USC and UCLA to join the Big10 in 2024...WOW!

Poppa San

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Saw this last night. Coast-to-coast conference. Is that a first? I know it's for the TV markets and recruiting areas but I prefer conferences stay regional. Now if they pick up two more like Arizona or some Texas schools and ditch Rutgers and maybe Maryland I'd be OK with it. They can division it out then.
Eventually I see the SEC and B1G as two mega conferences with about 60 schools between them. At some point being in the NCAA becomes useless and these two groups can create their own association with their own rules and guidelines.
 
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Pokerbrat2000

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Well if this happens, it won't just be USC and UCLA that eventually is added to the Big10. Talking about watering down a conference and rivalries.

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Voyageur

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Yeah. It's going to have to be to keep it interesting.

And I'm on board with getting rid of the NCAA and leveling the playing field. They can make a much better product.
If they add 4 more teams, they'd probably go to two divisions. As of now, they plan on one division with 14 teams. They'll sort it out at the end when #1 & 2 duke it out for Championship the way it sounds.

The charge, for the change, came from OSU, PSU, and Michigan, since the 3 of them figure they own the conference. Based on past playoff champions, I'd guess it would be difficult disagreeing with them.

But, with 2 divisions, they could maintain solid rivalries, without disruption.
 

milani

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This is huge news and I have to wonder if the shake up the 2 divisions into 4?
This is crazy! Teams on the Pacific coast playing in a Middle West Conference? So now do Penn State and Michigan joined the Pac 12? At long last have you no sense of geography, sir?
 

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This is crazy! Teams on the Pacific coast playing in a Middle West Conference? So now do Penn State and Michigan joined the Pac 12? At long last have you no sense of geography, sir?
Been waiting for that intense Rutgers v UCLA conference rivalry to kick off. Dozens of fans taking the week off of school to drive to the away games. :rolleyes:
 
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Pokerbrat2000

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Been waiting for that intense Rutgers v UCLA conference rivalry to kick off. Dozens of fans taking the week off of school to drive to the away games. :rolleyes:
It isn't about the fans anymore, the fans are pretty much locked into any successful program as it is. It's all about the TV money and sponsorship contracts. Just like the NFL has become a money printing machine, College Football and Basketball has followed.

What I am curious about are some of the sports programs that I would call "throw-ins", because they don't make the school any money. Are the UW Tennis, Soccer, Rowing, Softball, swimming, golf, etc. teams going to be traveling all the way to the west coast to compete? Their budgets are tiny and flying VS busing them, all over the country, I can't see as making their budgets any better. The UW Men's Baseball was dropped in 1991 due to budgeting, will this expansion of the Big10, to include schools from all over the US, put all these other programs in jeopardy?
 

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It isn't about the fans anymore, the fans are pretty much locked into any successful program as it is. It's all about the TV money and sponsorship contracts. Just like the NFL has become a money printing machine, College Football and Basketball has followed.

What I am curious about are some of the sports programs that I would call "throw-ins", because they don't make the school any money. Are the UW Tennis, Soccer, Rowing, Softball, swimming, golf, etc. teams going to be traveling all the way to the west coast to compete? Their budgets are tiny and flying VS busing them, all over the country, I can't see as making their budgets any better. The UW Men's Baseball was dropped in 1991 due to budgeting, will this expansion of the Big10, to include schools from all over the US, put all these other programs in jeopardy?
Great points. Picture a conference basketball tournament. A west coast team has to go all the way east for several days or more with practice. Nuts.
 

Voyageur

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Great points. Picture a conference basketball tournament. A west coast team has to go all the way east for several days or more with practice. Nuts.
They do that now for Holiday tournaments, NCAA tournament, and will often take two game swings from one coast to the other. Since all travel today is by charter jet, they don't really have too many hardships involved. With football, since it's only once a week games, they already do that, by scheduling games in far off locations. Players often go to teams that do that kind of traveling now. They want to see something, not spend their time in a bus going between Evanston, IL and Bloomington, IN. The travel is part of the fun, and part of the recruiting you can do down the road. Exposure, in a larger area, for your team. But, rest assured, they will condense the travel as much as possible.
 
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Pokerbrat2000

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They do that now for Holiday tournaments, NCAA tournament, and will often take two game swings from one coast to the other. Since all travel today is by charter jet, they don't really have too many hardships involved. With football, since it's only once a week games, they already do that, by scheduling games in far off locations. Players often go to teams that do that kind of traveling now. They want to see something, not spend their time in a bus going between Evanston, IL and Bloomington, IN. The travel is part of the fun, and part of the recruiting you can do down the road. Exposure, in a larger area, for your team. But, rest assured, they will condense the travel as much as possible.
Yes, for the 2 major sports, the teams fly if the game is far away. However, that isnt the case for most of the other sports programs. Again, the expansion of the Big10 to include schools in the West and the South, is all about money and power. I don't see it benefitting the programs that bring in little to no money. Not to mention the athletes competing in many of those sports do not view it as an avenue to a professional career in said Sport.
 
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I recall it being dropped because of different numbers. Seems they needed to find a way to have near equal numbers of men and women in the athletic programs. Baseball was the odd man out.
It wasn't just that. Due to budgeting issues, the school dropped 5 programs; baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, and men's and women's fencing. They couldnt just slash all women's problems, so mens baseball, which was a big revenue loser, was 1 of the 5.
 

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They do that now for Holiday tournaments, NCAA tournament, and will often take two game swings from one coast to the other. Since all travel today is by charter jet, they don't really have too many hardships involved. With football, since it's only once a week games, they already do that, by scheduling games in far off locations. Players often go to teams that do that kind of traveling now. They want to see something, not spend their time in a bus going between Evanston, IL and Bloomington, IN. The travel is part of the fun, and part of the recruiting you can do down the road. Exposure, in a larger area, for your team. But, rest assured, they will condense the travel as much as possible.
True. But in professional sports we have divisions with conferences or leagues. The idea is that you play your division more and travel shorter distances. With the ridiculous cost of travel today you would think that would be smart. But then I never understood how the Dallas Cowboys have been in an east division and/or conference since their inception in 1960.
 

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Rest assured, the Big 10 is working on the issues surrounding logistics. They wouldn't even consider expansion to both coasts, if they didn't have that figured out.
 
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Pokerbrat2000

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Rest assured, the Big 10 is working on the issues surrounding logistics. They wouldn't even consider expansion to both coasts, if they didn't have that figured out.
If it was just UCLA and USC joining the BIG10, the travel logistics would fall mainly on those 2 teams. Since they would be the ones traveling a long distance to EVERY Big10 road game on their schedules. A team like Wisconsin, may face only 1 of those 2 schools each season and it might end up being a home game at that. Even if they faced both teams in one season, travel to the West coast would be for 2 games maximum.

Now if schools from the South join the Big10, that will increase the odds of longer travel for all teams. Maybe the silver lining for the Badgers, Iowa, Minny Shifty, Northwestern and the other midwest teams, they are geographically in the center of the East, West and South coasts, reducing their travel time slightly for those games.

I don't doubt that Football and Basketball will work just fine, flying to all the coasts. However, like I said earlier, this has a bigger impact on the small sports programs, that don't normally fly to games.
 

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