Around the Big Ten

[hack]

Or the CIC for that matter re the Stockholm Syndrome idea. I'm still open to the idea that it might matter, but some months back after I plumbed their website and found that their crowning accomplishment on it was $19m in savings for members over the course of a few decades, I'm pretty skeptical. Nobody had any way to make sense of that here, at least. Maybe I missed something, or maybe the CIC website does a terrible job explaining the organisation's impact and importance. Or maybe it's just there to obscure the fact that money and nothing else is driving this, and the conference doesn't really like to be seen as being all that craven.

Johns Hopkins as a lacrosse-only member of the Big Ten? Good grief.

[WM Wolverine]

Have you looked at all the 'associate' members of the Pac 12?

[hack]

Unsure what you mean but clearly no. Suggesting that JHU can have some sort of second-class citizenship?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Meh. I didn't get into lacrosse until about 6-7 years ago. It's actually a fun and exciting sport to watch in person. Significantly more scoring than soccer or hockey, which I think helps its viewability on tv.

Johns Hopkins is one of the biggest names in the sport along with Maryland, UVA, Syracuse, Duke, and UNC. Cornell's a small tier down from them.

[hack]

Another good sport is making hamburgers, and the JHU of that one is Hamburger University. It should join the Big Ten because of the research synergies available if McDonald's R&D Department were a part of the CIC.

[Mike]

That's a valid point, Hack. They also should consider taking a run at Stanford for swimming and women's basketball and UC Irvine for volleyball and baseball.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I fail to see what the B1G has to lose by adding them for Lacrosse only. JHU already has a tv contract that they'd be giving up by joining ANY conference, which they say they intend to do. So obviously, some tv people think they have some value at least in a couple markets.

It's not like I'm expecting the B1G to score a huge tv contract because of lacrosse. But as someone who enjoys lacrosse and would like to see the B1G create a major lacrosse conference, it's a great add.

Don't worry. Michigan will still get plenty of money. Dominos Dave promises he won't raise ticket prices by any more than $5 to subsidize this sport you don't give a fuck about.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And FWIW Michigan played for decades in a conference for another sport with Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, and Bowling Green. If that arrangment "made sense" why get all hand-wringy over having a lacrosse-only member?

[WM Wolverine]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific-12_Conference

Gotowards 'Associate Members' and see the list of universities that play a sport or two along with the Pac 12.

[Hannibal]

The only way that lacrosse would ever generate a profit for the Big Ten Network is if you cover it with a cell phone camera and local community announcers who work for free. Don't really care myself since JHU won't be a full-time member, but I find the Stockholm Syndrome dynamic here to be rather amusing. People getting pumped about Michigan finally being in a great lacrosse conference so they can play our new conference rivals Georgia Tech and Johns Hopkins.

Wooo!

[hack]

WM this is where the whole logic of it falls apart. If you can add JHU as lacrosse only, then you can add schools to the conference, or the CIC for that matter, on a research pool-only basis. The whole logic of how this is tied to the CIC hasn't been explained properly or it simply does not exist. Based on the information we have access too I suspect it very well may be the latter -- one half-baked idea appears to be leading to the next.

[Hannibal]

We should invite MIT and some universities in Japan to the Big Ten so that we can be the premiere Solar Car racing conference. In the world! Imagine the trillions of dollars that would flow into the BTN as a result.

[hack]

The shame of it is that we could have added the JHU of college debating, but we already have Northwestern as a full member. Could we make more money if we kicked them out and invited them back in on a debate-only basis so we could capture the TV millions associated with that too?

[Hannibal]

Precisely -- and this is where the whole logic of it falls apart. If you can add JHU as lacrosse only, then you can add schools to the conference, or the CIC for that matter, on a research pool-only basis. The whole logic of how this is tied to the CIC hasn't been explained properly or it simply does not exist. Based on the information we have access too I suspect it very well may be the latter -- one half-baked idea appears to be leading to the next.

There's a billionaire philanthropist out there right now trying to decide where to donate his heard-earned money for cancer research. Should he donate it to Stanford, or to Michigan? He's leaning towards Stanford. But then he reads that Michigan has a lacrosse game scheduled with Johns Hopkins next year. Michigan, it is!

[entropy]

Precisely -- and this is where the whole logic of it falls apart. If you can add JHU as lacrosse only, then you can add schools to the conference, or the CIC for that matter, on a research pool-only basis. The whole logic of how this is tied to the CIC hasn't been explained properly or it simply does not exist. Based on the information we have access too I suspect it very well may be the latter -- one half-baked idea appears to be leading to the next.

which also means.. why couldn't ND join and not be part of the CIC. Wasn't the church concerned about some of the research?

it was my understanding you needed to be both part of the CIC and the Athletic conference... which meant at least football and basketball