(11-01-2017 06:28 AM)8BitPirate Wrote:  

(11-01-2017 12:02 AM)AntiG Wrote:  

(10-31-2017 08:50 PM)GE and MTS Wrote:  Kicking out Rutgers and Maryland would not sit well with Penn State. Both are prime areas where they recruit students and athletes, in addition to where large alumni bases live. They aren't rivals but there is some history which is more to say about the rest of the conference.

Getting Oklahoma and Texas should be schools 15 and 16. Helping Nebraska return to prominence would be a boon for the Big Ten and adding two local schools would help them feel more at home.

Kicking out Rutgers and Maryland would also cut the BTN out of NYC, NJ, MD and DC regular market carriage, so that's never going to happen in the near future...

Agree OU and UT being the ideal targets.

Would it? Here in NC we have the option for every Conference Network, even the PAC12, but only the AAC and ACC have teams here. I'd also argue that the traditional B1G teams have enough alumni in those areas to make having the BTN on your local carriers menu profitable.

It's the carriage rates that the network charges the cable provider. Since there aren't any B10 schools in NC, the rate is different than what can be charged in NJ. The Big 10 network model is dependent on the carriage rates.

It's why Rutgers was a better target for the B10 than Pitt during the last round of realignment. While Pitt would have been a good addition to the B10 and an institutional fit, Pitt didn't deliver what PSU already did.