DCDuck

Hey, I never realized this thread existed. Anyway I've been spending more of the past few months sculpting rather than painting, but here are a few of mine:

The CAA will probably argue that they deserve to jump to FBS before the Big Sky doex.

Agreed. Those notches look tacky, I think.

But again, that's true of graduates of just about every conference, not just the Big Ten. That doesn't say anything about whether Maryland or Virginia would make a more attractive candidate for expansion.

... except nobody here gives two farts about the Big Ten except for Big Ten alumni (but then you could say that about any conference). The Big Ten is a decidedly Midwestern conference, whereas DC is a decidedly Mid-Atlantic (some would say Southern despite its strong progressive bearings) city. DC doesn't care about college football. That's part of the reason Maryland football has struggled to fill Byrd Stadium even during the early Fridge years when they were ranked in the top-10. And if what you claim is true about the Big Ten not needing Maryland or Rutgers to expand influence to the Eastern Seaboard, then why would the Big Ten even consider expansion at all?

First off, I never said Maryland was Penn State's biggest rival, I said Penn State was Maryland's biggest rival. There's a difference. Second, who do people in the DMV care about if not Maryland? Virginia? Two hours away from DC. Georgetown? They play football in the Patriot League. Virginia Tech? Nobody around here even knows where Blacksburg is, let alone drives down there for games. This isn't the same Virginia that was ranked year-in and year-out during the 90s and early 2000s. This Virginia has trouble generating enough interest for even regional TV coverage (living in Richmond for three years, I can recall exactly three times that Virginia had a football game on TV that wasn't broadcast on ESPN). Maryland controls the DMV in terms of college sports. Georgetown comes in second. Virginia isn't even on the radar here.

Virginia plays second-fiddle to Virginia Tech because of their perception not only in the Commonwealth but nationally. UVa is seen as a school full of rich white kids who play soft in football and can't get their act together in basketball. In terms of student enrollment, UVa is something like sixth behind George Mason, VCU, Old Dominion, Virginia Tech and James Madison. UVa's academics are top-notch, yes, but since when was any of this realignment nonsense focused on academics? Nobody in Virginia cares about the Big Ten. The SEC? Sure. But in the South (and Virginia is no doubt a "southern" state), the perception of the Big Ten is one of entitled kids who play second-rate football. Maryland is located in a media gold mine, located between DC and Baltimore and commanding both markets. They have far more prestige in basketball and a higher ceiling for growth in football (remember: UnderArmour CEO Kevin Plank is like their personal ATM machine). If AD Kevin Anderson could ever get his act together and stop firing good coaches for "great" ones like Randy Edsall, Maryland has the potential to be a powerhouse in at least a half-dozen sports. Heck, in the past ten years they've won National Championships in Men's BB, Women's BB, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, and have been pounding at the door in Men's Lacrosse for at least the past fifteen years. Oh, and Maryland's biggest rival in football already plays in the Big Ten (Penn State).

Why would the Big Ten want Virginia when they could have Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse and Pittsburgh instead? Virginia is far, far down the list of possible expansion candidates. Nobody wants a school where the two biggest sports on campus are baseball and lacrosse, even if the academics are top-tier. Why do you think Rice has been left out in the cold by both the Big XII and the Big East?

Why does everyone keep saying VT to the SEC? Virginia Tech is handcuffed to Virginia. There are powerful political forces keeping the two of them joined at the hip, and the SEC would have no interest in adding both. Realignment is dumb. I just thought I'd put that out there. This whole thing is dumb. Florida State really wants to be in the SEC. The Big XII would be their silver medal. The same is true for West Virginia. Incidentally, Mizzou really wants to be in the Big Ten. The SEC is their silver medal.

It's harder to negotiate how (or if) to split football revenue among non-football members of a given conference.

Big XII should go after Pittsburgh to renew the Backyard Brawl rivalry with WV. I don't know what Clemson adds other than another program that's just kinda sorta okay at football.

Nothing is going on, but the CAA has a clause that lets them ban any school that plans to leave from the conference tournament. 15 is a hell of an awkward number to work with. Seadragon that's kind of funny - except VCU was one of only five programs (out of 343) in D1 to sell out every home game last season.

We're giving up approximately $800k per year to make the jump. I for one am not thrilled about the move. All of the hype surrounding the A-14 (14 teams - prestige of BCS affiliation = A-14) depends on Butler returning to the back-to-back National Championship Game form they had a couple seasons ago with three NBA players on their roster, Xavier not taking a step back, and all of those other programs making significant strides. And even then, all of the teams will just beat up on each other. Think of what goes on in the NFC East, only in college basketball. The VCU-TICK rivalry will be the same, only it will be played twice a season instead of just once. UR has no fan base, so that rivalry is only intense when the TICKS play at VCU.

They'll stay independent, 'cause "football independence is a vital part of their identity as a university".

Marinatto resigns as head of Big East http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18983292 Two years too late. The Big East is C-USA 2.0 and officially irrelevant in the scope of college football.