This is old news. But I like to show up fashionably late to a party.
Last month, Outside the Lines (which I am not a fan of after the PSU/JoePa witch hunt) had a segment about college sports and tv revenue. In that piece, it was revealed that the Big Ten makes $242 MILLION in tv revenue, and that's before money brought in by advertisements. Holy Cow Delany! That is the most out of any Division I conference. And that is split equally among the eleven schools in the conference.
That is $22 million being earned by PSU for you non math majors.
I guess the Big Ten Network experiment worked. Really well.
Which really makes you think about the expansion talk. There is some interweb talk about who would be added? Everyone from Cincinnati and Rutgers to the old favorite Notre Dame. But apparently now this is a black horse candidate in the University of Texas.
In a great blog, Frank the Tank talks about the 11+1=13 Rule. Which basically comes down to money. And that leaves about two viable and really attractive schools, Notre Dame and Texas. I really suggest reading that article because it is fantastic.
Sure, there are some major downfalls to Texas, things like Texas size Big Hair, the Cowboys, insane travel to get there. But Texas is also academically smart, ranked 47th with PSU in the US News and World Report, clearly is a good program in sports, and last, but clearly not least, they can make the conference a ton of money.
Kind of hard to dislike this idea.
So unless ND realizes the basic math principle of $22million being greater than the $9million they make in their paltry NBC contract, I say let's Hook 'Em Horns.
1/29/2010
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6 comments:
I am with the Greatest Coach Ever on this issue; Notre Dame's time to join the Big Ten has cum and gone. Texas is better than ND in both football and basketball (although clearly football is driving the "12th Team Bus"). It is also a great academic institution and Austin is a fabulous college town.
Full Disclosure-I DESPISE Notre Dame-always have and always will. (My contempt for it is greater than that for Pitt, TOSU, U of M and the Black and Gold Farmers combined!)
I am with you on the feeling that their time has come and gone. The only reason why I would want ND to join the conference now is because they would bring in more money than any other school. Other than that, let them stay independent.
I just read on another blog that there is a rumor that Pitt will be the 12th team in the Big Ten and that an anouncement could cum as early as late this week. From a Benjamins viewpoint this makes no sense whatsoever. However, from a PSU perspective only Notre Dame would be a better addition. FTR-I began following PSU football in 1981 when I moved to Philadelphia for law school. That was also the beginning of the 12 year PSU-ND series. I felt as that series went on PSU-ND became a much bigger game than PSU-Pitt.
Don't worry. Pitt is not joining the Big Ten. It makes absolutely no sense, at all, benjamin wise. And let's face it...it's about the benjamins.
I hope you're right!
A lot on the Internet today about the possibility of Texas. (Sometimes where there's smoke there's fire!)
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