Official: Nebraska moves to Big Ten
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The University of Nebraska made it official today by accepting an offer to join the Big Ten Conference starting in the 2011 season. What a week in college athletics and this seems to be only the beginning in a major shift. The Big Ten now has 12 teams, while the Big XII has 10 teams...role reversal. The first of many changes on conference alignment began this past Thursday when the University of Colorado announced that it would be moving from the Big XII Conference to the PAC-10. Other schools from the Big XII also seem to be leaning towards the PAC-10 Conference as well including: Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma St which would make up the newly PAC-16 that would feature two eight-team divisions. Meanwhile Baylor, Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St, and Missouri seem to be left in the dark. Also, Boise St University announced that it would be moving to the Mountain West Conference as well. So what does this all mean? Your guess is as good as mine. In my opinion, there is only one answer: Money talks. Do not get me wrong, I am personally looking forward to a Wisconsin/Nebraska matchup in football. Two historically power run teams going at it will be fun to watch. Also, I am pleased that the Big Ten now has 12 teams and will be able to split up into two divisions which will also enable the conference to have a championship game. It will be interesting too how how the conference splits into two six-team divisions. At first glance, East/West comes to mind where you would have Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Illinois in the West while Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St, Michigan St, Indiana, Purdue in the East. These two divisions make geographical sense and also maintain existing rivalries as well in Ohio St/Mich, Wisc/Minn, Purdue/Ind, Ill/Northwestern, Mich/Mich St. Also, each side has three traditional powers each. West: Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and East: Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St. Personally, this format favors Wisconsin as I believe they should be the front-runner almost every year for the West title. However, with all that said I do not like the direction college athletics is going in as a whole. Last year, each member institution from the Big Ten Conference brought in $22 million in revenue sharing from the conference. That number is more than 2x the amount of the next conference. College football drives the NCAA. College football is king. I love college basketball, but football obviously drives the NCAA and conference interests. For example, look no further than Kansas. Kansas as well as some other Big XII schools seems to be left in the dark. Kansas is one of the most tradition rich and premier college basketball programs in the country and nobody wants them. Conference see Texas A&M in the Dallas market as more valuable. Yes, Texas A&M who is average at best in both sports. If you can sign the Dallas market into your conference TV package that means $$$$. Who knows, by next week more moves will be made and the NCAA landscape will look that much different. I am sure that everything will work out in the end as it is not the first time in NCAA history where conferences have realigned. Now, if we could only fix the BCS????
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Comments
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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Tyler Gross wrote:
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Would a North/South split of the Big Ten make any sense?
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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Tom R wrote:
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Not sure. In the end, I think competitive balance is going to be more of a factor than geography will be in splitting up the league into 2, 6 team divisions. I am sure the Big Ten does not want a situation like the Big XII had for years as the Big XII South(Oklahoma, Texas) was soo much stronger than the North. I think if you have Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St all in the same division, they could potentially have the same problem as all 3 of those schools are traditional powers. yes, Wisconsin and Iowa are always good, but never seem to be great. I do think Ohio St and Michigan will be in the same division though, b/c that yearly rivalry needs to stay intact. It will be interesting to see what happens though.
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