The view from Toledo: Big Ten gained the world, but lost its soul under retiring Delany | The Boneyard

The view from Toledo: Big Ten gained the world, but lost its soul under retiring Delany

Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
86,933
Reaction Score
323,077
Big Ten gained the world, but lost its soul under retiring Delany

>>My first response to the news Jim Delany is stepping down as Big Ten commissioner next summer: Those are some enormous shoes to fill.

My second: Can he take Rutgers with him?

That about captures the legacy of the man who shepherded a league that gained the world, but lost a piece of its soul.>>
 
Joined
Aug 13, 2013
Messages
8,406
Reaction Score
7,935
What I have always said is again confirmed in that article by Ohio State's AD:

He added: “Here’s one thing that people seem to forget about our move with Rutgers and Maryland. At the time, the ACC was looking to expand. Part of our move was to protect Penn State. Everyone forgets we had a teammate and partner institution that was on a [geographic] island, so what we did, beyond gaining exposure, is we further brought in a valued partner in Penn State. Had Penn State defected to the ACC, what would the conversation have been then?”
 
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
21,272
Reaction Score
50,278
Only 11 percent of New York City residents consider themselves avid college football fans, according to Scarborough research. Compare that to, say, the Toledo market, where a study by the Media Audit found that 71.3 percent of residents regularly follow college football.

11% of just the 5 boroughs: 930k people
100% of the Toledo metro area: 600k people

It amazes me how dumb people can be.
 

Fishy

Elite Premium Poster
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
17,954
Reaction Score
129,153
Only 11 percent of New York City residents consider themselves avid college football fans, according to Scarborough research. Compare that to, say, the Toledo market, where a study by the Media Audit found that 71.3 percent of residents regularly follow college football.

11% of just the 5 boroughs: 930k people
100% of the Toledo metro area: 600k people

It amazes me how dumb people can be.

His point was that New York doesn't care about Rutgers or the Big Ten. He's right because New York doesn't care about Rutgers or the Big Ten. He's not advocating for the Toledo market.
 
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
21,272
Reaction Score
50,278
His point was that New York doesn't care about Rutgers or the Big Ten. He's right because New York doesn't care about Rutgers or the Big Ten. He's not advocating for the Toledo market.

No, he's arguing that NYC doesn't care about CFB; ergo it's not a worthwhile market to pursue.
 

Fishy

Elite Premium Poster
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
17,954
Reaction Score
129,153
No, he's arguing that NYC doesn't care about CFB; ergo it's not a worthwhile market to pursue.

Again, no.

He's saying that the Bg Ten is financially more sound because of things Delaney did, but cost the conference its soul by bring in Rutgers, specifically.

And he's not wrong. Every school now has that turd in its punch bowl. The New York market isn't a Big Ten market just because they brought in Rutgers - it's every bit as indifferent to the Big Ten now as it was before the invited RU.
 

dayooper

It's what I do. I drink and I know things.
Joined
Aug 16, 2013
Messages
1,641
Reaction Score
4,332
Again, no.

He's saying that the Bg Ten is financially more sound because of things Delaney did, but cost the conference its soul by bring in Rutgers, specifically.

And he's not wrong. Every school now has that turd in its punch bowl. The New York market isn't a Big Ten market just because they brought in Rutgers - it's every bit as indifferent to the Big Ten now as it was before the invited RU.

Yes, but with a caveat. There are a bunch of Big10 alumni in NYC. They are some of the wealthiest alumni from each of those schools and many still follow their school and The Big10. While Rutgers didn’t do anything to bring new fans into the Big10, the brought existing fans together for games into the area. Those fans have been donating at increased amounts.

Was Rutgers worth it? Keeping PSU happy was important. Bringing NYC alumni their teams in for a game in their back yard was important. Conferences need patsies too, and, excepting their first year in the conference when they went 3-5 in the division (and beat Michigan) they have been. The division is tough and any school that’s trying to improve will have a hard time with OSU, OSU, MSU and Michigan in the division.

That being said, do I want Rutgers in the Big10? No, not really. From a fan perspective, it hasn’t been good. They have been in way over their head. I have been very steady about me wanting UConn in the Big10 and from my perspective, you all would have been a much better choice. I understand why Delany and the presidents choose Rutgers, though. The academic piece of AAU, the med school and the location with in the NYC DMA, it makes sense from a money and exposure perspective. The bean counters, recruiters and academics love ‘em, though. Sense we fans take a back seat to those groups, especially the bean counters, it’s what we have.
 

Fishy

Elite Premium Poster
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
17,954
Reaction Score
129,153
None of that mattered.

It was just the cable boxes.

You don't bring in the worst athletic department on the planet over the past century to satisfy any other metric. The rest is just spin.

I would just own up to that instead of talking about PSU going to the ACC which would have happened right after the end of the world, etc., etc. At least it made more sense than the ACC adding three zip codes in Kentucky.
 
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
21,272
Reaction Score
50,278
Again, no.

He's saying that the Bg Ten is financially more sound because of things Delaney did, but cost the conference its soul by bring in Rutgers, specifically.

And he's not wrong. Every school now has that turd in its punch bowl. The New York market isn't a Big Ten market just because they brought in Rutgers - it's every bit as indifferent to the Big Ten now as it was before thRU.

Again no.

He didn’t say NY doesn’t care about Rutgers or the big 10. He said it doesn’t care about CFB. Which is a dumb argument because one twentieth of NY still brings in more viewers than most midwestern cities.

He may have had s good point in there somewhere, but the example he gave did not support it. It was a Poorly constructed argument.
 
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
2,113
Reaction Score
8,480
None of that mattered.

It was just the cable boxes.

You don't bring in the worst athletic department on the planet over the past century to satisfy any other metric. The rest is just spin.

I would just own up to that instead of talking about PSU going to the ACC which would have happened right after the end of the world, etc., etc. At least it made more sense than the ACC adding three zip codes in
Kentucky.

This.

Penn State was never leaving The B1G. Administrators like Alvarez and Smith sold this fairy tale to their fan bases as justification for what was essentially a giant cash grab.
 
Joined
Jan 5, 2013
Messages
765
Reaction Score
1,184
Again no.

He didn’t say NY doesn’t care about Rutgers or the big 10. He said it doesn’t care about CFB. Which is a dumb argument because one twentieth of NY still brings in more viewers than most midwestern cities.

He may have had s good point in there somewhere, but the example he gave did not support it. It was a Poorly constructed argument.
Just to be clear, you are comparing the largest media market in the country to maybe the 20th largest media market in the B10 footprint and saying, um, what exactly? That NY might be the 15th biggest market for college football fans in a B10 world?
 

CL82

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
56,511
Reaction Score
206,265
Anyone else kind of enjoying the fact that there is at least a significant minority of opinion that Jim Delany’s extraordinary career is significantly diminished by bringing Rutgers to the Big 10?
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2014
Messages
1,108
Reaction Score
1,868
Yes, but with a caveat. There are a bunch of Big10 alumni in NYC. They are some of the wealthiest alumni from each of those schools and many still follow their school and The Big10. While Rutgers didn’t do anything to bring new fans into the Big10, the brought existing fans together for games into the area. Those fans have been donating at increased amounts..

Not only do alumni settle out East, many of them are natives.

Outside of Michigan, here's a look at the top-10 states producing the most Michigan students this fall:

California: 2,541

Illinois: 2,421

New York: 2,392

New Jersey: 1,450

Ohio: 932

Florida: 804

Massachusetts: 763

Pennsylvania: 703

Maryland: 635

Texas: 562

So, obviously, Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA are the next 4 entries to the Big Ten.
 
Joined
Aug 4, 2016
Messages
1,069
Reaction Score
1,521
I've always thought Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA would be a sort of dark horse group to join the B1G out of the blue. All are AAU. California is the largest state with the most cable boxes and has many top level recruits that could become part of the B1G footprint. The California schools (and all of the PAC12 for that matter) complain about a lack of eastern exposure, and the B1G would give them that. Plus it would be even more money for the conference.

I bet no one thought back in '89 that by the time Delany retired, each B1G school would be bringing in over $52 million in media revenues per year. He will surely have some type of award named after him in the conference after he retires.
 

CL82

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
56,511
Reaction Score
206,265
Ya'll still bringing this up? C'mon let it go man!
If you read the first post and click on the link you will see that a Toledo reporter brought it up two days ago. We're just discussing it.

Thanks for stopping by though. From a Rutgers perspective, does it bother you at all that a lot fans find your addition to the Big 10 so reprehensible that they believe that it diminishes the Delany's reputation and legacy? Because that scathing a level of criticism and disdain sure seems like would leave a mark.
 
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Messages
313
Reaction Score
160
If you read the first post and click on the link you will see that a Toledo reporter brought it up two days ago. We're just discussing it.

Thanks for stopping by though. From a Rutgers perspective, does it bother you at all that a lot fans find your addition to the Big 10 so reprehensible that they believe that it diminishes the Delany's reputation and legacy? Because that scathing a level of criticism and disdain sure seems like would leave a mark.

Not at all. It is what it is. We will never be respected and until we start doing our part and winning where and when it counts there will always be criticism. I have read the article, and completely understand why it was written to a certain extent, however how I see it, what's done is done. Now, we just move on, and start to do what we must in order to do what we have to do and compete.

For football, its taking some time for some odd reason or another. What happened several years ago certainly didn't help with the previous coaching staff. What happened last year certainly didn't help, on any abject level. Every and any one can complain, blow smoke, and spit across the room as much as they want. This is a results business, and as long as we are in the B1G, I'm at a point now where I'm saying spare me the BS, put up or shut up.

Basketball looks like it's turning the corner....it looks like that. The MBB team had certainly made some waves in the conference tournament last year, and continued the improvement this year. Although, I'm seeing steps, the most critical thing to me is those steps are forward not backward. The team was learning how to win, and in some tough situations, could not close out games, and now they're starting to do that. There is no quit on that team.

Wrestling continues to do it's part by competing and is consistently ranked and so is MLAX. It's a process, but we are slowly getting there. Albeit not as fast as some think we should, but it's happening.

So in reading that article, its nothing more than an opinion. Does it hurt? Of course! But I'm of the mindset of telling me what I need to hear rather than what I want to hear. I don't begrudge the author of how he feels, however, time will tell.
 
Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Messages
2,429
Reaction Score
4,540
You guys hit the jackpot! No question about that. Whether it is deserved or undeserved doesn't matter.
 
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Messages
313
Reaction Score
160
You guys hit the jackpot! No question about that. Whether it is deserved or undeserved doesn't matter.

I don't look at it that way. I look at it as back to square one.
 

Online statistics

Members online
539
Guests online
3,291
Total visitors
3,830

Forum statistics

Threads
155,762
Messages
4,030,755
Members
9,864
Latest member
leepaul


Top Bottom