(05-22-2020 11:42 PM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  

(05-22-2020 08:32 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  I will say that the Big Ten took the wrong eastern schools, especially if Pitt and Cuse did apply to the conference. Potential and reach be darned, Rutgers and UMD football have no place in the Big Ten, and they will never “keep” PSU truly satisfied, and you could have had the northeast by the neck reviving those rivalries.

Those three schools are on the wrong side of the Appalachian Mountains to dominate the eastern markets. Perhaps all three deserve to be together in the Big Ten.

I don’t think it’s location but more pedigree and tradition? UMD used to run around with southern schools. Yeah, they have a thing with WVU, but, again, WVU was also “southern” at one time. They don’t run deep with the rest of the northeast unless you want to count what series they’ve had with Navy and Penn State.

Rutgers definitely centered in on the region, but until the 80’s, were playing a schedule more reminiscent of today’s Patriot League or CAAF, with some familiar names in there, too. I would say that people aren’t being truly fair to Rutgers because they don’t run deep at other known D1 northeastern schools, like Cuse, BC, or even Temple, but Rutgers has carried so many other issues with it that it has made for a tough chew.

Both fit the institutional profile of Big Ten schools, but the athletic value to the northeast and linkage to PSU is overstated at best or simply untrue. Probably the kind of spew from college administrators who refuse to actually tackle their real sentiments or expose the politics. Like any between PSU and Pitt, or the political challenge of having new members from “claimed” states, like we hear with Ohio with OSU and Cincy or Iowa with UI and ISU.