{"id":31274,"date":"2023-11-30T21:06:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T02:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yurasko.net\/wfy\/?p=31274"},"modified":"2023-11-30T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T02:06:08","slug":"a-silver-lining-to-the-big-teen-conference-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yurasko.net\/wfy\/2023\/11\/a-silver-lining-to-the-big-teen-conference-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"A Silver Lining to the “Big Teen” Conference expansion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While I don’t comment on Penn State football like I did in previous decades, I am paying a little more attention of late. In fact, my wife and I even took our oldest to his first game against Big Ten rival<\/em> Rutgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The end of the Big Ten as we know it<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Being a long-time<\/em> Big Ten program, Penn State welcomed new<\/em> members University of Nebraska Lincoln<\/a><\/strong>, Rutgers University<\/strong> and University of Maryland<\/strong><\/a> over the last decade. While Nebraska wasn’t as big a stretch geographically , culturally and athletically for conference admission, it was a apparently a stretch academically. Well, maybe for football too!11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the Nittany Lions and Cornhuskers, who have some history<\/em>, barely play each other in football. Kind of a disappointment. Actually, a big disappointment given how fun it would beating up on them now they are down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rutgers and Maryland, while being more frequent opponents from adjacent states and better academic fits than Nebraska, were clearly a craven grab for East Coast TV markets. New York, Washington, Baltimore are the 1st<\/sup>, 9th<\/sup> and 29th<\/sup> markets overall. That’s a lot of cable subscribers. Or at least, it was<\/em>2<\/a><\/sup> for the Big Ten Network. Aside from being natural “rivals” the entry of these I-95 corridor programs prompted the Big Ten to create a television commercial that showed off these big markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maps<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Onward State<\/em> celebrated this borderline iconic commercial<\/strong><\/a> as the end of the 14-team Big Ten era closes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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