Glamorous, Yes, but the New Era of the Big Ten Is Logistically Irrational

[Jonnyeagle]

At first glance, the 2024 and ’25 Big Ten football schedules are a pure adrenaline rush of fresh excitement. Michigan playing USC in the L.A. Coliseum? UCLA coming to the Big House? Ohio State making a regular-season visit to the Rose Bowl? A division-less rotation of opponents that still preserves traditional rivalries?

Cool. Fun. New.

But let’s not forget the irrational foundation upon which this freshness is built. When it comes to the Los Angeles schools’ membership in the Big Ten, the geography still makes no sense. And the travel demands placed on the Trojans and Bruins will be a massive burden—in football and likely moreso in virtually every other sport.

read more: https://www.si.com/college/2023/06/08/usc-ucla-big-ten-football-schedule-logistically-irrational

 

[emmitt01]

"Blah, blah, blah travel...blah, blah, blah, academics...and did I mention that NOT ONE SINGLE THING MATTERS MORE THAN THE MONEY to the school presidents, athletic directors, and donors?"   

[Ross Hodgeson]

The good news for us is overall the travel in the American seems pretty reasonable, besides the occasional road trips to Annapolis, Philly and Greenville. 

[DentonLurker]

A massive burden? They’ll be fine.

[TripleGrad]

Fortunately, people have developed these things called airliners in the century since college football conferences were first formed.

[NT80]

11 hours ago, Jonnyeagle said:

But let’s not forget the irrational foundation upon which this freshness is built. When it comes to the Los Angeles schools’ membership in the Big Ten, the geography still makes no sense. And the travel demands placed on the Trojans and Bruins will be a massive burden—in football and likely moreso in virtually every other sport.

 

No pity party for them.   They will have 100 million reason$ each season to suffer thru it. 

[Arkstfan]

I find it odd that it's entirely feasible for say the Redskins or Ravens to go face Chargers or Rams, the Nationals or Orioles can go play the Angels or Dodgers, the Wizards can go play the Lakers or Clippers, the Capitals can go play the Kings or Ducks, and DC United can go play Galaxy or LAFC but the Terrapins can't go play the Trojans or Bruins.  In men's and women's hoops and volleyball they can play both on the same trip.

Maryland will go to LA fewer times in a season than their pro neighbors.

B1G doled out about $58 million per school. NHL's TV deal is just under $20 million per team. Major League Soccer just got a really nice raise (and terrible exposure) at just under $10 million per team.

Pro leagues are putting about 55% of revenue in salaries for players. Schools in B1G are spending about 4% of revenue on scholarships. 

Maryland will fly commercial most likely for anything other than football. The NFL, MLB, and NBA will charter. NHL will mostly charter but occasionally flies commercial and MLS flies commercial though MLSPA has said they intend to demand teams have the right to charter, currently league rules require commercial.

So in general Maryland will go west less often than their pro neighbors and do so at a cheaper cost than their pro neighbors. Their revenue will lag well behind their NFL, NBA, and MLB neighbors but their league distribution will be higher than the distribution the Caps and United receive.

NCAA cut back what players could receive in 1973 removing the "laundry money" cash payment because we were in a persistent recession/stagflation economy with declining college enrollment and the added cost of Title IX. Revenue for college was not great 1973 to 1990. Schools actually ended up worse off after Board of Regents v NCAA until the schools started bailing out of the CFA and cutting their own deals in 1991.

When the money shot up, no one gave a crap about restoring benefit to players. Even Stevie Wonder could see the insane spending coaches salaries and facilities. 

Bear Bryant's salary when he retired was worth $1.4 million in today dollars. Nick Sagan has a good argument for being as good or better than Bryant but not 9X better but his salary is 9X more.

If the power schools had been funneling 25% or even 10% of their $100 million revenues over to raise faculty salaries, lower tuition, add more scholarships, or something similar, the odds are fewer people would have been angry and we probably don't get the lawsuits nor the warm reception to the lawsuits that brought us stipends and NIL.

[greenminer]

6 hours ago, Arkstfan said:

 If the power schools had been funneling 25% or even 10% of their $100 million revenues over to raise faculty salaries, lower tuition, add more scholarships, or something similar, the odds are fewer people would have been angry and we probably don't get the lawsuits nor the warm reception to the lawsuits that brought us stipends and NIL.

Interesting take