Shocking to say the least, from a football standpoint, but not so much from a TV sets standpoint I guess.
Seems FSU is wanting to get out of the ACC, maybe the Big 10 should take them instead of Maryland. More TV's.
Terp trustees vote yes. Looks like Maryland and Rutgers are moving to the Big 1G. I'm sure Minny and Indiana are looking forward to a possible football win or 2.
Outstanding schools, both AAU members and a whole lot of tv sets from NoVA/DC to NY.... Value of the network and conference/CIC academic and research influence just appreciated materially...I have been advocating for one or both for some time.....what is not to like? Doesn't do a whole lot for football if that is the sole focus to be sure. The value of the CIC even before considering two additional AAU member schools is already well in excess of the value of football and indeed all athletics..... http://www.cic.net/Home/Impact.aspx
FSU.. as a one loss team..... is paying the heavy price this year of being in the ACC. If they go 12-1 and can't get a sniff of the BCS Title discussion that should make their AD spring into action. I could see the nolies moving to the Big 12......
I don't get it from the athletic standpoint myself. For a long time Missouri coveted being member in the Big10 and were not invited, I"m not sure why the Big10 would want Maryland now and RU just has me scratching my head. Sure they are located in NJ and in theory I guess it improves your TV situation, but does anybody really care about RU football? Same thing for MD football. Now Maryland does have good basketball, and good Lacrosse, Soccer and stuff. Maryland and RU will mostly allow IU and Minn to escape the B1G cellar IMHO. Now as for the ACC, they will have to add another full time member and I would imagine that UConn would be that member, as I can see any other school on the East Coast that would fit in the ACC. Academically UConn will be out of it's element though. I can't see Louisville going to the ACC they definitely don't fit the culture of the ACC. I wonder if this will trigger more changes?
I don't think there is anything theoretical about it TOK, massive school with a large and influential alumni base in a massive market.....from an economic standpoint, I have heard estimates of a 30+% increase in value for the network due to the addition.....DC metro area as well. Adding the two largest and very influential schools with in the most densely populated and affluent region in the country provides the kind of scale and impact that you just can't get anywhere else.....it is just not available on that scale
Terry, IMO the population density of the eastern seaboard from NY to MD assures the B10 of tens of thousands of new viewers even if they get only a small percentage of that geographic area. Oops. Posted this at the same time as BT's above post. We both are saying the same thing, but BT offers more geographic detail.
Sid, you've got to include the entirety of the DC metro area extending south of DC into the NOVA suburbs to fully account for the market extension.....NOVA is every bit as much of DC metro as the MD suburbs and based upon my time there, with plenty of Terp faithful..... Did I ever tell you about my unsecured loan to Lenny Bias while working in DC?
Yes, eventually we were made whole, but my timing could not have been worse! In truth Mark McCormack/IMG at the time were among our biggest customers and it was at their intro that we made the loan...they made sure we were taken care of.....
I guess my question is does anybody watch MD and RU football now? While the population of those areas is big, they are also dominated by Pro Football. Saying that adding MD and RU means lots of new views would be like saying adding SMU and Houston will give the Big East millions of new viewers, except nobody cares about the football programs at those two schools. I would think that since the BTN is already televised in those area's that it will add the few MD and RU fans and not much else as those fans interested in Big10 football are already watching.
I think you are dramatically underestimating the economic impact of those two schools on their respective areas and the impact on local cable providers and existing pricing for advertisers throughout the BTN footprint..... I have no clue as to the existing reach of the BTN into the east coast markets or even if it is available at all and I don't have the actual numbers at hand, but I suspect Delaney and his advisers have a pretty good understanding. We'll see when we get our checks under the new B1G integer structure!
I live in Houston and I get the BTN, hard to imagine that the BTN does not exist in the DC/Balt corridor and in the NYC/NJ markets. Still I ask, what proud football tradition exists at either of those schools? RU recently expanded it's stadium and doesn't sell out, and when ND played MD in it's backyard in DC last year there were more ND fans than MD fans in the stadium. Unless MD is atypical for a ACC team, there are empty seats for all but the biggest games.