It’s all about the benjamins and Los Angeles is a huge get for the Big10, for fans and recruits alike.
The conference will also want to add Cal, Oregon, UW and Stanford. In the ACC, the Big10 will invite Duke, UNC, NC State, Virginia Tech, Miami, Pitt and Georgia Tech. Notre Dame is always welcome, but even going forward will suffer under a strange attraction to independence.
The new conference will cover the vast majority of big markets. Top to bottom these are great universities, moreover, and the conference brand will be synonymous with academic excellence. (As great, well-endowed universities pop up all over the globe, the teeny tiny, super snobby and lefty Ivy League will be like a barely noticeable gnat drowning in a giant bowl of tomato soup. Scale matters, as the newly giant Big10 will show.)
This is a great day for the Big10 conference, and not only for athletics.
Georgia Tech would bring the Atlanta TV maket. Miami would bring the Miami TV market. Cal and/or Stanford brings the San Francisco-Oakland-SanJose TV market. Pitt gets you Pittsburgh.
What would Duke or NC State add to Big Ten Network?