Where Should The Big Ten Expand Next? We Crunched The Numbers.


From everything I’ve read, this attempt to rank potential future members is very problematic. Washington and West Virginia equally appealing? Um, no.
 

Second paragraph says this:

Instead, in 2014, we got … Rutgers,2 which was supposed to deliver the New York metro market to the Big Ten. I’m a huge sports fan who’s been living in New York since 2009, and I have had exactly zero conversations about Rutgers sports.

First sentence is wrong though the second is probably right. Adding Rutgers was a big success as far as getting the BTN onto cable systems out there.

Maybe will finish reading the rest of the article later.
 


Add:
Norte Dame
Washington
Oregon
Stanford

B1G EAST
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Indiana

B1G LAKES
Michigan
Michigan State
Norte Dame
Purdue
Northwestern

B1G MIDWEST
Gophers
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Illinois

B1G PACIFIC
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Oregon

This is the way to go with a two week B1G Championship playoff. Teams outside the playoff get an extra week bonus game to finish their season. These games would pit major rivalries that didn’t get hit during regular season and aren’t in playoff.

Don’t give me any crap about 2 week playoff! At this point the B1G could do whatever it wants!
 



Add:
Norte Dame
Washington
Oregon
Stanford

B1G EAST
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Indiana

B1G LAKES
Michigan
Michigan State
Norte Dame
Purdue
Northwestern

B1G MIDWEST
Gophers
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Illinois

B1G PACIFIC
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Oregon

This is the way to go with a two week B1G Championship playoff. Teams outside the playoff get an extra week bonus game to finish their season. These games would pit major rivalries that didn’t get hit during regular season and aren’t in playoff.

Don’t give me any crap about 2 week playoff! At this point the B1G could do whatever it wants!
I would switch NW and Illinois but otherwise looks good.
 

Add:
Norte Dame
Washington
Oregon
Stanford

B1G EAST
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Indiana

B1G LAKES
Michigan
Michigan State
Norte Dame
Purdue
Northwestern

B1G MIDWEST
Gophers
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
Illinois

B1G PACIFIC
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Oregon

This is the way to go with a two week B1G Championship playoff. Teams outside the playoff get an extra week bonus game to finish their season. These games would pit major rivalries that didn’t get hit during regular season and aren’t in playoff.

Don’t give me any crap about 2 week playoff! At this point the B1G could do whatever it wants!
Love it!! Would have to instll a 1 wk rivalry week.

MI vs OSU
ND vs. Stanford or USC
Indiana vs. Purdue
Penn state vs. Michigan state
Illinious vs. NW

All other teams create new rivals.
 

Add 4 of:

Notre Dame
Stanford
Washington
North Carolina
Georgia Tech
 



Second paragraph says this:

Instead, in 2014, we got … Rutgers,2 which was supposed to deliver the New York metro market to the Big Ten. I’m a huge sports fan who’s been living in New York since 2009, and I have had exactly zero conversations about Rutgers sports.

First sentence is wrong though the second is probably right. Adding Rutgers was a big success as far as getting the BTN onto cable systems out there.

Maybe will finish reading the rest of the article later.
Yep. B1G has the largest alum population living in the NY market. I assume it is probably the same for DC. Both were homerun additions from a market standpoint. If I lived out there, I would have BTN for sure and probably go to most Gopher events/games in the area.
 


Get to 24 teams and in football...you might never play certain teams :)
PJ says it something along the lines of this:
Screen Shot 2022-08-25 at 2.12.31 PM.png
 

From everything I’ve read, this attempt to rank potential future members is very problematic. Washington and West Virginia equally appealing? Um, no.
I would be personally more interested in West Virginia though I know that there is a zero percent chance of that happening
 



Quite a bit of analysis to look at here, but an interesting exercise to break down the contenders from the pretenders. I particularly love that when broaching the idea of relegation that Silver has Minnesota in the Upper Division of a proposed 24-team conference.

Having given up on the Big Ten being a Midwestern conference, I’m actually on board with its newest additions: UCLA and USC. At least they’re schools with great football traditions — and historical connections to the Big Ten through frequent Rose Bowl matchups.

So screw it. At this point, it’s a big game of “Risk” with two superconferences, and the Big Ten is playing for keeps against the Southeastern Conference. Which schools should the Big Ten add next?


 

Add 4 of:

Notre Dame
Stanford
Washington
North Carolina
Georgia Tech
If you add 14 you can get to 6 5 team divisions and over 400 electoral votes.


Midwest
Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern

East central
Purdue
Indiana
Ohio state
Michigan state
Michigan

West central
Nebraska
Colorado
Utah
Texas tech
Arizona

West coast
Stanford
Washington
Oregon
USC
UCLA

North East
Rutgers
Penn state
Maryland
Boston college
Notre dame

South East
Virginia
North Carolina
Clemson
Georgia tech
Florida state



Play all 4 in your division.
Play 4 of 5 in a locked division
Midwest - east central
North east vs west coast (so notre dame is happy)
West central vs south east
Play 4 of the 20 in the other 4 divisions. (One from each)

No non conference


In 5 years you play everyone in the conference
In 10 years you play everyone in the conference home and home.
You play 4 teams in your division every year.
You get 5 teams 16 times in 20 years (your cross divisional)


Play 4 in your division plus



Basically this would be that the big ten bought out the valuable assets in most of the country
 
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I would think beyond the biggest get being Notre Dame the B1G would be looking South for any expansion to basically cover the whole map.

This would bring in FSU, Miami, and GA Tech as possible candidates. Also, UNC can be thrown in there.
 

Miami or FSU, Georgia Tech, ASU and BC. That should cover most of the top 15 media markets. ;)
If they have to, the B1G should head down here and poach some of the southeast schools. This is turning out to be nothing more than a dick measuring contest between the B1G and SEC, so the B1G might as well go on the offensive.
 

Notre Dame, UNC, Washington, Oregon and stop.
Rank Designated Market Area (DMA) TV Homes % of US
14 Seattle-Tacoma 1,808,530 1.577
24 Raleigh-Durham (Fayetvlle) 1,153,580 1.006
25 Portland, OR 1,143,670 0.997

Oregon never happening. Washington is the 13th most populous state, Oregon is the 27th.

Stop thinking Oregon is a national brand. Not even close. They sell shoes, not TV minutes.

Over a dozen current non-B1G markets before Raleigh and Portland. NC is the 9th most populous state but UNC battles 17 other D1 schools for fandom.
 




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