The BIG 10 is destroying itself, geographically.

If it were only football and maybe men's basketball it would probably be the way to go, but with all the peripheral sports it is going to drags some athletic depts down that are not at the very top of the football pyramid and they are going to be cutting some sports out just like Stanford tried to do a few years ago and blame it on covid.

Yep so they will try and make those long trip be weekend trips, but the fans will want the rivalry games on the weekends.

Also if you think about it, the great lakes region has really scattered to the wind with the onset of the rust belt. There are probably more Big 10 fans in other places around the country than any other conference fan base.

I don't know what that will mean monetarily, but there will be lots of Big 10 fans at road games no matter where they play.

Makes you wonder the timing of the chip Kelly comments. Maybe there is rumblings about football being separate sports and he wanted to get ahead of the game. He was very outspoken in his opinion and his answer seemed like he definitely had that about it before the presser. Plus he was pretty negative to a conference his school was fortunate to join

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Do I hear a stutter? Is the mighty SEC concerned? A national conference will be superior to a regional outfit.

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if you say so. The Big 10 forever was the Midwest, rust belt conference. That identity is what helps teams in a conference have a sense of pride in it due to regionality. At the same time, those schools that are close together, hate each other and it creates bitter rivalries for generations. Now y’all add west coast liberal schools and by doing that, you take away regionality and frequency of some of those rivalries that gave your conference its identity and what it is today.

That’s why the SEC even though it has expanded, has kept their expansion regionalized. All of the states in our conference touch. We keep that regionality, pride in our conference being the “Southern conference”, maintain all of our traditional rivalries along with each location being easy for schools to travel to along with their fans.

The SEC's ideas on expansion are outdated. Everyone is trying to expand beyond their footprint. Even the ACC and Big 12 are trying to go national. The SEC has dug a hole that they cannot dig out of unless they swallow their regional pride and add Big 12 schools.

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The SEC's ideas on expansion are outdated. Everyone is trying to expand beyond their footprint. Even the ACC and Big 12 are trying to go national. The SEC has dug a hole that they cannot dig out of unless they swallow their regional pride and add Big 12 schools.

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The SEC has already includes a couple of border states and former Indian territory. What do you want them to do. Take in actual Yankees???

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The BIG 10 is destroying itself, geographically.

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They will organize around divisions to keep geography & maximize profits.

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I don't understand the process.

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Here is the Ciff Notes

From the beginning the South was a hotbed of college football (Sewanee, Centre, etc)

Post WWII Walter Byers becomes dictator for life (1950's - 1970's) and protects B1G from fading like the Ivy League

CFA + ESPN + SCOTUS break the monopoly and South is at the table again

Realignment #1 (started by B1G) wanting ND and Utx but gets PSU and 11

Realignment #2 (started by B1G) wanting ND and Utx but gets B12 collapse

Realignment #3 (started by B1G) wanting ND and Utx but gets neither


If we really are going to just 2 conferences a full ACC + SEC merger should be expected and the B1G will get whatever is left over


If history repeats from about 100 years ago when this happened before, expect a breakup to regional conferences within a generation. If history does not repeat, CFB as we know it is dead as disco and it will be NFL Lite