2014 Big Ten Football Schedule Welcomes Rutgers Rudely

Rutgers has had its share of challenges and missteps lately. They have to get their sh-t together for a variety of reasons, one of the less top-of-mind being the fact that they have just over a year before they jump to the Big Ten conference -- assuming the conference doesn't excommunicate them before they even arrive.

The conventional wisdom has been that while RU basketball was going to be pummeled (just like being in the Big East, only worse), their football program had advanced to the point where they could compete in the Big Ten.

Of course, they don't have Greg Schiano any longer and the jury is really still out on Kyle Flood. I have RU alum friends who are convinced that there was a possibility that the RU athletics department was going to wait things out and then once they were officially a Big Ten school instead of an afterthought pursue more "big time" coaches. Who knows. Mike Rice's behavior then was made public and Rutgers made one disastrous move after another. For now, since Flood doesn't appear to have abused any of his players, he's probably safe.

What's not safe, though, is Rutgers in 2014. The Big Ten football schedule was released and RU gets welcomed to the Big Ten with a four-game stretch that could make any lower-tier Big Ten program shudder. From October 4 to November 1, they go vs Michigan, at Ohio State, at Nebraska, vs Wisconsin. Whee! They also have PSU and MSU on that schedule. Have a ball, Rutgers.

Purdue, incidentally, has a conference schedule that goes like this for 2014: vs OMHR (do we have to retire that now that it's no longer a protected rivalry?), at Illinois, vs MSU, at Minn, at Nebraska, vs Wisconsin, vs Northwestern, at IU.

Purdue gets neither of the newbies, so the BS New Jersey tailgate will have to wait. Also of note, RU and Maryland will play in their final conference games of the season against one another -- perhaps they will be each other's forced rival. 

We now return you to your regularly schedule sneaker and IndyCar content.

Big Money Got No Soul

In the process of reading about Danny Hope's career-best-tying two-game winning streak in conference play, you may have stumbled across this or this or this. Yes, just when you thought it was safe to buy a copy of NCAA Football, the next step in Jim Delany's master plan has nearly come to fruition ... and to be honest, he deserves credit at least for keeping this under wraps. The first I heard of it was on Saturday from a friend asking me about a comment another friend had posted on Facebook about how this might affect women's basketball in the Big Ten. (Short answer: Maryland looks good, Rutgers doesn't. Remember that for a minute.)

For those of you who've avoided the news, apparently Rutgers and Maryland are thisclose to joining the Big Ten. To be precise, Maryland is voting on Monday whether or not to join, and if they do, Rutgers will be sprinting to get in the door before it closes behind the Terrapins. I've not seen when this would take effect, but I would guess sooner rather than later, given the timing of recent moves. While the ACC did raise its exit fee to $50 million, apparently those documents haven't been signed yet (I'd ask how that happens, but a look at the ACC should answer that question), so Maryland might be able to get out relatively cheaply (especially with Connecticut lined up to get in, and don't think the ACC wouldn't like to swap out Maryland for Connecticut in basketball), and of course the Big East really can't stop anything from happening these days.

Why is this happening? Two reasons: money and money. First, because of subscriber fees, which are substantially higher within the "footprint" of the conference (states containing member schools) than outside it. Adding New Jersey and Maryland to the footprint would allow BTN to reap additional rewards from subscribers in those markets, and of course with New York City right next door, there could be additional interest in BTN in a much larger market just outside the footprint. (People seem to want to connect that to Rutgers, who obviously doesn't have much of a following anywhere right now, much less in NYC; I'd say it's more likely that Big Ten alums in New York would want BTN.) Some people estimate a potential gain of $200M, while others project something closer to $100M ... and that could mean an increase in annual payout to something like $30-$35M per school, although I haven't seen if that applies to 11, 12, or 14 schools. (Remember, Nebraska isn't getting a full share yet.) That would make a big difference for schools like Purdue: maybe we could get a real offensive coordinator next season. (Zing!)

Second, the agreement for Big Ten first-tier rights expires in 2017. Side note: first-tier rights are for national broadcasts of football and basketball. (ESPN/ABC in football, for example.) Second-tier rights are for football and basketball broadcasts by someone other than the network(s) holding first-tier rights. Third-tier rights cover everything else (remaining football and basketball games plus all non-revenue sports). See this EsPN post for details: it also shows the current rights agreement for the Big Ten. Anyway, when that comes around again, Delany would like to have more games and teams to offer, and when you consider that the Pac-12's current deals add up to just slightly more than the Big Ten's deals after the former added Utah (meh) and Colorado (whoops), you can maybe understand Delany steepling his fingers and cackling evilly as he counts the billions that some poor network will offer for those first-tier rights. (Hint: they are based in Bristol. There is no way EsPN will let those games go.) ESPN's paying $100M a year through the length of that contract. They just signed a deal with the ACC for $240M per year for rights at all tiers ... paying $125M or more for a conference that frankly whups that one across the board isn't unreasonable, and that would mean yet another boost in per-school revenue.

So you get what we have here today, which is the way Delany wants it. So, he gets it. Even if we don't like it ... at all.

That's right. I supported the expansion to 12 teams even though it stretched the Big Ten farther than perhaps it ought to have gone: we got a conference championship game out of it (and there are a lot of people really happy that it isn't going to be Northwestern-Indiana this year), we added a solid sports program (not so good for Purdue's volleyball team), and their academics are reasonable.

But this ... well, back when I was going over Directors' Cup standings (up to 10 men's and 10 women's sports count, points awarded based on national finish), Nebraska looked like a solid fit, and they pretty much came through in 2011-12: although they dropped to 40th, they were still a bottom-tier Big Ten program, and we still placed two schools in the top ten (Michigan and Ohio State). Doing the same exercise for Maryland and Rutgers, we get two surprising results, and not what you might be thinking.

Maryland's average finish from 2004-05 through 2011-12 was 32.1, solidly middle-of-the-Big-Ten pack (eighth, just behind Illinois at 31.4), and they've been better in recent years, with a 24.0 average over the last three, good enough for fifth in the 14-team superconference-to-be.

Rutgers, on the other hand, is not as good. At all. In 2007, they were 54th, ahead of Iowa in 68th. In no other season did they finish ahead of any Big Ten team, current or proposed. In most seasons, they didn't come within 40 places of a Big Ten school; in 2010-11, they were 158th. Schools finishing ahead of them include but are not limited to Maryland-Eastern Shore, Bethune-Cookman, Hofstra, and Oral Roberts.

So in return for all that money, we're not getting a Northwestern-equivalent program. (I should be careful saying that: they do better than Purdue, and I'll write more on that later.) Not an Iowa program. Not an Iowa State program. More like a top-tier MAC program ... and not an actual MAC program that would either have been within the footprint or close by, but a MAC program about as far from the other schools as you can get. (Good news for J, though: if he can't come to the Big Ten, the Big Ten can come to him.)

Sure, Rutgers and Maryland are AAU members. Sure, it's nice to get more money. But it would have been nice to make a decision that at least pretended there were other factors involved ... it's hard to see any reason for doing this except money. (It also makes you wonder if maybe they shouldn't have talked about expanding to 14 right away.) Well, OK, there is one more reason: this should get Wisconsin out of a division where it didn't belong in the first place. You can't tell me that they're going to put Rutgers or Maryland in the West. (No, don't tell me. They have to realign.)

The only other reason I can think for doing this is that Delany believes that pending litigation against the NCAA is going to succeed in the next few years, leading to some kind of requirement to pay players in revenue sports, and so this is a proactive plan to build extra revenue to account for that. (It also assumes that the market for televised college sports will be expanding, not contracting. I find that hard to believe when you see the current direction of non-live TV – I think a better direction would have been to enable BTN.com broadcasts for non-cable subscribers – but then I could be completely wrong.)

But what's almost done is what's almost done. Prepare yourself for longer breaks between certain conference opponents in football, more one-game-only opponents in basketball, and some really confusing road trips in the other sports. And who knows? Maybe we'll get a new logo. (Or maybe not. Did you ever notice how much a G looks like a 6?)

Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul

NJ Very Excited About Big Ten Possibilities; Like, Really Excited

As anyone who follows the Big Ten closely knows, there is always talk about the 11-team league expanding to twelve teams. Penn State joined in the early 90s and Notre Dame has often been cited as a perfect fit, both geographically and because of its natural rivalries within the conference (Purdue, Michigan, MSU, etc.). However, ND continues to stay independent, since joining a challenging league where they can't schedule the armed forces and Vanderbilt in the middle of the season (when the Big Ten teams are in grueling stretches beating each other up) is just simply not acceptable. How can they be expected to win nine games and get to an undeserved BCS bowl game in which they will invariably be torched if they join a solid league and are forced to play a league schedule?

So it continues to remain unlikely that Notre Dame would join the Big Ten. The second-most likely candidate, according to multiple sources? That's right, the State University of New Jersey, also known as Rutgers.

The new Big Ten television network would LOVE to have a team from NJ that could help pull in the NY/NJ television audience. I would love it because it would mean Purdue would play in my home state every other year. But I don't think anybody is as excited as Steve Politi of NJ.com. Take it away, Steve...

In the early '90s, soon after Penn State became the 11th member of the Big Ten, its longtime football coach and athletic director tried lobbying for another eastern school to join the conference. "(Joe) Paterno and I would tell them, 'If we can't get Notre Dame, Rutgers should be our first choice,'" said Jim Tarman, the since-retired athletic director. Other league officials would look at the two men as if they had not only added Pennsylvanians to their ranks but Martians, too.

Yeah, what are you guys, MARTIANS?? (Are we an on eighth-grade playground?)

Tarman couldn't remember why his colleagues were resistant to the idea, but it could have something to do with the fact that Rutgers had been very bad at football for a very long time. Just a guess.

Bingo. Good guess. Penn State likes playing patsies, too.

The Scarlet Knights are winning now, and still, the idea of them joining the Midwest league feels a little like Menudo in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Menudo. Topical, dude.

It makes sense for Rutgers, because the Big Ten is college football. Say no to the Big Ten? To all the money, prestige, tradition and excitement? Unless you're have Touchdown Jesus overlooking your stadium, you do not say no to the Big Ten.

Flattering. Also tells you how much people here think of the Big (L)East, whose defenders always point out their basketball prowess.

Penn State as a Thanksgiving Day rival ... Northwestern as the one gimme win on the schedule ... Ohio State bringing the No. 1 ranking into Piscataway ... Hurry, somebody book a flight to Ann Arbor!

Whoa, dude, calm down. You're going to burst a blood vessel. Also, isn't a bit presumptious to be circling your "gimme wins" already? No? Okay. And Ohio State is #1? Dude, these things change from year to year, I hope you know that. And yeah, you're cute. Book your flight to Ann Arbor. You have no idea how much fun THAT visit will be. Yikes.

I also love a little further along in the article, this jab:

The conference must decide Rutgers, which in its current league -- what was that called again? -- has never finished better than third place, is the most logical choice.

Ha! Steve Politi wants to make sweet love to the Big Ten. Hey, Big East! I don't even remember your damn NAME!! You whore!

Stanley Ikenberry, the former University of Illinois president who was instrumental in the expansion talks back [when PSU joined] listed the requirements when Penn State was added. The league would only take a new member if it made sense geographically, if it was compatible as an institution, and if it fielded a strong athletic program. Plug Rutgers into the formula, and you can see why it's not so silly.

It's not silly geographically? I would have to differ with you there, kind sir. While I'd love to see this happen, it would definitely suck for the Rutgers athletics programs to have to travel to exotic locales like Minneapolis, Minnesota, Madison, Wisconsin and Aimes, Iowa. But okay.

Rutgers would allow the Big Ten to move further east, finally giving Penn State a natural rival it has lacked since joining the conference.

Really? Rutgers main campus and Penn State's main campus are separated by 236 miles and about four hours of driving. Oh, and they're in different states. But sure. I guess they'd be natural rivals. Not so much as, say, Pitt and PSU, but I can get on board.

Athletically, the Scarlet Knights are coming off the finest season in school history, winning their first-ever bowl game in football and advancing to the national title game in women's basketball.

I guess you gotta start somewhere.

Would it make sense for Rutgers? Again, it would be an offer the Scarlet Knights could not refuse. The football team's victory total would take a step back, but that would be the trade-off for the athletic program taking a step forward in virtually everything else, and having the Michigan fight song playing in Piscataway.

Goodness, this guy has a real boner for Michigan, doesn't he?

Really, you can only sit back and marvel at the fact we're even discussing this. Has any program gone from zero to the big-time quicker?

Do you want a real answer? How about Northwestern, circa 1994. Perennial dormat to the Rose Bowl. Do you know what has happened since then? Oops.

Maybe someday in the distant future, we'll be breaking down the Ohio State two-deeps.

Or listening to the Michigan fight song while Lloyd Carr crades your head in his bosom.

Then onto the NFC East!

Calm down, Steve.