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Message: [QUOTE="HuskyHawk, post: 4725455, member: 1414"] Iowa isn't close to the bottom of the B1G. Middle of the pack. Minnesota is very close to the bottom. The point you miss is that the history helps drive value. State population is irrelevant, or Alabama and Auburn wouldn't be what they are. Iowa is way more valuable in a league with Illinois and Indiana than they would be elsewhere. [U]You'd think UConn fans would have internalized this after our experience in the American[/U]. In a vacuum, Memphis is probably on par with many Big East programs, but our fans didn't treat them that way. We would have rather seen our team play a bad Georgetown team. My point was that USC and UCLA were uniquely valuable to the B1G, not just as big names from a big market, but as schools Big Ten fans always sought to play in the Rose Bowl. Washington and Oregon too, but to a lesser extent. Alabama fans never had that, the Sugar Bowl history was often with the Big XII, and guess where all those top football schools (except Nebraska) ended up? This isn't a coincidence. The Orange Bowl was a Big 8 game, but they most often faced ACC and SEC teams (sometimes others). Nebraska's history was mostly not with Big Ten schools, and it shows. Maryland has similarly not fared well. There's just no juice for anybody in the B1G in playing Maryland. Those old lingering passions matter in games not between highly ranked teams. Is any Big XII school on the B1G's radar, that was the question. I think you're right, no. If Colorado got back to winning NCs, maybe. Are any on the SEC's radar? Probably not, but maybe Kansas. For "why" I refer to the history aspect above. There is some "juice" there. Probably not enough. [/QUOTE]

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