Perspective from the Big Ten and some much needed clarifications

FriendlySpartan

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So you’re asserting that If Ohio State Michigan and penn st left the big 10, all of the research money would vanish?
No I am saying that those three schools would never leave the big ten. Leaving a conference is a university president decision in the big ten not an athletic director one. They never want to be in a conference with the schools in the south, their arrogance is astonishing.
 

Cyclones1969

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No I am saying that those three schools would never leave the big ten. Leaving a conference is a university president decision in the big ten not an athletic director one. They never want to be in a conference with the schools in the south, their arrogance is astonishing.

I am impressed with your ability to be ironic.
 

stateofmind

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Ankeny
Thank you to most of you that made reading this thread palatable, heck even enjoyable. It seems to have lost that a bit with the last couple of pages. But in today's world I enjoy a calm, rational discussion more than I even remembered.

Great stat! So with ISU being at 1.8 mil per game they fall in the exact average of season ratings for all games. Honestly I think you can spin that to be either a positive or negative. Positive because you aren't hurting a conference and could actually be another good team to have in the stable. Negative because that is saying that your viewership is average. Not sure how the leagues will choose to look at it.
Positive when you sell AAU, passionate fanbase, a University that has committed many millions into the facilities. There is a commitment to athletic success at Iowa State that was lost in the 70s when we last had sustainable success.

As long as you can keep CMC you are in great shape, the moment you lose him its going to be an insane uphill battle. You need about 5 more years of him to get established and i dont know who is going to come knocking during that time. He is the number one most desired coach in the NCAA right now that isnt at a traditoinal power.
100% agree with you, but like I was saying above, this isn't going out and hiring Jim Walden because our facilities are junk and our scholarships were reduced at the worst of times. We have had leadership that understands that and will never allow that to happen again. Ask tOSU's AD. We will survive this and for the first time I actually feel encouraged we will end up in a better place eventually.

I'm very happy the OP started this thread and value their opinion. The thing that stands out to me after reading the 11 pages is that on one hand the statement is that education and endowments mean more than athletics, yet on the other you hear those same people say that money is not shared. So why does it matter what conference said school is in. The other contradiction I've observed is that AAU is the most important, not piddly TV dollars, but then you hear ISU doesn't move the needle with TV sets. (Which I think has been proven in this thread is old thinking.)

I believe that the OP is well connected, very intelligent, and has worked in the industry, and even they don't know how to come to the "correct" decision as the landscape is too fluid.

I'm guessing the relevant people, incredibly smart people (Not ESPN analysts/Radio DJs/Twitter experts, etc), will be analyzing this for many months and even a couple years before we really know where CFB is headed. And schools that are not reactionary, like the SEC, will understand that $$$ is not EVERYTHING.
 

Thorongil Clone

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Not 100% sure what irony you are referring too but if you took south to mean ISU then know that i consider them Midwest (like iowa) if you meant something else then i apologize for not understanding
He may be commenting upon THE arrogance of a certain Big 10 team or two. ;) You'd have to admit that the SEC does not have a monopoly on "astonishing" institutional arrogance.
 

FriendlySpartan

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Thank you to most of you that made reading this thread palatable, heck even enjoyable. It seems to have lost that a bit with the last couple of pages. But in today's world I enjoy a calm, rational discussion more than I even remembered.


Positive when you sell AAU, passionate fanbase, a University that has committed many millions into the facilities. There is a commitment to athletic success at Iowa State that was lost in the 70s when we last had sustainable success.


100% agree with you, but like I was saying above, this isn't going out and hiring Jim Walden because our facilities are junk and our scholarships were reduced at the worst of times. We have had leadership that understands that and will never allow that to happen again. Ask tOSU's AD. We will survive this and for the first time I actually feel encouraged we will end up in a better place eventually.

I'm very happy the OP started this thread and value their opinion. The thing that stands out to me after reading the 11 pages is that on one hand the statement is that education and endowments mean more than athletics, yet on the other you hear those same people say that money is not shared. So why does it matter what conference said school is in. The other contradiction I've observed is that AAU is the most important, not piddly TV dollars, but then you hear ISU doesn't move the needle with TV sets. (Which I think has been proven in this thread is old thinking.)

I believe that the OP is well connected, very intelligent, and has worked in the industry, and even they don't know how to come to the "correct" decision as the landscape is too fluid.

I'm guessing the relevant people, incredibly smart people (Not ESPN analysts/Radio DJs/Twitter experts, etc), will be analyzing this for many months and even a couple years before we really know where CFB is headed. And schools that are not reactionary, like the SEC, will understand that $$$ is not EVERYTHING.
Thanks for the feedback!
Only reason i bring up the difficulty of potentially replacing CMC is because we were in a very similar situation and lost all our momentum we gained by winning the bcs bowls, getting to the playoffs and recruting 5 stars. Absolutly no reason our failures need to become yours though.

I mentioned endowments in regards to NIL which is going to be chaos for a big but alot of big ten schools have billionaire donors that love supporting athletics. This could balance the playing field a bit with the SEC if done right but nothing is guarenteed.

AAU status is seen as mandatory for admission but they also have to be able to move the needle

Very much agree I could be wrong on everything. Obv didn't see this move by texas coming so soon.
 
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FriendlySpartan

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He may be commenting upon THE arrogance of a certain Big 10 team or two. ;) You'd have to admit that the SEC does not have a monopoly on "astonishing" institutional arrogance.
Oh thats my bad, I was trying to say that the big ten is unbelievably arrogant. I went to michigan as well as state the whole "michigan man" "michigan difference" "leaders and best" thing is nauseating
 

AuH2O

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Purdue's research money was 459 mm in 2019. Your turn. Heck I will go again:
WTF does that have to do with Purdue’s low value as a football program? It’s not like research dollars are like a pot of money they can do anything they want with.

Research dollars are a nice bragging right and selling point for a school in recruiting and a conference in promoting it’s brand. But getting research dollars doesn’t juice the football program or vice versa.
 
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Cyclones1969

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Oh thats my bad, I was trying to say that the big ten is unbelievably arrogant. I went to michigan as well as state the whole "michigan man" "michigan difference" "leaders and best" thing is nauseating

Yeah, as I said before, if you grew up in Eastern Iowa, be grateful you didn’t, this was kind of a mantra that was drummed by Iowa fans.

ironically most were t shirt fans.
 

MeanDean

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Ahh the t-shirt fans. We call ours Walmart Wolverines
Slightly off topic. I know MSU is larger than UM. Why does it seem like there are way more UM fans out and about across the country? Is it Walmart Wolverines because of media hype from proximity to metro Detroit? I mean I do see the Sparty stuff too, but seems like way less.

Not a troll job. I've wondered about that for a while and since you're tuned in to the region and college sports I thought I'd ask.

TIA
 

AuH2O

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Note to posters that are fans of other teams, this is how you converse on another teams fan site.

This Sparty fellow is giving some of the Oregon and Wazzu posters a run for their money as being the best on CF.
 

FriendlySpartan

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Slightly off topic. I know MSU is larger than UM. Why does it seem like there are way more UM fans out and about across the country? Is it Walmart Wolverines because of media hype from proximity to metro Detroit? I mean I do see the Sparty stuff too, but seems like way less.

Not a troll job. I've wondered about that for a while and since you're tuned in to the region and college sports I thought I'd ask.

TIA
So the UM fans you see across the country most likely went to Michigan, the ones you meet in state often have zero connection to the school. While sparty won some big championships in the 70's and had magic johnson in the 80's and 90's sports fell off a cliff with bad coaching hire after bad coaching hire. At this time Michigan was living the legend of Bo and Loyd carr in football and the fab 5 in basketball. This drove a lot of casual fans to the school even though they never went. Michigan is also a more prestigious institution and has coined the moniker that michigan state is little brother. So for the random fans in the state that have no connection to the school at all its kind of a no brainer. Sparty got some fan love with izzo and dantonio for awhile but then we fell off again.
 

RealignmentCurious

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I did some digging into the numbers just to see how ISU compares to the Big 10 in viewership. All these numbers are for average per game for the 2020 regular season. On first look these numbers would put ISU just about tied with Northwestern for 9th in the conference. One point to consider however is the effect of the shortened season for the Big 10 teams. For example MINN only played 4 games, 1 of which was against MICH which had about 3x the viewership of their other 3 games. A normal schedule for them would be a lower average due to more games against the bottom half of the conference. If you apply that thinking for the whole conference MINN and NEB moves down, Iowa goes up and Iowa, ISU, NEB, and Northwestern come out about even in the middle of the conference rankings. Not to mention ISU ratings would probably go up in the Big 10 vs their old Big 12 schedule as well. All this is to say ISU would probably end up at about an average Big 10 team in terms of viewership. Not enough to “move the needle” but they probably wouldn’t hurt the per team payout.

ISU1,743,000

OSU 6,242,000
MICH 3,974,000
WISC 3,114,000
PSU 2,611,857
IND 2,556,857
MSU 2,505,429
MINN 2,375,000
NEB 1,979,571
NWSTN 1,750,600
IOWA 1,386,571
MD 810,500
ILL 723,167
PUR 527,500
RUTG 496,000
 

Mississippi Clone

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So the UM fans you see across the country most likely went to Michigan, the ones you meet in state often have zero connection to the school. While sparty won some big championships in the 70's and had magic johnson in the 80's and 90's sports fell off a cliff with bad coaching hire after bad coaching hire. At this time Michigan was living the legend of Bo and Loyd carr in football and the fab 5 in basketball. This drove a lot of casual fans to the school even though they never went. Michigan is also a more prestigious institution and has coined the moniker that michigan state is little brother. So for the random fans in the state that have no connection to the school at all its kind of a no brainer. Sparty got some fan love with izzo and dantonio for awhile but then we fell off again.
Analogous situation here with U of Iowa fandom. We refer to them as 'Tavern Hoks'. No real connection to the University, tend to be more drunk, loud and obnoxious than U of Iowa alumni. Feel free to adapt to your situation LOL.
 

isucy86

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I think schools would "drop" down a level athletically (football) prior to them being kicked out. I believe that's happened way more often over the course of history vs. the being dropped scenario. At what point does a Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Kansas, etc. decide it's a lost cause on football?

I think public universities would look at it differently. But private universities like Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Boston College, SMU, Rice, etc. might look at big changes to college football with NIL, potential making athletes employees, etc. counter to their core academic mission. And might have some fears about liability- especially related to football regarding medical costs and potential concussions.

I haven't heard anything about how Ivy League universities and athletes view NIL and potential for athlete collective bargaining.

Also if the move is toward super conferences, some schools might not relish being the Washington Generals of their conference. If OU and Texas go to the SEC, I would think Vanderbilt would have to seriously consider if they want to remain in the SEC.

Maybe some of the private schools would want to form their own league and develop a strong national brand. Similar to what the Big East has done with basketball. Add schools like Tulsa, Tulane, SMU and maybe Baylor and TCU to the schools mentioned above.
 
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Mississippi Clone

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WTF does that have to do with Purdue’s low value as a football program? It’s not like research dollars are like a pot of money they can do anything they want with.

Research dollars are a nice bragging right and selling point for a school in recruiting and a conference in promoting it’s brand. But getting research dollars doesn’t juice the football program or vice versa.
I agree, research grants are how most universities pay their bills. There seems to be some somewhat misguided belief that research grants are tied to the conference you are in. I get there is some good to be part of a strong academic conference. But conferences don't hand out research money. Anyway we have been over this. It seems to me most schools simply hope their Athletic Departments are self-sufficient. Good sports teams are good for publicity and getting alumni jacked up to contribute the university. Research dollars are important and keep the bills paid, but this notion that they are somehow a direct effect of being in a certain conference is not quite factual I don't believe. Deserving of further research LOL.
 
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isucy86

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No I am saying that those three schools would never leave the big ten. Leaving a conference is a university president decision in the big ten not an athletic director one. They never want to be in a conference with the schools in the south, their arrogance is astonishing.

Every conference has a slightly different culture. The Big10 is very competitive among its teams- but their values are all very consistent with a strong focus on academics as well as athletic achievement.

I think the Big12 is a bit of a mix of academic and athletics. Unfortunately, the Big12 lost of few of its stronger academic schools in A&M, Mizzou and CU. As much as Cyclone fans like to throw shade the Huskers way- that is a solid school as well.

Don't think there is any question, athletics and not academics rule the SEC.
 

isucy86

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I agree, research grants are how most universities pay their bills. There seems to be some somewhat misguided belief that research grants are tied to the conference you are in. I get there is some good to be part of a strong academic conference. But conferences don't hand out research money. Anyway we have been over this. It seems to me most schools simply hope their Athletic Departments are self-sufficient. Good sports teams are good for publicity and getting alumni jacked up to contribute the university. Research dollars are important and keep the bills paid, but this notion that they are somehow a direct effect of being in a certain conference is not quite factual I don't believe. Deserving of further research LOL.

True. but there are a lot of situations where universities collaborate in research and that is where conference or organization like AAU comes into play.
 

AuH2O

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True. but there are a lot of situations where universities collaborate in research and that is where conference or organization like AAU comes into play.
Universities collaborate with groups that have complimentary research capabilities. It is very much a bottom-up approach. Looking at funding both that I’ve been a part of, ISU as a whole, and what the agencies give out, I think you’d be hard pressed to see that there was much, if any thought about conference affiliation.
 

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