Conference Realignment: Why Do They Just Add but Never Subtract Schools?

History? Alumni? Money?

Alan

Because having an elite private institution in your conference adds class and a veneer that the conference takes academics seriously.

well...you brought up two bad examples. NW was a doormat in the 80s but has won championships and gone to major bowl games since. Vandy is nationally ranked and has won national championships. The hangers on are just not as good at football always.

Their successful and wealthy alumni can still be counted on to subscribe to and watch the SEC or Big10 Network. They won't demand a payout to be scheduled against in-conference powerhouses. These other programs in the conference can count on the W when scheduling them, which certainly helps for homecoming.

Right. Vanderbilt is usually decent at basketball, often even better, than decent and they're a powerhouse in baseball. Northwestern is never going to be Ohio State but they won the Big Ten West in football very recently and contend to do that most years now. From a competitive standpoint they're at least as good a fit as Maryland, Rutgers, Nebraska (recently,) the list could go on. Both schools help the academic image of their conferences and Northwestern keeps the Big Ten in the Chicago TV market which is not a big fat zero.

It happens at the lower levels of Division 1 occasionally. New Mexico State were essentially kicked out of the Sun Belt a few years ago and Chicago State are being removed from the WAC and were denied entry into the MEAC.

The Sun Belt recently kick UTA and Arkansas-Little Rock out of the conference

U Mass was in the MAC as a football only member for a few years but did everything else in the A-10. Then the MAC decided it wanted every member doing all of their sports in the MAC. U Mass didn't want to take everything out of the A 10 so they had to leave the MAC in football. I don't know if that counts as getting kicked out or not but they didn't exactly go willingly.

U Mass traveling to Muncie, Athens, or Mt. Pleasant never made sense to me, They are better off getting paid BIG bucks going to Clemson or Bama as homecoming wins !

Once they expand do you think that NW has a snowball's chance in Hell of ever doing that again? Also, I doubt there's a ton of people in Chicago tuning in to watch the NW game.. unless they are playing OSU or Penn St.

I agree. I just dont know that they are truly helpless...kick them out bad. Someone has to be last. NW is fine last place team/school that competes well from time to time for championships.

Chicago was the biggest market in the B10.

My guess is that in part it is really, really hard to kick out a school.

Also, when it comes to football Vandy is a win for most every other team in the SEC. They get the benefit of that win and count it as a power 5 game. Don't have to pay for the win like against a FCS or G5 school.

Then it is nice having the academics...that is pretty funny to write these days.

Huskies and Ducks headed to Big 10

I'm guessing that eventually the Big Ten will expand with UW and UO, alongside Cal and Stanford and possibly some of the ACC schools, but I don't think that happens in the next year or two.

IMO, either the Pac-12 schools remain as the Pac-10, or the Big 12 and Pac-12 merger happens (and maybe pulling in some MWC/AAC teams, and maybe excluding Oregon State and Washington State) in an attempt for both conferences to stay relevant together as one.

Voting rights.

This is entirely about the TV market, not about what schools fit in the conference. Check the next biggest TV markets to predict the next schools to join the B1G. Georgia Tech to get Atlanta?

Dallas, Houston, and Philly are the largest markets not in B10.