Were the fans booing the commish?

[kicker22]

Well Alabama proved that wrong. The LSU vs Alabama NC pitted the best two teams in the country against each other and Alabama won it. We can argue in circles about this but the fact is the ultimate test is the eye ball test. Alabama that year would've killed any Conference champ that year, everyone knew they deserved to be in there they just didn't want to see a SEC vs SEC NC game so they hide behind some lame saying "you oughta win your conference".

Sorry but I think your overlooking the obvious. The fact the greater majority had a problem with was the fact that the a team selected to play for a national championship not only failed to be a conference champion, but failed to win their division. I'm a firm believer that Alabama was the best team in the country that year. That said, based on the fact that the national championship is a single game, and not a tournament of any kind, IMHO there is absolutely no justification that a team that can'[t even win their division should be selcted to play in such a game.

They got in because they were the recipient of an SEC bias in the fact that conference champions, hell even division champions were passed over for a second SEC team. The problem I have with it is that regardless of how good the SEC truly is (disputable whether head and shoulders above everyone else) the general belef is that one of the great things about college football is the fact that every game matters, and unfortunately that doesn't apply to the SEC as they tend to get their first loss overlooked.

To answer your statement I didn't want to see an SEC vs. SEC NC game, because for years all we get is the worn out card about how the SEC is head and shoulders above the rest of college football and that there really isn't even a comparison and then rather then them proving it against an elite program from another conference a team that didn't even win their division gets back doored into a championship.

 

[TMH1122]

I lurk here all the time and literally never post, but I've got to say something here. Maryland and Rutgers add television sets and bring money to the conference. I will also admit that neither of these teams are perennial powerhouses when it comes to sports either.

However, everyone here is missing the main point. Both of these schools bring so much to the table academically it's obscene. Maryland is consistently a top 75 academic school in the nation and this year they're currently ranked 62. Rutgers on the other hand is widely considered one of the best academic public schools and are consistently ranked in the top 25 in academics nationally. Conference expansion is NOT strictly about athletics and money, academics play a significant part in whether or not schools will be added to a conference and academics is the biggest strength of these two universities.

 

[okeefe4prez]

I lurk here all the time and literally never post, but I've got to say something here. Maryland and Rutgers add television sets and bring money to the conference. I will also admit that neither of these teams are perennial powerhouses when it comes to sports either.

However, everyone here is missing the main point. Both of these schools bring so much to the table academically it's obscene. Maryland is consistently a top 75 academic school in the nation and this year they're currently ranked 62. Rutgers on the other hand is widely considered one of the best academic public schools and are consistently ranked in the top 25 in academics nationally. Conference expansion is NOT strictly about athletics and money, academics play a significant part in whether or not schools will be added to a conference and academics is the biggest strength of these two universities.

Dude, this isn't the Ivy League voting on whether to add the University of Chicago. This is about one thing: MONEY. If they were worried about academics, they would have gone for UVA and GA Tech. But this is Delaney's attempt to siphon additional funds out of cable subscribers in two states. That's it. He made this decision on a model that is new, but like many recent technological shifts, will be obsolete in 10 years. In addition, the 9 Rutgers fans in NJ aren't going to care if the games are on TV and ol' Jimmy Boy is gonna have another thing coming when he passes over the bill to Time Warner Cable. Their maniacal laugh will be heard 'cross the country.

 

[WinOneThisCentury]

I lurk here all the time and literally never post, but I've got to say something here. Maryland and Rutgers add television sets and bring money to the conference. I will also admit that neither of these teams are perennial powerhouses when it comes to sports either.

However, everyone here is missing the main point. Both of these schools bring so much to the table academically it's obscene. Maryland is consistently a top 75 academic school in the nation and this year they're currently ranked 62.

Rutgers on the other hand is widely considered one of the best academic public schools and are consistently ranked in the top 25 in academics nationally. Conference expansion is NOT strictly about athletics and money, academics play a significant part in whether or not schools will be added to a conference and academics is the biggest strength of these two universities.

Riigght...academics...uh huh...it was about higher learning all along. Like Navin Johnson learning the business of weight guessing, "oh, it's a profit deal"...you have cut through the fog to see that the expansion was all about academics. I thank you sir. I stand corrected...TV contracts and money had minor roles.

 

[NCHawker]

If it were primarily about academics, it seems to me that they would have gotten together decades ago....back when academics were more highly valued relative to athletics than today.

 

[Billso]

Correct. And how long do we really have before bundled cable commits suicide? Cable companies are bleeding subscribers and as services like Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix improve, cable will lose more subscribers. The only content they can really dictate terms on anymore is live sports, but even that ain't enough to stop the cancellations. I think the decision to bring in Rutgers and MD will be viewed in 20 years as one of the dumbest college sports moves ever.

Agree to disagree.

No question bundled cable will die eventually, but I'm not seeing how Rutgers+MD changes the calculus either way.

 

[ssckelley]

ok4p is right, the day cable dies is coming soon and I also think the dish services days are numbered but they will survive longer due to rural areas. As the bandwidth expands and the connection speeds improve more and more content will be available online. Our television sets will turn into massive tablets and we will have the option to subscribe to whatever we want when we want.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Agree to disagree.

No question bundled cable will die eventually, but I'm not seeing how Rutgers+MD changes the calculus either way.

They change the calculus because Delaney is doing his math to determine they are accretive to conference earnings based on the number of cable subscribers in each state times the annual subscription revenue Jimmy thinks he can extract via his BTN tax. When bundled cable dies either through an edict from DC, a court decision or a technological shift, Rutgers and Maryland will quickly become dilutive because simply put, they do not have the large, absolutely rabid fan bases that Big Ten teams (save for Northwestern) have and consequently, trying to directly sell them content or BTN on a stand alone basis is gonna be tough.

 

[Billso]

They change the calculus because Delaney is doing his math to determine they are accretive to conference earnings based on the number of cable subscribers in each state times the annual subscription revenue Jimmy thinks he can extract via his BTN tax. When bundled cable dies either through an edict from DC, a court decision or a technological shift, Rutgers and Maryland will quickly become dilutive because simply put, they do not have the large, absolutely rabid fan bases that Big Ten teams (save for Northwestern) have and consequently, trying to directly sell them content or BTN on a stand alone basis is gonna be tough.

Whether it's actually dilutive depends on how future online content deals & offerings are structured. I see BTN actually expanding its reach in an ala carte world, reaching millions of paying customers outside the Big Ten footprint. For example I don't subscribe to BTN because Comcast only shows the primary channel here, meaning Iowa isn't even available most weeks. Another mitigating factor will be vastly improved (and thus higher-CPM) video ad targeting.

The absolute numbers may well fall - there's a reason the dinosaurs are fighting to keep their current model - but there will be some significant mitigating revenue.

 

[okeefe4prez]

Whether it's actually dilutive depends on how future online content deals & offerings are structured. I see BTN actually expanding its reach in an ala carte world, reaching millions of paying customers outside the Big Ten footprint. For example I don't subscribe to BTN because Comcast only shows the primary channel here, meaning Iowa isn't even available most weeks. Another mitigating factor will be vastly improved (and thus higher-CPM) video ad targeting.

The absolute numbers may well fall - there's a reason the dinosaurs are fighting to keep their current model - but there will be some significant mitigating revenue.

"Mitigating revenue" will come from the big programs with gigantic followings - OSU, Michigan and PSU. Schools like Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin will likely be at best revenue neutral. Rutgers has no fans. They, along with Northwestern and Purdue (places where you're only really a fan if you are an alum) will likely be massive revenue takers. Rutgers makes sense today when you might be able to extract the state wide tax, but once it comes time for the fans to pony up, I think we're fixin' to be disappointed.