ESPN's Dana O'Neil calls realignment perfectly

[Lehigh Football Nation]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8652493/as-maryland-rutgers-bolt-college-sports-caretakers-fail-again-men-college-basketball


Do they even care anymore? Do they listen to the people at all -- read their comments or feel their frustration?

Do the powers-that-be see people calling college sports a money-grubbing mess and an embarrassment? Do they sense the sarcasm and the cynicism when people talk about Rutgers-Nebraska as a new Big Ten rivalry or say they can't wait for that Georgetown-SMU Big East showdown?

My guess is they do. No one is that tone-deaf or blind.

They hear. They see. They simply don't care.

The powers-that-be and the caretakers of college sports long ago stopped worrying about their pennant-waving constituents or even the athletes carrying the official flag of membership.

+1

[Laker]

At this point many more voters think that Rutgers is a better fit than Maryland? Was pot legalized everywhere?

[dgtw]

Maryland is a better program than Rutgers, but neither one is really a fit for the Big Ten. They didn't want Missouri but now are taking Maryland?

[Twentysix]

Maryland is a better program than Rutgers, but neither one is really a fit for the Big Ten. They didn't want Missouri but now are taking Maryland?

Missouri has really low research dollars, 238m (by big ten standards). They don't even double NDSU's numbers. AAU membership and Research expenses are important to the big ten. Had nebraska been looking a year or so later they would have been denied Big Ten membership imo. Big Ten probably doesn't want to risk another member that could potentially lose AAU membership. Nebraska (331m/yr) was kicked out of the AAU shortly after gaining big ten membership.

Michigan State is the Big Tens weakest research institution (sans nebraska and indiana) at 431m. Michigan and Wisconsin are both over a billion a year.

Maryland at 451m/yr would rank ahead of Iowa and Michigan St in research dollars. Rutgers is literally 1 spot below Michigan State in the research university list at 429m/yr.

Georgia Tech is kind of on an island but they have a great market and are a really strong research university at 615m/yr. They also became an AAU member 2 years ago.

[CHIP72]

In an ideal world (or at least my ideal world), Maryland would have stayed put and Penn State would have bolted the Big Ten for the ACC (and Rutgers could have then moved to the ACC).