Around the Big Ten

[Tony G]

I hate the ping. If I want to watch 3 hours of pings I'll turn on Run Silent, Run Deep.

[WM Wolverine]

I hate the ping too but wood bats break and college programs say the costs really add up. Realize they don't just break in games but the use (& break) the bats a lot in practice and in batting cages too.

[Tony G]

Oh i get it, I just choose not to watch it

[*JD*]

I caught a little more of the game. I have to say it was a nice atmosphere. So, Indiana is the powerhouse, huh?

[entropy]

they should keep it in omaha. I think they said record attendence for championship game and record attendence for the entire 4 days... NCAA records

the fact that attendence was 5 times the second best speaks volumes. BIG needs to decide what is more important.. rotation or people showing up

[THE_WIZARD_]

There will by 1/6 the crowd in Minny. What a joke.

[entropy]

http://btn.com/2014/05/25/b1g-baseball-tournament-breaks-attendance-record/

[entropy]

15 hours ago • By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON / Lincoln Journal Star
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While unanimous in agreement that college athletes shouldn't be paid, Big Ten leaders on Tuesday put their signatures to paper to announce their intentions to push the NCAA for changes to improve athlete welfare.

The lengthy statement, signed by UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman and the 13 other leaders of Big Ten universities, was issued amid mounting legal and public pressure on the NCAA to change the collegiate sports model.

"The best solutions rest not with the courts, but with us," the Big Ten leaders wrote.

Acknowledging that "college athletics is under fire," they suggested that "the amateur model is not broken, but it does require adjusting for the 21st century."

In offering up their proposals for such adjustments, the statement seemed equally to be a show of support for comments made last week in court by conference Commissioner Jim Delany.

Delany appeared on the stand in the much-publicized trial filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, who is seeking an injunction to end the NCAA's rules preventing players from being paid for use of their names, images or likenesses.

Delany said the idea of paying players goes against the entire college experience and he couldn't see members of his league agreeing to it.

He was right on the latter.

"Compensating the student-athletes who compete in these sports will skew the overall academic endeavor — for all students, not just those wearing a school’s colors," the Big Ten leaders wrote.

"The tradition and spirit of intercollegiate athletics is unique to our nation. Students play as part of their overall academic experience, not for a paycheck or end-of-season bonus. Many also compete in hopes of a professional career, just as our biology majors serve internships and musical theater students perform in summer stock. These opportunities — sports, marching band, campus newspaper, and more — are facets of the larger college experience and prepare students for life. And that, in its purest form, is the mission of higher education."

The statement was issued not just in response to the ongoing O'Bannon trial, but also comes as some Northwestern football players are waging a fight for collective bargaining. It comes on the heels of Pac-12 school leaders issuing their own letter last month pushing the NCAA to make changes.

The Big Ten's statement came with bullet points suggesting ways they planned to enhance the situation of student-athletes:

* We must guarantee the four-year scholarships that we offer. If a student-athlete is no longer able to compete, for whatever reason, there should be zero impact on our commitment as universities to deliver an undergraduate education. We want our students to graduate.

* If a student-athlete leaves for a pro career before graduating, the guarantee of a scholarship remains firm. Whether a professional career materializes, and regardless of its length, we will honor a student’s scholarship when his or her playing days are over. Again, we want students to graduate.

* We must review our rules and provide improved, consistent medical insurance for student-athletes. We have an obligation to protect their health and well-being in return for the physical demands placed upon them.

* We must do whatever it takes to ensure that student-athlete scholarships cover the full cost of a college education, as defined by the federal government. That definition is intended to cover what it actually costs to attend college.

As for paying players, that's where Big Ten leaders stop. Paying football and men's basketball players would come at the expense of lesser-profile sports, they wrote, perhaps eliminating some of those sports altogether.

"Across the Big Ten, and in every major athletic conference, football and men’s basketball are the principal revenue sports. That money supports the men and women competing in all other sports. No one is demanding paychecks for our gymnasts or wrestlers. And yet it is those athletes — in swimming, track, lacrosse, and other so-called Olympic sports — who will suffer the most under a pay-to-play system."

[Jeff Buchanan]

".........No one is demanding paychecks for our gymnasts or wrestlers. And yet it is those athletes — in swimming, track, lacrosse, and other so-called Olympic sports — who will suffer the most under a pay-to-play system."

I agree with everything the BIG is saying except this. While I do not subscribe to the idea of "paying" football and basketball players, I do endorse the idea of paying them for the total cost of attendance ..... and that to me is a big leap from what these athletes are receiving now and what they would have to receive to make that happen.

It's a simple matter of reallocation of available revenues that are obtained by the Athletic Departments and some level of cost sharing between universities in the league. Could be tricky to some degree but eminently doable.

[whodean]

The Big Ten

Welcome to the conference, Rutgers and Maryland.

[The Oracle]

Exciting day!

[Hannibal]

How did we survive as a conference for 100 years without Rutgers football?

[WM Wolverine]

B10 due to population shifts to the south, B10 needed a presence on the East Coast in Maryland, DC, Philly, Jersey, NYC; where nearly 40million people live.

[UMStan White]

And Delaney wonders why the Judge in the O'Bannon case is going to rip him and Emmeret a new asshole. Money Money Money and not a drop for Oliver Twist.

[Wild Hoss]

I am unconvinced that this "population shift" is anything but a red herring insofar as college football is concerned. Growth among the white and black demographics in Texas for example, are essentially flat, just as they are in Ohio. Texas' population "growth" is Hispanics.

Now, if they start becoming consumers of college football, then there's a problem. Hispanics have been pouring into this county in large numbers for 30 years however, and it hasn't happened yet. The NCAA rates Hispanics as 4% of college football's audience:



In short...I think we're being sold a line of hooey. The Big Ten was extremely well-positioned for the next half-century without Rutgers and Maryland.