The other night, while watching the BTN Football Report, I noticed one of its sponsors was 5-Hour Energy. Given the recent dubious claims against that product, I thought, "Jim Delany can't get a break." He expands the B1G by grabbing a national power like Nebraska, only to watch a huge deal with the PAC, collapse. He inaugurates the B1G Championship Game and then his marquis team - Ohio State - gets busted by the NCAA. While the BTN's fortunes soar, Penn State dwells in the bane.
But, if this deal is real and the B1G is about to introduce itself to the Northeast, Jim Delany gets to invoke what may be the B1G's new slogan: "When you get the money, you get the power!"
Not only will the B1G bet the Northeast wants a more exciting football option, on Saturday: the B1G will bet the pageantry and tradition of its football product will appeal to the elite, high-minded and powerful, in NYC and DC. VIP's in attendance at B1G games, will mean more business opportunities and more federal funds. The whole midwest will benefit, from its corporate powers like P&G and the Big Three, to its leisure attractions like, Cedar Point and the Lake Erie Islands [Northeasterners (in search of a less-crowded real estate on water at a lower price) have been visiting and investing in Great Lakes waterfront property - increasingly - for over a decade.]. Expect the BiG's biggest assets - Ohio State and Michigan - to play in NYC and/or DC - annually. Don't be surprised if a deal is pitched to Ohio State and Michigan to do the unthinkable - play "The Game", in NYC or DC.
B1G fans may view Rutgers and Maryland with a smirk. But, there's plenty of football talent, in the Northeast.
And we know, what everybody in America knows: money and power reside in NYC and DC.
Comments
the game will always be played in columbus /ann arbor. are you kidding me?
The two most popular college teams in the NY television market are....OSU and Michigan. Did you guys know that?
Our honor Defend!
You have some links to back that up? Cause I've always heard it was Notre Dame and Penn State.
CommonConsensus NCAA says it's 1) Rutgers, 2) Penn State, 3) Notre Dame.
#fistpumpgobuckeyes
I heard it was Notre Dame, Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan, Syracuse in that specific order.
/Duff'd It
Was an interesting read until the part about The Game.
I'm not advocating playing The Game at a neutral/NYC venue. I'm just preparing myself, for the inevitable trade-offs of this deal.
But, The Game is a "big act." And somewhere in the news and entertainment capital of the world, some bigshot will be tempted to dare such a thing. Somebody like Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox Sports has a stake in the B1G.
Besides, The Game has attracted big money ideas, before. Back in 2002, SBC pushed a deal that, ultimately, fell through:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/2004-10-26...
Wanna bet The Game plays, at night?
there aren't any stadiums that can hold the same number of people, in the northeast, as the horseshoe and shit house does.
Yankee Stadium.
Never.
/Duff'd It
Besides, this will be huge for hoops. B1G Hoops CG will be in MSG, most likely.
Yep, thought that immediately as well. Not to mention that the greatest stretch of HS basketball talent in the country runs from...oh....Washington DC...to...NYC. Oh, Delany, you sly dog.
I do hope this is a "Reverse psychology" type of thread where you're saying something with the true hope if it never, ever, ever happening. The Game is either in Columbus or Ann Arbor. End of discussion.
"Sherman ran an option play right through the south" - Greatest.Civil.War.Analogy.Ever
I agree.
But, we may have to fight to keep it in Columbus and Ann Arbor.
New York is all about money. Then there's DC. They may want it to happen.
I'd rather add teams that will increase football talent than teams that will increase 'marketing reach'... Maryland and Rutgers, to be kind, suck. They're not the traditional 'largest univeristy in a high population state' that we're looking for. Missouri would've been. WVU would be better than these two. Texas would be the best. If we add these two, Delany will show how out of touch he is with college football and should be removed from his position.
Ok, your post has all kind of inaccuracies.
New York/New Jersey is a massive population and Rutgers only trails NYU by a couple thousand for largest university in the area. It is by far the largest university in New Jersey alone by a more than 2:1 margin. Rutgers is also an AAU member and borders the current B1G geographic footprint (definitive criteria for B1G expansion).
Maryland is ranked 19th in population, but you would've been fine with Missouri who is 18th in population? It is the largest college in the Maryland/Virginia area. Maryland is also an AAU member and borders the current B1G geographic footprint.
West Virginia is 37th in population and has awful academics. You're placing recent on-field success over academics and demographics.
I know these schools don't move the meter on the field. Yet. But they both have awesome potential to do so with recruiting in both areas getting better every year.
Before you criticize Delany about how out of touch he is with college football, maybe you need to look in the mirror and decide how out of touch you are with the idea that there is more to college than college football. These 2 universities are going to bring a lot to the B1G in terms of academics, research, and yes eyeballs for the B1G Ten Network. In time, I think they have the potential to bring on field success too.
For the record, I really thought Missouri would've been a great fit as well. Too bad the SEC grabbed them.
New Jersey has the winningest CFB program of all time, the Princeton Tigers.
/Duff'd It
I think you're overreaching a bit. People on the east coast watch neither Maryland nor Rutgers sports. It is a professional sports dominated region. It's not a big draw, and I don't think it matters if you get Ohio State or Michigan to show up there once every few years to play a game.
Well-written piece, nonetheless.
Im sorry but im not interested in bringing in Rutgers or Maryland. Neither one of them are very appealing and they only water down the already watered down B1G. No thanks. Now if were talking Notre Dame, Texas, Oklahoma, VTech etc, maybe...
Here is the thing - it isn't just about footabll or sports. Academics & TV revenue are as or more important.
Virginia Tech would not be a good add. Aside from wrestling and sometimes football, they aren't very good athletically. Academically, aside from engineering, it's exactly like Nebraska. No thank you.
/Duff'd It
Maryland's athletic budget is WAY in the red. They're dropping sports. The B1G will have to come up with $50 million to pay the ACC the fee they charge schools to leave their league.
In America First You Get The Sugar Then You Get The Power Then You Get The Women
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG9K7Z9Dq_k
I have heard Georgia Tech being thrown out there and rumored but is Georgia a possibility? How would the SEC like that snatching one of their own?? I personally would find it hilarious.
Georgia Tech =/= Georgia
Georgia Tech is in the ACC.
However, knowig how those toothless inbreds claim the entire conference when one of their teams win, I wouldn't put it past them to claim Georgia Tech since it's in their geographic footprint.
Hard to see NYC and DC tripping over themselves for the allure of B1G football, as big as that Illinois - Maryland game will be. These teams don't draw that much support to their stadiums, why expect the whole coast to suddenly demand BTN. This is not exactly the Giants and Redskins. This is watering down a watery product. The B1G cuts the pie evenly, so the watering down will continue and an already weak product will get weaker.
The day they try to move the GAME is the day a scarlett and grey clad militia forms up and moves out on Chicago with an unquenchable bloodlust - and rightly so.
JLP36
You make some solid points about selling tickets to big business types in the DC and NYC metro areas - a la what the Super Bowl has become. But there is no way Delaney will ever consider moving the tOSU v UM game out of either team's home stadium. Remember a few years ago when they tried to tag an SBC sponsorship to the game, people shat hatepoops so loudly that SBC pulled out.
I think a "neutral site non-conference matchup" between the likes of scUM and Texas in FedEx field or OSU v. FSU in NYC might draw a pretty penny.
That said, I'm still holding out for a possible announcement that we're picking up Notre Dame and UNC or UVA to make it 16. This would make more sense in our now-14 team league, as ND bolsters the northeastern market and North Carolina or Virginia solidifies the Atlantic. THAT would be quite the media deal ;)
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Good read! Solid points made! The Game played outside of The Two States? No way- well, if the money and power speak- you are probably right. Which, in my humble opinion, are the exact WRONG reasons The Game would be played anywhere else besides what tradition holds; the big house and The 'Shoe.
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Groucho Marx