Quote:
Iowa St. adds nothing. Pitt adds nothing. Choices are:
1. Notre Dame
2. tie
Syracuse
Rutgers (if they get their athletic program in order)
Missouri
and maybe Boston College?
Its a been a few years since this conversation has taken place, but my has it made a difference for Rutgers.
Rutgers is now averaging 40,000 a game with tickets in high demand. The potential looks unlimited as its a huge school within loads of professional alumni with big bucks in the local area. They could average 60,000 on a Big Ten schedule, perhaps even more.
Check out the ticket demand. Individual game tickets going for 200 dollars a piece.
http://www.ncaabbs.com/forums/bigeast/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=19640
"On the stubhub.com Web site, individual tickets for the Lousville game were being offered for $199 Monday. That was at the low end. At the high end they were being offered for $589 each.
bids reached $255 Monday for tickets to the Louisville game. The tickets have a face value of $15.
Rutgers, which has not played a home game since Sept. 23, has outgrown its home. The athletic department is looking to add several thousand temporary seats for the Nov. 2 game against Louisville, a Thursday night game to be televised nationally by ESPN at 7:30 p.m.
The Louisville game and the Nov. 25 game against Syracuse are sold out. About 3,000 tickets remain for the game against Connecticut, an ESPN game scheduled for 8 p.m. Sunday"
This would give the Big Ten 12 members for a championship game.
Big Ten East
Rutgers
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Big Ten West
Purdue
Northwestern
Illinios
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
The litmus test for expansion has is can anyone added to the Big Ten provide enough increase in TV market to offset expansion, and I think Rutgers is the one of the few schools out there that can do that.
If Rutgers left the Big East, I would expect that would allow for Temple to get back into the conference.