(09-21-2014 09:56 AM)gosports1 Wrote: I consider myself to be objective in this. It seems to me if you think about it all of the B1G additions have been "WOW moves". You may not agree with them, but at the very least they caused a great deal of discussion and maybe even some head scratching.
PENN ST-
a traditional eastern indy power. At the time conferences were much more regional. Yes pennsylvania borders Ohio but PSU was/is still and eastern school. Some say this was the move that started it all
NEBRASKA-
Another traditional national power in FB. B1G got them to turn away from their affiliations with schools that go back for generations. Yes there were problems in the B12 and Nebraska was unhappy, but still a move that got attention
MARYLAND-
Getting a founding member of the ACC, a conference that up to now, had been the aggressor and some may say leader(or instigator) in conference alignment. Gets them into DC market where many B1G alumni have settled. Also got a member that is on the east coast. Drives a wedge between the Norhern ACC members and the Southern members
RUTGERS:
Hasnt had the most successful athletic program lately which caused some to say what? why? Another east coast school, gets them into NYC market, officially. Kept the ACC away from NY and again adds a nice chunk of territory that acts like a wedge between the northern and southern ACC teams. BIG territory smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic coast. Rutgers also has plenty of potential that a B1G membership should help develop
If Rutgers had taken the initial Big East invitation, keeping Seton Hall out, it's quite possible PSU would have been a member then, too. The conversations between Bryce Jordan and some of the other Big Ten school presidents would have probably toned down for a bit, maybe even have stopped. At that time, Rutgers and PSU were pretty amicable with each other. I don't know how the Big Ten would have responded...start up conversations with other schools in the east, refocus on some of the Big 8 schools, or would the new "eastern conference" have changed things for Notre Dame?
Yeah, a lot of those eastern moves are "wow." "Wow" because it took some big breaks for them to get those schools. The Big East messed up, and it ultimately cost them their conference (though they got some good years out of it).
I don't know if there's anything "wow" about Nebraska. Those guys always wanted to be in the conference. There was a possibility that the new Big XII was going to work out all of its problems and make a ****-ton of bank, which it should have with those schools (even without much of a footprint), so the time in the 90's when the Big Ten finally wanted them enough, UNL told the conference nope. I think "wow" was that the conference also wanted Colorado. Could you imagine if the Big Ten went from PA to Colorado? It was never going to happen (the PAC and UC were ga-ga for each other), but it's interesting to see that 20 years ago, the conference wasn't so obsessed about eastern expansion.
If UMD is impressive, I think it's the conference doubling down on UMD and Johns Hopkins that makes it so. And with JHU, the ACC miffing it. Yeah, yeah...the ACC doesn't need AQ in lacrosse and the Beltway is still technically in the ACC footprint, but in that miss, the Big Ten put itself on the lacrosse map, will get its schools fielding that sport some respectable coin, and now is firmly represented in lacrosse's biggest state. Considering UMD was a stick in the mud when in the ACC toward expansion, including PSU, "wow" might be that PSU didn't take it personally and still supported UMD as a good working partnership.
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Confirmed: Big Ten wanted to expand into sun belt region
