The New Math in College Football!

While we are on the subject of colleges, I'd like to add a few thoughts about the Big Ten Conferance. First of all next year there will be 14 teams in the "Big Ten". What's wrong with this picture. Is this the math being taught now? The only number that makes sense is the money they anticipate from TV revenues. It's all about the money, but we knew that.

Every conference has realigned with new members, while original members join new conferences. The New Big East was formed in which half of the conference was in the West, but now it has been realigned a second time within a year, dropping football as a "sponsored sport". Teams in the West are no longer in the East? However there are only three of ten member schools in the New New Big East Conference that are actually in what most consider the Eastern states. The most Western school in the Big East is Creighton, which is in Omaha. Confused yet??

Now to get back to my conference, the Big 10 going on fourteen. I'm a traditionalist, as are most old guys. The traditional Big 10 was rough and rugged, good old Midwestern toughness and values. Many were and are land grant colleges. Land grant colleges were formed when the government allocated land to build colleges as training grounds for a practical usable education. Many we're originally called "Agriculture and Applied Science". Actually In the fifties, the Big Ten had only nine schools. Michigan State was added as the tenth member, replacing the University of Chicago, who had dropped out a few years before. Penn State was added a few years ago. That made some sense because Michigan State and Penn State were the first Land Grant colleges and Penn State fit the profile of the other Big Ten schools. But now its the Big Ten with eleven members. Then they added Nebraska. That makes some sense, because Nebraska is next to Iowa???? Now it's a twelve team Big Ten.

Wait a minute, in 2014 Rutgers and Maryland will be joining the Big Ten, making it a fourteen team league. The Athletic Director at Michigan SState stated at an IMG conference that the Big Ten could expand to a sixteen team conference. He said a fourteen team conference is hard to schedule and align. The Eastern and Western Conference of the Big Ten will be organized around time zones. Huh??. What happened to traditional rivalries. The Big Ten has always wanted Notre Dame in the conference, after all Notre Dame has long rivalries with Big Ten Schools. I think Notre Dame is smart avoiding conference membership, at least for now. They make enough money on their own.

I don't know what I have accomplished here. They more I write about the more
I confuse myself. Let"s just say the college football is not about tradition anymore. It's the way of the world, old man. Get used to it.

I think I'll take a nap!

Have a Nice Day!

Sammy