I had posted about this in the "other tournaments" thread.

Its not getting rave reviews out here.

Although ,last night, the "talking heads" on ESPN were saying some teams weren't too upset since they may be getting an extra week to practice,rest and time to let injured players heal.

Not a big surprise. The ONLY reason B10/14 annexed Rutgers is to play for the NY market. But my guess is that most NYers still think of the B10/14 as a "cow conference." They may still get the crowds -- it's hard not to in NY -- but I doubt they'll be as enthusiastic as they usually see in Chicago or Indy.

Well, I'm glad to see at least one reporter point this out.

Not that it will matter.

As someone who lives 20 minutes from Manhattan let me offer my take on this.

1.This is a pro sports area in terms of football.
With the exception of Notre Dame,there was/is never a problem getting a ticket to college games at Giants/Met Life Stadium.
Same thing,other then alums,you don't see locals at the Pinstripe Bowl.

2.As far as Rutgers football,usually,at their B1G home games,there are more fans for the opponents.
Once the game is out of reach,what RU fans there are,are gone.

3.College basketball is big in the area,especially when St.John's and Seton Hall are doing well.
When the Knicks are dong well,they do outdraw college teams.
But its been a while since that was the case.

4.It was an open secret that one of the "selling points" made by Rutgers to get into the B1G was an T.V. expanded market,including for BTN.
This was apparently stressed by their former A.D. (Pernetti) who was a media guy.
Apparently,the B1G has a requirement that local cable and other media providers offer BTN and have to pay a fee per subscriber.
Pernittia was forced out,before RU joined the B1G,so he never got the credit for The move.

As a college football and wrestling fan, Rutgers joining the B1G lets me see a lot of great* college football and wrestling close to home.

*great if you hate Rutgers

Boom.

It is almost as if some in college basketball, including some Big Ten movers and shakers have kidnapped Doc Brown and got him to take them back to 1985. This time instead of Hill Valley they are in New York City at the height of the Big East. The Big Ten of all people pandering at the Garden? Do they think it will make Big Ten basketball relevant in the Big Apple? A lot has changed since 1985, college sports has peaked. Yet we still have some folks (as in that DePaul story on another thread) that think if they just built this building, had this kind of a scoreboard, or had a certain kind of promotion everyone would come back like the gold old days. Even some folks on this board have made similar claims.

The internet, I phones, a host of video products, and other media have made their appearance and exploded since 1985. Sports and cable television in general don't hold the same allure that it once did. As you may have noticed, I love talking about the old days in the 1980s, especially 1985 and 1986 when I never missed a game at the Convo. However, that was a different era.

I keep thinking of something Giacomo wrote in another thread about salaries. While we have more TV revenue than what we had in the 1980s, we don't have the TV viewership we once did, or the attendance that we one did in college basketball. Yet look at the salaries. Something has got to give. The scandals and all of the social media hoopla have caused many to take a step back. Why can't we just enjoy college basketball for what it is and quit trying to make it a mini-NBA?

My wife quit going so I reduced my basketball tickets from 4 to 1 this year as well as the requisite bobcatclub contribution. I still enjoy the game because nice people sit in my area although they do stand for d. :)

To quote GETOUTofMACNow (or whatever his alias was),"The MAC sucks!"

We did not buy FB tickets this year. I bought BB tickets after the season started. Went to 2 games. For 20 years we scheduled around Bobcat BB and FB. We have more time and funds to do fun things than ever. We both have a “meh” attitude and probably won’t be season ticket holders or Bobcat Club members again.
The argumentative tone and absolutism of BA hasn’t helped my enthusiasm level. I can read that nonsense in the letters to the editor by tOSU fans in the Sunday Dispatch.

I would like to wish us the best in our future endeavors.

Hopefully it is a one year deal. Moved up to get it out East and avoid other conferences tournaments.

In an already weak BIG they really risk a lot putting those teams in that position.

backpedaling and a mea culpa from this beat writer

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/201... /