After all the hype and guess work followed by intense lobbying and jockeying for position it appears that the conference realignment has settled down for now. I for one have enjoyed most of the talk and am glad that the Big Ten landed Nebraska, my number one choice all along. I think what made the experience even more enjoyable was know my alma mater wasn’t going to be moving anywhere. It’s a good thing Indiana is in the Big Ten already, the reason why? Security.
All the major moves or attempted moves by conferences were clearly about 1 thing and 1 thing only. Football. As we all know Indiana is not a football power house. Of the Six Power conferences I’d say Indiana is the third worst football school. Duke is a clear choice for number one followed up by Iowa State who has never won the Big 8 or the Big XII North. I have Indiana at three but would be willing to listen to arguments about Vanderbilt and Baylor.
Secondly, Indiana is not a school with an extremely desirable television market that conferences might ignore whether the school has been successful on the field, like Rutgers. Indiana is in third place in football in the 16th most populated state and doesn’t exactly carry the TV markets of its two closest metropolitan areas which are Indianapolis (25th nationally) or Louisville (50th). No conferences are going out of their way to try to get a school like this.
If there was a bidding war for Big Ten teams, I see Indiana playing out much like Kansas. Yes the school is a huge brand name for basketball, but without the football to back it up, nobody really cares. Kansas was going to be left on the outside looking in, and I fear Indiana would have been in the same situation.
In all honesty, I think that’s the reason I enjoyed the conference realignment talk so much, cause I knew my school was safe. I think if I had been in a situation like Kansas, K-State or any other school that could have been left on the outside looking in, I would have been terrified about every rumor I heard. Needless to say, I’m glad Indiana is already in, because there would be no invitations coming if they weren’t.
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Funny thing about adding Nebraska is it reminds me almost EXACTLY of adding Penn State - football powerhouse, average basketball, similar academic status, similar distance from rest of conference. I'm still hoping for Pitt, though I don't know who else would work to jump ship with them. Vandy? I think Virginia would be incredible for the conference as a whole but it won't happen.
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