. hey commish, let's go recruit a school from a state with less than a million people and little, if any, recruiting territories. nothing but a silly and purposely snarky comment on your part trying to bait someone into getting into it with you on the stupid south dakota, north dakota crap. but thanks for playing.
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I realize it will be hard for you to understand this, but some of us remember when it was a 10 team conference in the midwest and we had natural rivalries with most of the schools. Times change, and it made sense to add Penn St. and Nebraska. Both of these schools border on the periphery of the midwest and can add value to the conference. Nebraska has a natural rivalry with Iowa, and Penn St. had natural rivalries with Ohio St. and Michigan. Maryland and Rutgers ruin the B1G brand, add marginal (at best) teams and academic universities, and are as foreign to the midwest as pretty much any place in America. As others have said, if you're going to expand, add Kansas, Pitt, or even Syracuse. The addition of these schools is a terrible decision.
 

Golden Elephant said:
This.

For those saying they're excited for having Maryland in hoops - well, if that's the case, why not just add Kansas? This is clearly about the BTN and money - Baltimore/Washington DC TV market. And now we just won't really have a conference anymore - it's more like a loose confederation of teams. Dumb - we could've stayed at 12 forever. Now, we're likely to have the same affinity with teams in the other division as MAC schools. We'll see them maybe a couple times per decade.
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Because Kansas is small, and we don't want Kansas State.
 

Welcome to the free market system of College Football. Kansas adds nothing but geography and a basketball program. Pittsburgh is much the same except, by most accounts Penn State was pretty adamant in NOT adding them. Syracuse is any interesting case but they already threw their lot in with the ACC. Delaney was pretty candid about it after the News Conference. They saw that the ACC was expanding all around them and looked at this move as keeping up and getting ahead of the curve.

Don't like it either, but as the Maryland President said his A.D. is totally independent of any governmental funds. If they want to keep it that way and add more money to the school itself, this is the way to go. Doubtful that Minnesota or any Big Ten school would answer the same question differently. If the Big Ten can go from a pay tier to basic cable in New York/New Jersey, Baltimore and Washington D.C it works out to between $100 and $200 million. With Fox trying to buy the YES Network that looks pretty likely.

You want to blame someone? Blame Notre Dame.
 

DC & NYC probably have the largest Big Ten aumni base outside of the Midwest.

That's what makes Maryland (OMG another UMD) and Rutgers attractive to the Big Ten.
 

Perhaps the days of adding a top progam to the B1G are gone and they realize that. It appears as though the ND ship has sailed at least for now so this is likely the best the B1G can do. What other top schools are out there for the B1G to gain that aren't already aligned with a power conference. While Maryland and Rutgers don't do a lot for the conference competition wise they do ad money and viewers and may be about as good as the conference can do unless ND changes their mind.
 

Gopher07 said:
FWIW, they can't "accept" the invite because they haven't been extended one yet. What will happen is, the B1G schools will meet and decide to extend an invitation to Maryland (or not) based on their application for membership.
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On BTN now: Maryland officially joins Big Ten.

2014s the year
 

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