It seems to be the overwhelming opinion
that the recent addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big
10 Conference is a bad thing. People say that it’s only about the money, that
it doesn’t make sense as far as competition or geography, and that it is the
next step on the road taking college football further away from amateur
athletics and closer to big business. I have no argument against any of these
points. They are all valid and true. They also have nothing to do with this.
We need to dispel the myth that college
football can ever go back to “the good old days”. We need to enter reality. Maybe
college football was much better before coaches made millions of dollars per
year and every big bowl game was played on New Years Day. Those days are gone,
and longing for them will get us nowhere. The reality is that college football
is no longer amateur athletics, it is a professional game. Billions of dollars
are spent and earned each year within the game, it just so happens that none
(or very little) of it goes to the players. It isn’t a minor league feeder
system into the NFL, it is a separate league playing a different brand of
football. Think of it like the CFL. When you begin to think of college football
as a professional league, as a business, you are able to remove the nostalgia, and
you can clearly see why the Big 10 made a shrewd move this week.
In the current landscape of college
football, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Most would agree that this is true
for leagues like the Big East and the ACC, but it is equally true for the Big
10 and the SEC. Don’t believe me? Go back 5 years and try and convince someone
that the Big 12 would lose 4 teams in 2 years. The Big 12 has since stabilized,
but for how long? What happens when the SEC decides it needs Texas and makes
them an offer they can’t refuse? No league is stable, not when thinking long
term.
What the Big 10 did by adding two more
teams is take another step toward long-term viability, and it really doesn’t
matter which two teams it added. Conferences are headed to 16 teams, at
minimum, and the first ones to reach the number will be the ones who have the
best chance of survival. The fact that Rutgers helps open
up the New York market to
the Big 10 Network, much like Maryland and DC, is
important, and that is why they were the two chosen. It brings in tens of
millions of dollars to the conference. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t
matter if they lack tradition, they can’t sell out their home games, or they
wear god-awful uniforms. They bring money into the league, and they bring the
league closer to the goal of 16 members.
If reading the previous four paragraphs
didn’t make you depressed, there’s something wrong with you. It depressed me to
write it. It absolutely sucks that this is where we have taken the game, but
this is where we are and there’s no going back. No one is going to decide that they
are fine with making less money off the sport. No one is going to decide that the
spirit or tradition of the game is the most important thing. And no one is
going to suddenly decide that gigantic humans slamming into one another causing
serious, but usually not immediate, health issues or death is too barbaric to sit
around each week and watch with our families. Things are moving forward, not
backward. There will be more money involved, the stakes will only get higher,
and it is survival of the fittest. The Big 10 became more fit this week.
Reality is a scary thing to face, and
this reality is no different. My heart and history tell me that this move was
not a good one. My head couldn’t disagree more. All of me is a fan of a Big 10
team, and this week my league took a step in the direction of long term
stability. I may not be excited to watch Iowa and Maryland play a football
game in a town 900 miles East of Iowa City called College
Park, but at least I know it will happen. In this
landscape, what more could you ask for?
