Why are they in the Big 10? Seriously. They will always be at the bottom of the conference in the major sports. 80% of the country doesn’t know they’re even in the league and 90% don’t know what state they’re from. That’s the best a power 5 conference could do?

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Some clueless apparatchiks thought that they could bring the NYC market with them,as if anyone there would be interested

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Better than Illinois.

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The big 10 expansion of Maryland and Rutgers was ill conceived. I suppose Maryland at least has had some good basketball from time to time but Rutgers was inexcusable.

Rutgers had a nice run there for a few years with Schiano. They had a backfield of Ray Rice and Brian Leonard in 05-06, both of whom were long time pros. I think they were still in the afterglow of that success in 2010 when the joined the Big 10.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Because the Big Ten -- excuse me, the B1G -- got in the cable TV business and needed NY/DC subscribers, hence Rutgers and UMD. I don't think it took.

It's bullshit. Conferences should make geographic/cultural sense. Boston College belongs in the Big East, UMD belongs in the ACC, Rutgers belongs in...I dunno where they were to begin with.

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Its all messed up. Pitt in the ACC, West Virginia in the Big12. Lot of non sensible decisions.

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Elections have consequences.

and ND belongs in the Big 10 but is an arrogant organization from top to bottom

It stinks that Nebraska has gone teets up since it joined a conference with more than one team and parity in the NCAA. They were an appropriate fit. It would have been nice to bring in Oklahoma, but I think they change the academic integrity of the conference.

It's strange to think about but the Big 10 is filled with pretty good academic schools in comparison to other conferences.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

dumb topic.

Without Rutgers in the conference who would host the soon to be annual big 10 conference tournament at storied Big10 arena, Madison Square Garden.

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The Ohio State University being the exception to the rule.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Bring back the old Southwest Conference with, who was it, Texas, SMU, Rice, Baylor, A&M, TCU, Houston, and Arkansas?

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I’m sick of everyone calling ND arrogant. Every institution is trying to do what’s in their best interest how does ND get vilified for doing what ended up being the right thing? Everyone thought their NBC deal they signed in the 1980’s was ludicrous. It ended up being the model and now B1G schools are getting ND money... partly due to what ND did. B1G schools should thank ND. I’d rather ND stay independent than seeing how Texas ruined the Big 12 with their Longhorn Network at the expense of the rest of the conference.

ND is arrogant because they refuse to join any conference as an equal member. You can be arrogant and make a decision that benefits you. The ACC was stupid to give in to their dumb demands but hey Wake Forest gets a ND home game every decade so it's all good!

As for the question, Rutgers is an extreme long term play. The Big Ten was very scared about the population shifts in the country and how it would hurt them. They needed to expand the footprint to have more of a population to help with fan bases, recruiting, and overall strength. The move to the East Coast was a way to do that. There are a lot of Big Ten alumni in the New York tri-state. If Rutgers sucks it still helps with a lot of that. Teams get more exposure there. Fans can make trips there. They can play games in two major cities that are all but immune from population decline. We'll see if it works out but the floor was that Rutgers is an easy win for the Big Ten powers and the best case was that Rutgers finally takes all of their inherent advantages and becomes a quality long term team.

Ideally, ND and Boston College/Syracuse/Connecticut would have rounded it out, but ND wasn't willing to enter as an equal member like OSU and Michigan are so it didn't work out. There are rumors out there that ND has regrets about the ACC move but they are locked in for a while. It is telling that all of a sudden MSU, Michigan, and Purdue are much more important to get back on the schedule for them. They also are very concerned about never being able to play in a conference title game. This makes their road to the playoffs much harder especially playing in the ACC on a reduced schedule which can hurt their chances at big wins.

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My feeling of ND arrogance was always just football and really it was more so fans rather than the institution itself. Brick laid out the conference issues pretty well. My first major thought of their arrogance and subsequent hatred was when they forced themselves into special consideration for the original BCS.

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Elections have consequences.

Understandable, but the population shift has been to the south and west, so why didn't they look there?

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plus Tech

I HATE when people just say "This," but . . .

This.

They thought about it. They even had long talks with Texas but Texas wasn't giving up what the Big 12 does to placate them. Missouri desperately wanted in but they messed it up by leaking everything.

Though the Big reason probably is that the Northeast is still an untapped market. The South and the logical expansion targets West are already fairly established. It also helped with the proximity to Pennsylvania and PSU feeling like an outsider.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't think ND has regrets about the ACC move considering they extended it this year.

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Solid point.

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Elections have consequences.

The only thing that deal does is put some sort of financial penalty for them joining another conference. It seems like they could go fully independent again without much issue. It makes sense to extend it unless they wanted to return back to the Big East.

I'm sure it's pretty severe to join another conference but given that the ACC already gives them a sweetheart deal I doubt they are going to sign a contract that makes it impossible to switch especially if the playoffs for football ever require a conference title game win.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think Nebraska already did that.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

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Yeah, that's how contracts work, and there would be some sort of financial penalty for not joining the ACC.

They could either just be fully independent again, or pay the penalty.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Not playing in a championship game really hurt Alabama. Also was a huge help to the Big Ten this year!

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Well if there is no buy out in the contract I'm sure that penalty would be pretty large if they wanted to join the SEC or Big Ten instead.

But ND won't have any interest in going the conference route until there are multiple years close together where they have one loss and are left out of the playoff.

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Yes, it would be big, as I said.

Yes, or if they change the rule to require the participants to win their conference championship game. I mean, it's pretty obvious that Notre Dame doesn't want to be a full member of a conference.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Maybe Notre Dame is actually forward looking. What is the point of conferences? Perhaps they should be just TV stations. I'm in the NBC conference. My school is in the CBS conference. Mine is in the FS1 Conference. And obviously the SEC becomes the ESPN conference (since it is already).

As a Northwestern fan, I hope you enjoy the TruTV conference with Purdue and Illinois.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Poor Beth Mowins.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.