Comments on: Dienhart: Pros & cons to latest Big Ten expansion

By: kathy johnson

kathy johnson — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:03:18 +0000

It’s ALWAYS about the money. The travel cost for both teams and fans is going to be extravagant. I’ll take tradition ANY day. When is enough, enough?

By: Kurtis Johnson

Kurtis Johnson — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:39:26 +0000

Can Nebraska get a travel voucher? Sheesh.

By: Kurtis Johnson

Kurtis Johnson — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:36:08 +0000

@sbuel2, B1G divisions are mainly premised on equal distribution of the four marquee teams: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska. They will never divide it up three in one division, and one in another. It will always be symmetrical two and two.

By: sbuel2

sbuel2 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:59:19 +0000

Let’s go east vs west Leaders and Legends geographically So Leaders would be Penn State, Maryland, RutIers, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana Legends will be Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue. Geographically, it will be more balanced , This has six games against your division rivals every year, and at least two from the other division each year (maybe try alternating three year rotation like most conferences with divisions) and one annual rival game which is 9 conference games a year. This is the B1G so logic doesn’t seem to take the easy way. this ads two more weak teams to the Leaders and the Legends has more of the stronger teams, Nice set up for Ohio State to run the table for years to come. B1G lets balance the divisions while you have an opportunity.

By: Roberto

Roberto — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:46:34 +0000

“Facilities?” In 2011, Rutgers opened a newly-renovated Rutgers — now High Point Solutions — stadium that seats 52,000 and change. (The stadium being renovated was only 17 years old.) It’s no “Big House” or Ohio Stadium but it is easily comparable to most of the rest and nicer than most of them.

I don’t know how you measure “passion” but they draw 45-50,000 on Saturdays, which is pretty good. The game against Louisville three years ago drew the third-most viewers to ever watch a college football game on ESPN. There is some interest there.

By: bob e / msu '75

bob e / msu '75 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:47:10 +0000

delany has made few dumb moves in his tenure as big 10 commissioner. but adding maryland & rutgers is by far the dumbest. what’s in this for big 10 fans? nothing in football. not enough in men’s basketball. the big 10 took almost 40 yrs to add penn state, almost 20 to add nebraska. so what’s the rush? this stinks of $$, & delany’s self-perceived legacy. what’s next, florida st & lsu, 2 top academic institutions? no consideration for the big 10 fans.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 06:50:14 +0000

Adding these schools and moving Illinois to the Legends Division just makes an easy division even easier for OSU and Wisky. Having a team in NYC makes sense for all of the schools and alumni bases, but lets face it , Maryland is a terrible program and Rutgers has only just become marginally relevant in a very weak Big East – adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse before they bolted to the ACC would have made more sense from a competitive standpoint.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:14:42 +0000

The fact that teams will only be playing teams that used to be annually 2 out of 12 years is terrible (and in the coming decades bad for stability).

The conference desperately now needs to realign in such a way that locked crossovers are no longer necessary so that we can play each other more. If there no crossovers, then it can be set-up so that every team plays every other team home or away at least once every 4 years even with an 8 game schedule. That’s far from ideal, but it’s a lot better than what we got.

My suggestion would be to put the 4 western schools with the 3 eastern and put the rest together as that would mostly preserve competitive balance and keep every rivalry with the exception of The Little Brown Jug and Ohio State-Penn State (including restoring Iowa-Wisconsin).

By: clint

clint — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:49:24 +0000

As an Ohio State fan, I loathe this move. Stuck in a division with two more crappy teams will only erode any strength of schedule. This move is poor, especially understanding that both these schools are in financial stress because of their poorly supported teams, and both are underwritten by the state. The big ten now gets to play mommy to two infantile sports toddlers. In short? This sucks.!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:39:08 +0000

As an Iowa alum and still diehard Hawkeye fan now living in eastern PA, I’m very happy with this strategic move. Although I can see why the midwestern folks might not care for it. Who should the B1G nab next to make it 16?