Tuesday, November 20, 2012

What Rutgers and Maryland REALLY mean to the B1G

Alright, today it was made official. It is the first time I have run the dishwasher in the last four years. Go ahead and laugh, that's fine, tell me I'm spoiled. But I will swear until I die that the biggest travesty of my college career is that for four years, my roommates and I did not have a dishwasher. The proverbial saying, "if that was your biggest problem, you had it pretty good," is flashing across many a mind right now, and I will not argue with you on that. College was awesome. Hours upon hours were spent sitting around watching Family Guy, Jeopardy, and B1G athletics. Turns out there happened to be some news regarding one of those three things today, and no, unfortunately Alex Trebek has not been fired...yet.

Commissioner Jim Delany made it official today that Rutgers has become the fourteenth member of the once Big Ten. I refuse to call it (in writing at least) the Big Ten, because for nineteen years now there have been at least eleven members; B1G is fine though. Two years ago, Nebraska joined to give the conference twelve members. Over the weekend, there was speculation that Maryland and Rutgers would become members thirteen and fourteen. And today, Delany announced that Rutgers has indeed joined Maryland as the next two members of the B1G, confirming the speculations, and also confirming that a key factor for entrance into the conference is a school's primary color: it better be red.

B1G Commissioner Jim Delany (left) and Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti (right) photo credit: nypost.com


Now the question becomes what to do with Maryland and Rutgers. I guess you can't put them in the Legends Division because they are brand new to the conference; how could they be legends? So to the Leaders Division they go? Well that would make things uneven, giving the Leaders eight schools and the Legends six. So that's out. The only logical thing to do would be to split them up, sending one to the Leaders Division and one to the Legends Division, which would mean the two schools that are the most isolated from the others would be in different divisions? Since I mentioned Family Guy earlier, that makes about as sense as "Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the first Battle of Antietam." After you get over your initial shock that I could have possibly put "sex" in a post, you will realize it makes no sense at all. Anything Peter Griffin can't understand, you shouldn't be required to understand either.

Before I get into what the B1G should do about their choices for assigning Rutgers and Maryland divisions, let me first say what the addition of the schools ACTUALLY means for the conference. With the addition of Rutgers, the B1G now has three of the coolest basketball arena nicknames in the country (The Barn, The Bres, and The RAC). Okay seriously though, from a basketball standpoint, this move is a no-brainer. Maryland is rich in basketball tradition and immediately provides a formidable opponent for any school. Rutgers, while still an up and coming basketball school, will continue to grow and should see a spike in recruiting, due to their entrance into a basketball mega conference and exit from a dilapidated Big East. Both schools will fit right in, right away. Rutgers Women's Basketball will also assume a dominant position in the B1G, and C. Vivian Stringer will get the added bonus of playing games just a little bit farther away from Don Imus.

The "RAC" photo credit: scarletknights.com


From a football standpoint, you may not think much of the additions of Rutgers and Maryland. This is where I invite you to remember that Rutgers would have the best record of any bowl eligible team in the B1G right now if they were already a conference member. Sure, the Big East is not the football conference the B1G is, but it isn't that far off this year. The B1G is as down as it has ever been. New blood is not a bad thing. The addition of Maryland brings a basketball school with an up and coming football program. Their coach, Randy Edsall, may not seem like a household name, but a few years ago some people in Ann Arbor were looking over his resume before giving old Brady a call. And in addition, they take over as having the most bad ass football uniforms in the conference.

photo credit: lacrosseplayground.com


As for the other sports, well, let's be realistic. This move was made as a business decision. In other words, the schools and conference were playing with a lot of money. Any individual who tells you that football and basketball don't bring in the most money for a school (for the average school, at least) needs to go to confession. Football and Basketball are the sports that will be the measuring stick as to whether or not the additions of Rutgers and Maryland were beneficial to the conference. Period.

Now, back to that whole Legends and Leaders thing. The B1G has been given the rare opportunity to fix its mistake without admitting it made one. I would advise them to take it, because that opportunity doesn't come around very often. Besides the two weirdest names for divisions within a conference in college football, the assignment of schools makes no sense whatsoever. Lucky for the B1G, Terrelle Pryor and his friends decided their championship rings weren't worth much, and their coach decided it wasn't worth much of his time. If not (I realize Nebraska is a win away), the B1G might be facing the situation of having Michigan and Ohio State play each other in back-to-back weeks, which makes about as much sense as, well, you get it by now. So Commissioner Delany, now would be a good time to cover your hiney and realign your conference. As boring as they are, the names "east" and "west" would do perfectly fine for the names of your division. Here's what I propose. In the B1G West: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, and Wisconsin. In the B1G East: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers. For those of you saying, "that makes one division too stacked," my question for you is why? You still have Wisconsin and Nebraska on one side of the equation, both powerhouse football schools. Not to mention Northwestern is on the rise.

For me, that makes sense. When it comes to basketball, the divisions make no difference anyway. With those two divisions, you ensure rivalries stay rivalries, you create rivalries with Rutgers and Maryland, and everybody is (hopefully) happy. And who doesn't want to be happy two days before Thanksgiving?

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