Howe: The Birthplace of College Football Has Experienced a Tough Life
- Thread starter RobHowe
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guffus
Well-Known Member
Rutgers today feels like Northwestern was treated back in the 1980's. Great academic school with awful athletic teams and tradition.
Time will tell if the Big Ten screwed up, but right now it feels like a huge mistake. The whole push to the east coast to gain cable tv markets looks like a big misfire longterm as the future switches to streaming apps and to actual fans that are willing to subscribe to those apps.
In the long run, taking Missouri, who easily would have accepted, and who fits the Big Ten culture, would have made Iowa fans much happier. This also would have maybe made it easier to get big schools like Texas to eventually join the Big Ten.
Oh well, Rutgers is part of the family now, like the deadbeat brother-in-law that your sister married. Maybe they will get their act together someday and get their program to at least a Northwestern-type level.
Time will tell if the Big Ten screwed up, but right now it feels like a huge mistake. The whole push to the east coast to gain cable tv markets looks like a big misfire longterm as the future switches to streaming apps and to actual fans that are willing to subscribe to those apps.
In the long run, taking Missouri, who easily would have accepted, and who fits the Big Ten culture, would have made Iowa fans much happier. This also would have maybe made it easier to get big schools like Texas to eventually join the Big Ten.
Oh well, Rutgers is part of the family now, like the deadbeat brother-in-law that your sister married. Maybe they will get their act together someday and get their program to at least a Northwestern-type level.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Rutgers is not a great academic school. It's probably on par with the middle of the pack Big Ten schools and given the skew of rankings toward local population, it is an absolute tire fire. The smartest kids in New York and New Jersey want nothing to do with Rutgers, which makes it totally different than most of the flagship schools in the Big Ten, which will lose some kids to more elite schools, but will still be able to maintain a healthy percentage of the smart kids in state. There are plenty of smart kids in places like Minnesota who dream of going to Minnesota, same with Wisconsin, Michigan, OSU, PSU, etc., but no smart kid in Jersey dreams of going to Rutgers. They all want to go Ivy or some other elite northeastern college.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
Honestly I don't even know if 75% of the population knows that Rutgers is in New Jersey.
I have flown into Newark, been to Ft. Dix a couple of times. Also Ft. Monmouth. Asbury Park and Sandy Hook were nice. But I can't imagine living in NJ for any reason.
I guess I didn't know Rutgers was in New Jersey either. Don't pay much attention to it, I guess.
guffus
Well-Known Member
Yes, I should have clarified what I meant by great academic school. True, they are not ranked as high as Northwestern, but their ranking is similar to those schools in bottom third of the Big Ten, which is still pretty good, and they are still higher than Missouri.
So fine, maybe Rutgers is not a "great" academic school, but they are still "pretty good" and are Big Ten worthy from an academic standpoint.
Fryowa
Administrator
I’ve said it for years, Pitt and Notre Dame in place of Maryland and Buttgers.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Pitt adds no immediate money because PSU already puts Pennsylvania in the "in market" rates for BTN carriage. ND has a similar issue with Indiana, but it would definitely have grown out of market carriage and possibly allowed the Big Ten to leverage the NBC-ND deal.
Now that I have finally seen the light and cut cable, I am totally certain the cable model is going to break and will make the Rutgers/MD move look really bad in 20 years. So taking a long view and assuming the media rights packages of the 2030s looks totally different than it does today, you're absolutely right that Pitt and ND should have been the choices. You put ND on our side, Pitt and Purdon't on the other side and you have a reasonable looking conference steeped in football tradition.
Fryowa
Administrator
Pitt and PSU also already play each other every year in one of the better (in my opinion) rivalry games and they frequently play B1G opponents, so it would be a mostly seamless transition.
Notre Dame would boost the legitimacy of the West and even out some of the historical advantage that UM and OSU have in the East.
Rutgers obviously needs to be an FCS team and could easily find a conference (not that they ever would); Maryland OTOH wouldn't be able to find another major conference home due to geography and the fact that the ACC is even numbered at 14 now. The Big 12 is a perfect place for a bastard stepchild like Maryland but they're half a country away.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
If ACC Network flops and the SEC can get a better replacement media deal for it's absolutely horrid CBS deal, I wouldn't be shocked if the SEC made a push to try to steal UNC and Clemson from the ACC. I know they have a big withdrawal penalty now, but if the conference can't deliver the intermediate term media value, that conference won't be safe from selective plucking. Maybe UVA or VA Tech in lieu of UNC.
Notre Dame is still a media gem, but their embarrassing losses on the big stage to Clemson and Alabama have shown us how far they have fallen.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
As much as I can't stand ND and don't want to see them join, I can't help but imagine how great the conversations of the glory years and current relevance would be between ND and Nebby fanbases. Could be pure gold.
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
Notre Dame is not a fit for B1G, despite their claim to have turned down an invite from "the Big 10 ADs"
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
ANY ACC school, save Clemson, would raise the aggregate IQ in the $EC to "slightly smarter than moron"...
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
I thought it was a huge mistake to turn away Missouri as well, they have a couple of decent size markets in Kansas City and St Louis. Plus by turning them away they allowed the SEC to get into the midwest.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
Replace Pedo State with Pitt.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Clemson is a markedly better school than Iowa, Sparty or Nebraska. And SEC members Georgia and Florida are better than all the Big Ten state schools other than Michigan. The population growth in the South is quickly changing the landscape of big state schools. It will be interesting to see how that landscape continues to change in the next few decades. We've already seen the B1G relegated to second tier status in football, the same thing is happening with brain drain in the North, it's just that seeing the results takes a little longer.
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
It would be classic. Hell, at some point I have to imagine all these programs that have gone to hell are going to create "The Throwback Bowl" where they'll set up some fake ass bowl game series selected by lottery on New Year's Day. Each year it will throw back to a decade with the teams picked accordingly.
"In our '90's throwback bowl to the Orange Bowl, we have Miami versus Nebraska."
"In our '80's throwback bowl to the Cotton Bowl, we have SMU versus PSU"
"In our '70's throwback bowl to the Peach Bowl, we have Pitt versus Notre Dame. Tony Dorsett will be signing autographs at halftime!"
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
Clemson is NOT a "markedly better school" than any school in the B1G. Stop reading the Atlanta papers.
Streaming services like You Tube TV/Hulu etc are still based on channels like ABC, Espn, Fox etc so it doesnt matter if you have cable, satellite, or streaming you are paying for channels. You are still locked into a certain number of outlets unless you are great at finding 'free streaming' of events and shows.
I will want to see a pure cafeteria-plan type service come out where the subscriber can just 'buy' programs without being locked into a certain number of channels. You could buy an NBC drama, then buy an espn sports show, then buy a netflix original series. Pay a little more for commercial free or pay less for the ads.
There is so much more that subscribers could like about this and it will be interesting to see if and when a provider will try this model.
