Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany
Just one day after this university announced its decision to join the Big Ten in 2014, Rutgers followed suit and made the same announcement yesterday.
The move makes Rutgers the fifth school to leave the Big East and one of many to switch conferences in the last few years. The Big Ten now boasts 14 members following Monday’s and yesterday’s announcements.
“There’s been a lot of change and turmoil in intercollegiate athletics over the last decade,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in yesterday’s news conference. “I’m a partisan on certain days, and today I’m all Rutgers. Yesterday I was all Maryland. When I go back home, I’ll be a nonpartisan, at least for the remainder of the football season.”
Big East members Pittsburgh and Syracuse will join the ACC for the 2013-14 season; Notre Dame announced in September it will become a all Maryland. When I go back home, I’ll be a nonpartisan, at least for the remainder of the football season.”
Big East members Pittsburgh and Syracuse will join the ACC for the 2013-14 season; Notre Dame announced in September it will become a member of the ACC in all sports except football in 2014; and West Virginia joined the Big 12 in July.
The Big Ten has grown quickly amid national conference realignment, adding Nebraska in 2011. With Rutgers’ addition, the university will have another nearby rival — along with Penn State — in a conference largely situated in the Midwest.
But university President Wallace Loh said with the advent of TV networks — the Big Ten has its own network with millions of subscribers worldwide — geographical considerations are no longer important in aligning conferences, especially as more money is made through TV instead of ticket sales.
“These conferences were created before there was Internet, jet travel — they were geographically bound. People are watching online now, on the big screen,” Loh told The Diamondback Monday. “We are talking about the emergence of super conferences.”
Joining the Big Ten also entails academic benefits for both this university and Rutgers. The conference has a consortium — which also includes the University of Chicago — called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, which works as a collaboration between all of its members to share databases, libraries and other resources and programs.
“The leadership of the university … feel that athletics contribute a tremendous amount to this institution that goes way beyond the individuals who are on the field, and goes way beyond the dollars and cents in a budget,” Rutgers President Robert Barchi said during yesterday’s news conference.
The Big Ten is a revenue-sharing conference, which means each member earns an equal share of the money generated. Delany announced in June each school would make $24 million this fiscal year, though Nebraska is expected to make $14 million, according to ESPN.com.
That figure is projected to rise drastically in the coming years — this university is expected to make $32 million in its first year as a member, according to projections obtained by Sports Illustrated. Conference members could each make up to $43 million per year from new deals with ESPN beginning in 2017, Sports Illustrated reported.
ACC members each receive about $17 million per year from the conference’s $3.6 billion, 15-year contract with ESPN. The Big East has a 6-year, $200 million contract with ABC and ESPN that expires in 2013, equating to about $3.18 million per year for each football school, according to collegesportsinfo.com. However, the conference is up for renewal and the negotiated amount is “expected to be far below the $1.4 billion” it turned down, the site reported.
“This is about collaboration at every level,” Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti said of the move. “This relationship is the perfect storm of relationships.”
