Oh, f--- us. Big Ten tourney at MSG in '18

[superjohn]

If the Big Ten expanded to 30 schools, I'd like Cincy's chances.

It makes no sense but then again nothing about conference realignment makes any sense. The one certainty is UConn will always get bent over, Central might get an invite before us.

 

[dsturdy5]

The optimistic view: UConn owns the Garden and the B1G knows it. UConn fans will fill the building themselves if necessary.

The pessimistic view: There are a ton of OSU, Michigan, Indiana and MSU alums in the northeast. Enough to fill the Garden.

Choose carefully...the mojo gods are watching.

 

[champs99and04]

Why is this news F us?

We we're already before and still are.

Did people think the Big Ten was gonna add us to get MSG or something? Come on. Michigan played in Brooklyn last week and their alumni outnumbered Villanova. Big Ten never needed us to fill MSG.

I'm not a realignment expert and I'm sure there are plenty of reasons we're not appealing to the Big Ten, but it does make some practical sense that we could add value. Think of how many Michigan fans were at the football game last year - there are a s*** load of Big Ten alumni in the NYC area and keeping them occupied with manageable road trips would figure to be in the best interest of business.

But the football team obviously sucks now, and if things hold to form this weekend in college football, the Big Ten will be the only P5 conference locked out of the playoffs. Given they just added a couple of dregs in Rutgers and Maryland, convincing them to add more dead weight and perhaps further dilute the product will be a tough sell.

 

[FartMan69]

P5 = No UConn club

 

[gtcam]

This is just not been the best sports weekend of our lives...

Big Ten to MSG

I'm in - when are tickets on sale???

 

[gtcam]

This is a strange announcement
I don't care if some of these teams travel well or even if the have a slew of alumni in the NYC area - it doesn't make sense geographically.
They aren't doing it for Rutgers
Could there be an invite? Who knows but the situation the UConn football team is in is not good
I don't care about this loss to Yale or what happens this year in men's bball - the recent history has EVERY program envious.
I know women's sports isn't a huge draw but the Big10 would love the UConn womens bball and field hockey team.
The improving Men's ice hockey is attractive.
I would rather see a Big10 invite over an ACC

 

[jleves]

You guys are not thinking clearly here. This is about money and television sets. Rutgers is not even going to deliver the state of New Jersey. Boston College has no fans even in Boston. So the television market that includes NYC and all of New England is very much in play. I doubt that this is lost on
television networks. The amount of fans that a league brings to the television sets to watch games mean real money. The way it is set up at this moment college sports could lose not only NYC but all of New England to pro sport forever as people in the Northeast just won't care about teams from the the Midwest no matter where they play. Are any of you planning on following the Big 10? Not likely.
Any of you going to follow the ACC? Same for the rest of New England and most of NYC.
This is a lot of money to leave on the table when all you have to do is invite CT and now you have a solid fan base in NYC, southern Mass, Eastern NY and large parts of Rhode Island.
I think CT will get a Big Ten invite.

It is about economics (obviously) and most importantly, TV sets. New Jersey's population is 8.9 million people, plus they help delivers at least some of the NYC market consisting of 8.4 million people. Connecticut's population is 3.6 million people. We obviously help deliver some of the NYC market, but I would bet that % is low and lower than Rutgers. I don't think we deliver a lot of Mass or RI as they tend to be rivals. The rest of New England might get behind another New England winner, but that's only another 3 million people or so (Maine, VT and NH) and obviously that percentage is going to be lower than the number of CT people who tune in.

Obviously there's a lot of other draws for NYC and NJ - like pro teams out the wazoo. It does seem that 3.6 million potential high % sets and another 3 million lower percentage sets plus whatever you can eek out of New York, Mass and RI would seem a good addition when there are no more big markets to exploit.

I've often wondered why the ACC and the Big10 are not falling over themselves to lock that up. I'm guessing they have a better handle on what teams would bring beyond my quick wikipedia research and assumptions about who would watch.

I still think we get a Big10 invite in the next 3 years. We bring more than they would lose by the extra split.

 

[Kitaman]

Posters are acting like this decision was made to attract UConn or even with UConn in mind. NYC is the biggest city in the country, so to host the tournament there is a no-brainer and a smart move. Marketing, recruiting, entertainment, publicity, etc... are bigger factors than their committee saying you know maybe this will open the door for UConn.

All I'm saying is I highly doubt UConn was a consideration whatsoever. The best thing we can do is to show up and show out decked out in our UConn gear, hell even print UConn signs and take over the Garden off the court. Its just frustrating and I'm not sure what else we can do.

 

[8893]

Posters are acting like this decision was made to attract UConn or even with UConn in mind.

No, we're acting like adding UConn is consistent with the stated goals and actions of the B1G, that's all. No more, no less.

 

[upstater]

UConn delivers the Ct market and it ends at the borders.

It depends on the sport. UConn bball is popular east of the Hudson in NYC. The women's championship game did a 4.9 in NYC which was just a really good number. Not sure about Boston but I heard Peter Gammons say the town was riveted with the men's team, but it could have been because of Shabazz.

 

[B1GEast]

meh, i see this as a positive, by 2018, we'll be somewhere

 

[BoatShow]

The optimistic view: UConn owns the Garden and the B1G knows it. UConn fans will fill the building themselves if necessary.

The pessimistic view: There are a ton of OSU, Michigan, Indiana and MSU alums in the northeast. Enough to fill the Garden.

Choose carefully...the mojo gods are watching.

When we played IU in MSG last year I'm pretty sure they had way more fans than us...(but I mean...MSG was probably way more novel and important for their fans than us) Not to mention people in the midwest seem to not have jobs but at the same time have infinite incomes where they can just stop their lives for a week and follow their team.

 

[BoatShow]

UConn delivers the Ct market and it ends at the borders.

Facts and logic beg to differ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/upshot/ncaa-football-map.html?_r=0#9,41.614,-72.967

 

[ConnHuskBask]

When we played IU in MSG last year I'm pretty sure they had way more fans than us...(but I mean...MSG was probably way more novel and important for their fans than us) Not to mention people in the midwest seem to not have jobs but at the same time have infinite incomes where they can just stop their lives for a week and follow their team.

Definitely more IU fans at that game.

UConn took over the house for the Michigan State game but even the Iowa State game I felt like UVA had the most fans of the 4 teams.

 

[UConn9604]

The optimistic view: UConn owns the Garden and the B1G knows it. UConn fans will fill the building themselves if necessary.

We should all go and crash the place. Empty the piggy banks, buy all the tickets, and fill the building with blue and white - for every game of the tournament. That'll show 'em.

 

[BoatShow]

We should all go and crash the place. Empty the piggy banks, buy all the tickets, and fill the building with blue and white - for every game of the tournament. That'll show 'em.

Ha, if only we could do this for football games in East Hartford...

 

[Dooley]

Interesting picture used in this article...

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...oops-tourney-to-madison-square-garden-in-2018

 

[huskiesnyc]

Definitely more IU fans at that game.

UConn took over the house for the Michigan State game but even the Iowa State game I felt like UVA had the most fans of the 4 teams.

Also more Maryland fans at the Barclays Center which I found surprising.

 

[The Viking]

The only positive I take out of the B1g and MSG is 9 months ago Jim Delany was there in person as we completely took over the building vs MSU on our way to a championship.
That's all I've got.

 

[The Funster]

Having your league championship game one week before selection Sunday is a huge gamble, IMO. I think Delany is trying to force his agenda a little too strongly. It smacks of hubris and my guess is they do it once and scrap the idea.

 

[BoatShow]

Having your league championship game one week before selection Sunday is a huge gamble, IMO. I think Delany is trying to force his agenda a little too strongly. It smacks of hubris and my guess is they do it once and scrap the idea.

But think about it, they'll be the only conference tourney on TV that week. TTTTVVVV TTTTTVVVV TTTTVVVV TTTTVVVV TTTTVVVVV MUST RULE ALL THAT IS TVVVVVVV

 

[Danzz]

Big 10 is all set Rutgers fans will surely fill The Garden.

Which Rutgers fan do you think will show up?

 

[upstater]

Early season games at MSG have never really filled with UConn fans even during seasons when attendance was at its height. Probably because it wasn't a novelty for NYC area UConn fans. I can remember sitting in MSG for November games and there were few UConn fans there.

 

[BoatShow]

Thanks for validating my assertion that UConn's market is mostly confined to the state of Ct. While this map shows some tepid UConn support in a few contiguous regions across the CT border, keep in mind that these are among the least populated sections of neighboring states.

You said it stops at the borders.

 

[jleves]

Facts and logic beg to differ http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/03/upshot/ncaa-football-map.html?_r=0#9,41.614,-72.967

That's a football map. Clearly UConn hasn't done enough in football to expand the base outside of CT but a basketball map would show the potential should UConn get into a real conference and start attracting the needed talent to get better.

On a side note, why are the Florida Gators so popular in New England? Looks like they have more fans in Mass than BC and UMass combined.