Pulling from footballgod's thread about running the SEC, what would you do if you were given the keys to the conference. Do you keep the staus quo? Are teams evicted? Are teams brought in? What is the logic behind your decisions?

Feel free to question others' decisions, but don't be a wimp --- put your own ideas up first!

I would add Notre Dame as an all sports member. The Big Ten will lose more clout in the next BCS deal with the likely addition of the Cotton Bowl (power shifting to Texas and the Big XII). If NBC were smart, they would dump Notre Dame for a deal with a conference (like the SEC on CBS). Adding Notre Dame to the Big Ten would be best for both parties in the long term and would also raise the academic stature of Notre Dame. Divisions should look like this:

North: Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Notre Dame
South: Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State

One permanent crossover in each division:
Michigan-Ohio State
Michigan State-Indiana
Minnesota-Penn State
Wisconsin-Northwestern
Notre Dame-Purdue
Iowa-Illinois

The Big 10 is grdilocked by it's fruitless pursuit of ND. in an ideal B10 world the Big 10 adds ND and goes to 12 members.

ND realizes they would quickly become Northwestern (ort at least stanford in football) in the Big 10, so they continue to play a national schedule as an indy.

I would handle this through the university presidents like the Penn State addition. I would concede that ND does better as a FB indy and invite them for all other sports, with a promise not to pressure them to join for FB. I think ND would accept. It validates both parties. It builds up ND as the school that stood up to the Big 10 and the Big 10 as the school that lassoed in ND.

ND could continue to play the argueably weaker, but national schedule that allows them to go to bowls most years which keeps ND looking shiny and new with a nationwide appeal, but that fame would trickle into the Big 10 pool. The Big 10 gets another academic feather in it's cap.

I would add Rutgers as the 12th football playing member of the Big 10.

The big 10 also has a non-sports member, the University of Chicago. I would expand non-sports membership to reinforce my eastern push by offering non-sports memberships to the northern members of UC's academically excellent division III home, the UAA. I would add Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve, University of Rochester, and NYU.


NYU and Rutgers specifically ramp up the big 10's appeal in the NY market, rutgers by providing the only FBS member in the NYC market, NYU by providing academic excellence and lots of B10 grads/viewers in NYC. This is very similar to what the big 10 has going on in Chicago with UC and Northwestern keeping them relevant in an NFL and NBA killzone.

Football
west
Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Indiana
Purdue
Illinios

east
rutgers
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern

other sports
+ Notre Dame

non-sports membership
University of Chicago
Brandeis
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western Reserve
University of Rochester
NYU

I think this would be recognized as the second best academic conference and with it's dominance of the Midwestern and Northeastern media markets would make 3 times as much as the next conference. Additionally if NYU ever wises up and plays Div 1, they would play in the Big 10. That is really the only thing that could really concern the Big 10/make anything to the east interesting to Penn State.

Univ of Chicago is in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, not the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten can form an academic alliance with those aforementioned universities without having them become Big Ten members.

Also, why is it necessary that Notre Dame "stand up" to the Big Ten? Could you elaborate on that please? And IMO if Notre Dame has a few more 3-9 seasons they might start to rethink if indy FB is the right way to go.

Also, what rankings are you using for academic strength of institutions (1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, etc...)? Is it US News and World Report?

The first thing I will do, before any talk of expansion or contraction, I will get the conference right academically:

1: If a student finds he does not want to play football anymore after one year of play, he doesn't forfeit his scolarship, however, his scolarship is officially opened again to be filled by someone else.

2: I realise that underclassmen have taken over most all sports now, but that takes away from discipline. In the Big Ten things will be different. Freshmen will not ever be permited to play varsity sports. This includes even competitive cheerleading. There will be no more redshirts except for medical reasons. You want to get on the varsity field as a freshman, do it in community college, or some other conference.

3: I will take a pay cut after my first year (once I've paid cash for my house, which will be a very modest home in a relatively downscale neighborhood) and I will make a new Big Ten rule: A Head Coach in any sport cannot be paid any salary higher than the school president or the athletic director. And trying to pay hidden "bonuses" will be treated like academic cheating or paying the student-atheletes.

All of these things will be key in the schools' arguements against a football playoff...

Excellent stuff, benbreeck! I strongly agree!

I'll be happy to address your criticism/answer your questions dafoeberezin3494 when you post your scenario = rules of the thread, lol!

Having NYU in the academic alliance (the CIC) would NOT increase ratings in NYC or the North East. Getting eyeballs in the NE would already occur if you have ND and PSU in your conference. You really need fans of that particular team to watch.

Second, I really think that if ND and PSU are in opposite divisions that the crossover game for each would be PSU-ND. This game is a ratings bonana - even if it would relegate the PU-ND (or other ND rivalry besides ND-UMich) to not being every year.

Funny because I actually had the 2nd post to this thread...

I don't understand why NBC wants to broadcast Notre Dame. IMO they should talk to either the Big XII or ACC and set up a TV deal similar to the SEC on CBS. The Big Ten (plus ND) would have a similar deal with FOX, already a partner with them for the Big Ten Network and probably a decent financial choice for Notre Dame, especially if NBC were to dump them.

If not, replace ND with Syracuse in my above scenario and make the crossovers Penn State-Syracuse and Minnesota-Purdue.

D'oh! :o My bad. Here we go then...

The CIC is perhaps incorrectly referred to as the "academic Big 10" because UC used to be a member of the big 10 athletic conference before it de-emphasized sports. All members chose to retain an academic relationship giving birth to that distinction. I think eliminating the name CIC and just calling the whole thing the Big 10, 11, 12, 19 (or even the Big 20 if you can scare up another top academic non-sports school -- maybe IAAA Boston U. as a non-football 14th?) would help tremendously. If you think you wouldn't get a viewership boost from that especially with BU and NYU's big alumni bases in the Boston and NYC Markets, well... we will just have to disagree.

Academically, it would more than pay for itself and has almost no real costs.




There are a lot of Catholics in the US and a lot of people in Notre Dame's home DMA (Chicago). ND plays a national schedule to cater to their nationwide following. Financially it all makes a lot of sense.

Well, it is simple negotiating. If ND joins the B10 for all sports, then the B10 broke ND. If ND goes in the toilet, heads roll in South Bend. That is not going to happen when ND can do as well financially as an Indy.

IMO, the B10 should be getting ND on board as a non-football member. That is doable. Both party's get to celebrate their "win" while enjoying the rewards of the partnership.

ND now recruits only athletes who match their University academic pre-requisites. It is a long way from Lou Holtz's day. ND would be just another B10 school --- just like Penn State has become. The appeal that ND has for the B10 is that they are not just another school. Why snuff that out?




I use US News for a "quick and dirty". They do not seperate Tier 1 & 2, but there are roughly 130 individually ranked schools before tier 3, I think it is fair to say Tier 2 starts halfway through that list.

I do recognize that US News rankings are somewhat inadequate to accurately guage universities in the Big 10 (at the top of the academic food chain) as those schools REALLY focus on being research institutions. Looking at endowments and research dollar rankings gives a clearer picture at the top, but the US News list is still IMO fairly accurate for most schools for a good quick and dirty.

Expand to 14 schools:

West - Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern
East - Penn State, Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue

There is one and only one option - The university of Phoenix Online. This would also allow me to get rid of the boring Rose Bowl trip every year and get an agreement with the Fiesta Bowl. I think everyone - especially Lash (don't you live near Phoenix) who enjoys Big 10 FB and BB - would be happy!

;D

PantherSC97, yes I live very near University of Phoenix Stadium. It is the latest state of the art football facility and we are very proud of to have this in the "Valley of the Sun". The Rose Bowl is in a beautiful location and has tradition, however, it does not compare to the University of Phoenix Stadium.

I would concur that playing in the Rose bowl every year could become boring for fans regardless if the location is the LA area.

It would be great to rotate the Big Ten and Pac 10 football BCS bowl every other year between Phoenix (Fiesta) and LA (Rose).

Speaking of the University of Phoenix, this system provides many opportunities for working students that may otherwise not have many opportunities to attend a traditional four year college.

My company sometime uses the University of Phoenix training and conference rooms and they are located all across the Phoenix metro area and they are very state of the art.

If the University of Phoenix decided to start a football program, there would be fans all across the USA that would attend bowl games.

Maybe the Big Ten should explore this option as the Big Ten Network may benefit from the University of Phoenix national network.

I am not sure you remember Tigersharktwo that posted on this board. He may possibly have been a U of Pittsburgh graduate. Tigersharktwo was always in confrontation with my point of view. I can not discuss my company or other personal information as we have a very strong Code of Conduct. Tigersharktwo once accused myself of being a University of Phoenix graduate. I sort of laughed at Tigersharktwo because the programs offered by University of Phoenix are not bad. Shortly after some of our arguments, the University of Phoenix provided money for naming rights for the new stadium. I can not confirm or deny however, Tigersharktwo may have provided the University of Phoenix an idea for marketing the educational programs nation wide.

If you know him by chance, maybe he can apply for an honorary degree from the University of Phoenix. The University of Phoenix has received a big bang for the buck with the BCS and this year Super bowl which had one of the highest ratings in TV history.

Sorry for the OT question, however...

...is U of Phoenix Stadium making money by itself? Is it perhaps on its way to doing so?

Pounder, not sure if the University of Phoenix Stadium is making money yet!. It cost a lot of tax payers dollars to build over 400 million. There is a rectrable roof, field that pulls completly out to grow grass, and a complete tailgate area with new resturants and shops.

Texas will probably have the same type of stadium for the Coyboys when thier new stadium is completed.

It was built primarily to bring in Super bowls and retain the BCS Fiesta Bowl. The super bowl brought in lots of fans and money, however, lots of money was spent on extra security.

The Arizona Cardinals are drawing much bigger crowds and that should be helping with rental fees.

Phoenix is such a fast growing city and can probably afford anything at this point.

In addition to the new football stadium, we have the new baseball park down town with a retractable roof, fairly new US Air arena for the Suns basketball downtown, new Hockey arena for Coyotes by football stadium, and new speedway for racing.

This in addition to some of the best golf resorts in the US.

Phoenix has really became a very good sports town.