(09-11-2020 11:38 PM)USAFMEDIC Wrote:  

(09-11-2020 02:59 PM)MU88 Wrote:  I live in Wisconsin. There is absolutely no possible way Wisconsin would leave the Big 10. None. Zip. Less than zero. I used to live in Iowa. There is absolutely no possible way Iowa would leave the Big 10. None. Zip. Less than zero. Even a smaller chance Iowa joins a conference with their perceived little sister, Iowa State.

Further, there is no way the Presidents of the Big 10 universities break up the conference for something as insignificant as athletics. Those schools are academically tied to each other. Athletics is simply something to appease boosters and generate donations. Big time sports are a marketing expense for the school, nothing more. Fans takes athletics way too seriously.

I believe those insignificant athletics bring north of 77 million dollars annually in TV revenues alone. Kind of a big deal.

$77 million is small potatoes to universities who could their annual revenue in billions:

Annual revenue of Big Ten schools (just the first few I looked up):
U of Illinois: 6.8 billion
Purdue: 2.9 billion
Wisconsin: 3 billion
Ohio State: 6.5 billion