Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has made it clear that the Big Ten would be looking for a 12th member over the next year, to pump up the revenues of the fledgling Big Ten Network (BTN). A 12-team league, which could be organized into two divisions with a playoff game for the championship, would add a major TV market and one more big game, and that means big bucks.
Never mind that the existing 12 game schedule is already onerous for the players, some of whom actually do have to save time for academics. Nah, it’s all about the money. Why kid ourselves about academics not taking a back seat?
Hey, we’re not far from paying players to compete. With these sorts of big money machinations going on at the conference level, why bother with the charade about the players being amateur athletes? Might as well cut them some million dollar contracts and stop taking advantage of their indentured servitude.
How’s this for an academic paradigm just for football players. Earning a letter in football would exempt so-called student-athletes from classes for the entire academic year. Contracted lettermen would receive at least a C grade for the 36 credit-hour course called Football Seminar 3951. Those who wish to take real classes could do so, only they wouldn’t receive an actual degree in Football and they could potentially void their contract, which could prove detrimental to their NFL careers. Although they would be prudently planning on a life after football, who wants to think that the fun and games will ever end, anyway?
But I digress.
So, the Big Ten wants an extra team. Delaney did not mention any specifics, and this Turkey believes that none have as yet been considered. So, let’s take a look at likely candidates.
First, we must understand that the league belongs to Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin, and its home is in the Midwest. This was never clearer than when Penn State joined the party and Bobby Knight, then of Indiana, balked at traveling to Happy Valley, which he regarded as the BFE of the Big Ten. We’re the easternmost of the existing Big Ten campuses, and chances are that we’ll remain so. So, take your compass and draw an arc with about a 400 mile radius from Chicago and therein you will find Big Ten Country. (We’re obviously an outlier.) Ohio, with only one competitor in the league, seems to be a likely location for #12. You can pick from Akron, Cincinnati, Miami, Ohio University, and Toledo. Another bright idea is Southern Illinois. The Salukis could pull in the St. Louis TV market and that means mo’ money.
But does it really matter? The best way to satisfy us football fans would be to grab Notre Dame, and that ain’t going to happen. First of all, ND has a huge TV deal all to themselves, and secondly, they would risk getting their asses kicked every year by the top-tier teams in the Big Ten. The Big Ten tried to rope in Notre Dame in 1999, but failed. So, we’re not really looking for great competitive quality, anyway—just the added revenue. To this end, a major TV market is desirable above all else. (There again, ND with its national TV audience consisting of every Irishman and everyone even remotely connected to the Roman Catholic Church would be a huge victory for Delany. But it ain’t going to happen.)
OK, so add X University to the league and split it into Eastern and Western divisions. We’d have Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, and Michigan in the west; Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, XU, and Penn State in the east. The division winners would meet at a neutral site, the new Soldier Field in Chicago, for a windblown, Arctic championship game. TV revenues would soar.
But what of the poor team who loses the conference championship game? Would this loss knock them out of the BCS picture? Somehow, Delany and company will have to surmount some pretty strenuous objections along these lines from the universities in order to implement this scenario.
This Turkey is always happy to see changes. However, being a traditionalist, I am good at kidding myself that college football is still what it was 40 years ago in the face of overwhelming evidence that it’s now all about television and greed.
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Pat says
If we broke into Eastern and Western divisions (With Michigan and OSU being in different divisions), how would the scheduling work? OSU and Michigan NEED to play eachother every year, so do we preserve an end-of the-year rivalry week between the two? And let’s also consider the fact that there is a good chance OSU and Michigan would win their divisions in the same year. Would this set up for OSU and Michigan to play eachother in consecutive games? Let’s take it a step further and consider last year where OSU and Michigan were #1 and #2 going into the end of the regular season. If OSU beats Michigan at the end-of-season game but then Michigan beat OSU at a neutral site in the conference championship, would that set up for them to meet for a THIRD time at the BCS championship?
In short, Michigan and OSU would have to be in the same division for a 12-team system to ever work.
The Nittany Turkey says
Pat, clearly you’ve thought this through a lot better than I have, but the job of a good (or even mediocre) bloggist is to inspire intelligent readers to proffer analyses like yours.
As you can tell, I have a problem putting Michigan and OSU in the same division, even though I agree that there are compelling reasons for doing so. Any way you slice it, between the disruption of old rivalries and the machinations with the BCS, there will be lots and lots of compromises.
But the point that we both agree on is that there’s going to have to be some damn creative thinking if the conference championship game is to be implemented. Unless something truly brilliant comes out of the Big Ten, I think we can conclude that it is a bridge too far, TV greedinesswise.
Perhaps merely adding another major TV market will be enough for the Big Ten/12 without going to a bifurcated format and a championship game. Delany mentioned a ninth state. Guess which state falls within my definition of Big Ten Country (400-mile radius of Chicago) and has TWO major TV markets? With the revelation that Delany is after a ninth state, I’m now putting my money on Missouri.