The Big 10 Expands to Include Rutgers and Maryland

After we had all thought that conference expansion had halted for at least a little while, the Big 10 makes a huge move as it takes both Rutgers from the Big East and Maryland from the ACC. These moves have a few layers of intrigue and affects on the world of college football, which I will hopefully provide some insight into in this article.

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The Big 10 has announced this as a competitive move for the conference, but at the end of the day these schools were added for the fan base’s geographical reach as well as the expansion of the Big 10 television network. The schools joined the conference for the money, simples.

Here are some of the thoughts I have had myself and have heard from media sources on the moves:

1) The Big East is now essential dead to rites. With Rutgers leaving, Louisville and UConn will become even primer candidates for the ACC to make a run at, and with the schools that have agreed to become part of the Big East in the future, Navy, Boise State and San Diego State beginning to have second thoughts, it’s not looking good for the Big East to continue as a major football conference.

2) The first real move in the direction of creating super-conferences. The Big 10 will now have 14 teams, the SEC currently has 14 teams itself, which only means one thing for these conferences, more viewers and more money. It’s no coincidence that both these conferences have their own podcasts and TV networks, the Big 10 actually made more money than the SEC last year, so much so that the Indiana football program was able to upgrade their football facilities with almost only money from the network TV deal, teams are going to be lining up to be in these conferences if the money keeps pouring into their networks. Every conference is making moves to add to their money making potential, and if this means 16 team conferences then that’s the way the commissioners are going to go.

3) The move gives the Big 10 entry into the east coast cable networks, once again meaning more money, as they will have local intrigue around the Maryland and Rutgers programmes.

4) This is a direct response to the ACC’s procuring of the Notre Dame affiliation. The Big 10 clearly felt that it could not just sit pat and watch as the ACC raided the Big East of it’s schools and went on the offensive to take both Rutgers and Maryland.

Whichever way you chop it up, this move is like all the other conference expansions, it’s all about the money. The Big 10 is not going to become more competitive or compelling due to the inclusion of Rutgers or Maryland, it just wants more people watching it’s games.

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