Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The Big Ten is expanding. Wait, didn’t it just add Nebraska to make an even 12-team conference, complete with two divisions and a championship game? If you thought that would be enough, it looks like you were sorely mistaken.
News broke Saturday that the Big Ten was deep in discussions to add the University of Maryland from the ACC as the conference’s 13th team in 2014. Monday morning Maryland made it official and voted to join the Big Ten, and it is believed that Rutgers—currently in the Big East—will follow suit Tuesday, giving the conference 14 total teams.
This begs two questions: 1.) Does this mean we finally get to change the name of the conference—Big “Ten” doesn’t really do it justice, now does it? And more importantly, 2.) Why? In what way does this make sense for any side involved?
These moves will end up being a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.
The Big Ten has come to be seen as a mediocre power conference in football this season. One would hardly think that commissioner Jim Delany envisioned a four-loss Badger team in the conference’s championship game, and outside of Madison, the idea of Wisconsin playing in the Rose Bowl probably doesn’t sound too exciting for most fans.
Adding these two teams hardly helps make the Big Ten look any better in that capacity. Last September, Delany told The New York Times, “We thought a lot about 12 to 14 [teams], and the 16 when we had the opportunity last year. ... Our view, really, is that it’s about quality and not quantity.”
Really, Jim? So now, just one year later, adding these two schools is an attempt to increase the quality of the Big Ten? Good luck selling that to fans.
Tom Dienhart of the Big Ten network points out that Maryland is 4-44-1 all-time against Big Ten teams in football. Does that really sound like a team that is going to improve the level of competition in this conference?
Other conferences have bulked up lately, focusing on adding more competitive teams to boost their reputations on a national level, and ultimately, bring in more money. The SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M. The Big 12 added TCU and West Virginia. The ACC is bringing in Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame (the Irish in all sports excluding football). Does the addition of Rutgers and Maryland sound even half as good as any of those other moves? Didn’t think so.
By leaving the ACC, Maryland will be hit with a $50 million dollar exit fee, while Rutgers would be faced with a slightly less ugly $10 million dollar penalty from the Big East.
Where are these schools going to find the cash for these payments? Maryland already had to cut seven varsity sports teams last year due to financial troubles and Rutgers lost over $26 million in 2011, according to the Star-Ledger.
In the long run, these schools will earn more money in the Big Ten, but in the short term they will only lose more.
The travel plans involved with these additions would also prove to be a logistical nightmare. College Park, Md., is 844 miles from Madison. Rutgers is another 925 miles away from UW, and this is not even the longest trip teams in the conference would have to make.
Want to go from Minnesota’s campus in the Twin Cities to Rutgers’ campus in New Jersey? Well, enjoy your 1,187-mile trip.
Non-revenue sports teams already have tight budgets—how are they supposed to pay for road trips that are three or four times as long as they are used to?
Some will make the argument that, by adding Rutgers, the Big Ten can finally get a foothold in the glorious sporting market that is New York City, while Maryland would bring in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., markets.
The conference is already chock-full of average teams (I won’t name them, you know who they are), so is it really worth adding to that mediocrity just to try to up some TV ratings on the East Coast?
The reason there are so many questions in this column is because there are so many answers that we haven’t been given about these moves. Is this being done to better the Big Ten on a talent-level, or is it just an attempt to add a few zeros to the end of some paychecks?
Obviously I am not a fan of this expansion, but if it is going to happen, at least do it for the right reasons. Quality over quantity? Hardly.
How do you feel about Maryland’s move to the Big Ten? Do you think the conference will stop at 14 teams? Let Matt know at sports@dailycardinal.com.
