Are penn state, Michigan state, usc, Purdue, northwestern technically state flagships? Fsu has applied for AAU, they are 23rd overall public university higher than several in B10, Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, or some others could care less of the rivalries they didn’t have, and the other 4 we just picked up are more remote than FSU. So yes.
Interesting take on potential BT members #19 & #20 (TAMU and ND)
- Thread starter Tommaker
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FSU is not a good conference member, and really would be a pain in the ass in the Big Ten. Miami would be less trouble, make the conference as much money, and is a far more prestigious university. I suspect once the smoke clears FSU ends up in the B12 or the remainder of the ACC.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you but the closest we have to a hard requirement is AAU and FSU at least applied to it.
If we put AAU aside, we would get to 24 teams with some Olympic sports breaking down to divisions of 6 teams so tennis teams from california don’t have to travel to Rutgers or Maryland. The two west coast teams I would want are Arizona and Colorado and the 4 remaining teams would be Miami, UNC, Georgia Tech, and Pittsburgh.
AZ and CU don't make the cut financially, or the BT would have accepted their applications instead of them settling for the Big12. CU has begged for BT membership for decades and hasn't gotten a sniff. Sanders as gimmick coach doesn't change the math for them long term as a member. UVA has always been coveted, as has ND. Both will be heavily courted along with UNC when the ACC folds. I don't think there are any schools left or joining the Big12 that are worth the Big Ten's interest, especially not CU. Miami, Syracuse, and GaTech all make more sense if the push is to get to 24.
One last point to put the ridiculous idea of CU to the Big Tento pasture.... who would pay the quarter BILLION or so buyout from the B12?????
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Yes, Penn State is a state flagship. So are Rutgers, Maryland, Nebraska, Washington Oregon and UCLA. USC is obviously private, like Notre Dame. The others you named were in the Big Ten long before there were any TV contracts with the conference.
There is no application process to the AAU. you should stop parroting that nonsense. It is invitation only and FSU has not been invited. In fact, Miami and USF were recently invited to join and FSU was not. The state of Florida has three AAU members and FSU is not one of them.
Penn state is a land grant institute like Purdue. It may feel like it’s the flagship since Penn eventually went Ivy League and temple and Pitt don’t have Pennsylvania in their names.
So what is those others are state flagships? We took usc a private school so clearly being a flagship or even public school is not a requirement.
Fine they didn’t submit an application for it but have been openly pursuing accreditation. I didn’t say they submitted an application or were pending just that they applied for it. Not sure what I said is wrong as I fully expect they have been lobbying for it and providing supporting documentation to support the their pursuit.
Understand, agree, and I too have been on this board echoing what you just said but that’s just my dream conference regardless of financials and AAU status.
There is no question that Penn State is the flagship university of Pennsylvania. Who is the flagship university of Ohio, Ohio State or U of Ohio?
If you asked Ohio it would be them as OSU is also a land grant institute. We have dominated indiana in basketball/football the past 5 years, but I doubt most people would call Purdue the flagship.
Same with UCLA VS Cal.
So if you go by your criteria FSU might actually be the flagship university in Florida and you’re proving your point wrong by nitpicking one school I had in my list. They beat Florida 7 of last 10 times and had way more success overall in basketball and footbal. Miami had an NIL driven one off good year in basketball but most would argue FSU has been more successful than Miami in recent years. The FSU early game against Georgia tech on ESPN had almost as many viewers as the Miami-Florida game broadcast nationally on network Tv. Look at last years ratings FSU is clearly the media darling in Florida. Miami is also half the size of FSU (florida is comparable). Way better academics than Miami. Hey if we could get florida that would be awesome but they’re not leaving the SEC and FSU is clearly the next best option out of the southeast.
My criteria? U of FL is clearly the flagship of that state. And as I type this, Memphis just went ahead of 0-2 FSU by a score 10-0.
3rd qtr update: Memphis 20, FSU 3
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Florida state is struggling this year, no doubt.
I don’t know why we are arguing about it when big ten has taken non-flagship schools recently.
Because FSU is a horrible choice on every criteria BUT football: and the SEC is the conference that only cares about football, not the school attached to it.
Pros for FSU:
Football with rabid fan base
Opens up Florida
Cons for FSU:
Terrible conference member thinking about themselves only, not about their conference, they would rather burn it down than work to improve things
Mediocre in all other sports but baseball and football
non-AAU member
poor academic reputation
mediocre research staff and facilities
Poorly managed ATM.... they have made multiple announcements and threats but are still in the ACC while spitting in the faces of the rest of their conference mates.
Seeing Pitt in this list tells me you do not understand Big Ten expansion in the least. Pitt is in with Iowa St, Ball St, WSU and OrSU in their chances for BT membership: NO WAY IN HELL. The state already has a member, they aren't a good cultural fit, and they add virtually no new dollars to the conference.
UVA, ND, UNC are the schools the Big Ten has already contacted behind the scenes if the ACC blows up... those are choices 1, 2, and 3 by a mile. Syracuse, Miami, FSU, and Clemson have a chance, but less so than GaTech and probably BC.
Read my posts I said that this is if AAU or financials aren’t an issue. It was just for fun. I’ve said all along I don’t think even ND makes sense financially.
Which goes to show even further that you don't know what you are talking about. ND makes the most sense of any team out there. They have a 65+ million dollar TV deal just on their own because they have that much of a following.
The schools you keep listing, most of them don't move the needle on revenue for the conference and are complete non-starters.
Schools that add to the conference:
UVA
UNC
ND
Miami or FSU (I favor Miami as do many others)
GaTech
TxA&M but that would be a really hard deal to work with the SEC buyout, but they hate being in the same conference with Texas
Maybes:
BC
Syracuse
Clemson
I cannot think of anyone else remotely available that fits beyond those above.
NDs contract with nbc is $50m. I don’t think they will add $50m to our revenue though as they won’t add a large fan base watching our games the same way USC/UCLA do or Florida state would. There needs to be more diversity in fan base.
I was on the faculty of Texas A&M at the time that the Aggies dropped out of the Big XII and joined the SEC. They do not hate being in the same conference with Texas. The problem was with the Longhorn Network. And even after joining the SEC, A&M wanted to continue the annual rivalry game with UT. It was Texas who discontinued the Lonestar Showdown, not A&M.
I would put the probability of A&M going from the SEC to the Big Ten at zero. Texas AD DeLoss Dodds ruled the roost in the Big XII but the Horns are just another school in the SEC. A&M has no problem being in the SEC with Texas.
You do know USC and UCLA do not draw big TV audiences right? That's why the Pac12 folded, no one watched any of those programs enough for the Pac to land ANY kind of a TV contact this last year. Even Apple TV turned them down.
Your opinion on ND is completely unfounded in any reason, logic, or reality. ND is still the biggest draw individually in college football.
Wrong. Let’s look at usc VS ND viewers the last 5 weeks they both played and have TV data.
uSC beat nd week 1 when at same time
bowl game, - USC Louisville 3.51m, ND-Oregon state 3.26M
Week 12 - Same time! Ratings - USC-ucla 1.5, ND-wake 0.9
Week
Week 11 - ratings - USC-Oregon 1.7, nd- no game
Week 10 - USC-Washington 4.45m, Nd-Clemson 3.24M
Crazy that they had 30% more viewers playing Washington than bd had against Clemson!!!
USC consistently beats ND. They had 2 big viewership games last year - against OSU (the Michigan game had nearly double the viewers) and against usc lol.
I live in Texas and it was known they could have done so but did not. I guess making more TV money and playing Texas again was or is more important!
I agree, A&M has no desire to leave the SEC and the Aggies did nothing to block UT from joining the conference. I realize that one sports reporter has predicted that A&M was moving to the Big Ten but that internet rumor is BS. Go over to A&M's Rivals forum and read through all of the posts for the last couple of months. There isn't one single comment about A&M joining the Big Ten, nor any desire to leave the SEC.
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It’s sounding like clemson and florida state are trending more to staying in acc now. They provided their demands to the acc including progressive pay distribution based on viewership and early indications is was well received by the membership. Also included but discussed less is a change in the 2036 GOR. All in exchange for dropping the lawsuit.
That kills Notre dames chances too.
If that’s the case I really don’t care to add anyone new. If I had to pick 2 realistic teams to get us to 20 (not from acc) it would be Arizona and Colorado.
That kills Notre dames chances too.
If that’s the case I really don’t care to add anyone new. If I had to pick 2 realistic teams to get us to 20 (not from acc) it would be Arizona and Colorado.
Both SEC and Big Ten have "leaked" that multiple university president's at each confetence would vote against adding either FSU or Clemson, easily more than enough to block those additions. Partially on money but mostly both schools are seen as bad actors and would only add problems to any new conference they would join.
For you and everyone that thinks ND vs anyone is better than half the games… in week 4 VS Miami they were 5th… in their timeslot lol. Dead last of network games (cbs, fox, and abc smoked them). Eight other big ten teams had higher ratings last week. It’s no wonder they were on peacock this week.
