When did Big Ten fans turn into SEC fans? The BTN was a good idea, it has made a lot of money. The league talked about expanding within a reasonable footprint to make more money.
The SEC only has one top 30 TV market outside of Florida. They cannot start a lucrative TV network, but they have their own in a sense in ESPN, which is going to stick with the SEC and pay them lots of money as the other conferences start their own networks. The ACC actually has a reasonable population base and that base is growing. Remember that Sun Belt reference made by the Big Ten? Well, that is where a good number of ACC schools currently reside.
That leaves the Big Twelve and the Pac Ten. They are not great by themselves, but are tremendous if you put the best pieces of the Big 12 with the Pac Ten. Their potential TV markets by far will dominate the other leagues and will only get bigger as the population shifts to the south and the west.
What is really ridiculous is that people keep talking about the Big Ten's current money. We are not talking about today's money, we are talking about tomorrow's money. The Pac Ten and Big Teams from Big Ten merger will easily be able to keep pace with the Big Ten's money.
Get over yourselves. The Big Ten will be fine if they stick to expanding their region reasonably. They will get into the population centers of the North East and that will be it.
Also, as someone else said, The Big Ten really only wanted Texas. And as I said when the story of the Big Ten wanting Texas first came out, Texas was not going to join a northern only league. That just makes no sense from a travel, competition, and recruiting standpoint. Texas likes to play as many games close to home as they can. I dismissed that rumor the second I heard it and gave all the reasons why on this board.