As a New Yorker (with an apt on W53rd Street, when not in classes), I can tell you those statistics are so misleading! First of all, NYC bases its opinions of college sports on basketball -- college football is an after thought! Notre Dame is popular anywhere there are large amounts of Catholics, its just a given (Happy Ash Wednesday/Lent, btw).

What adheres New York to the Big East isn't Rutgers or Uconn, it's definitely not Syracuse, despite their attempts to brand themselves as such... it's the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

That tournament has made NY feel like that is THEIR champion, THEIR conference, and it carries over to the other sports, even though they're not really connected. There is nothing New Yorkers and the NY media love more than something we do! Crowning a winner on the biggest stage, under the brightest lights, that's NY baby!!! Even if Rutgers goes to the ACC, they are like the second class step-child by themselves - their relevance or irrelevance actually is a direct correlation of their lack of Big East Tournament success.

Taking schools won't win the market, college football ratings are the pits in New York metro, and they hate the idea that the tobacco row has better basketball and anyone joining them is turncoat enemy (BC fell off the Northeast sports radar faster than fast with its move to the ACC). If a conference doesn't have its conference championship (especially basketball) in New York City, it has no chance of winning over the city's heart anytime soon.