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Message: [QUOTE="HtownOrange, post: 2696803, member: 622"] You point of view that Delaney failed is a fair perspective. My perspective is that Delaney did not fail. Had he had his way, he would have gone to 16 (possibly 20, and there were rumors that 24 was in the discussions). An expansion to 16 would likely have included Mizzou, Pitt and SU with probably Kansas (as UNL was already a part of the expansion). This would have encompassed the most valuable teams then available, destroyed the Big East and included about 30MM viewers. The failure is on the B1G schools for not having foresight to expand when they had teh chance, but they believed their own press, specifically that the B1G was in the driver seat, teams would be there for the pickings and they could take anyone they wanted. This lead to the fantasies of ND and UT (possibly OU and Kansas +1) and the east coast version (UVA, UNC, GATech, Miami). The fantasied flopped big time. The ACC and the Big12 survived and the B1G knee jerk reacted, probably due more to UMD breeching confidentiality and letting teh B1G know that PSU was looking east (which would have been a major blow to the BTN and enhanced the ACC that much more). In their knee jerk reaction, they lost the cream of the expansion candidates (ND refused them repeatedly, UT and OU locked up the Big 12, SU and Pitt went east, Mizzou went south. As to your last question, I think we all agree that the B1G heavily regrets the Rutgers invite. Other than the built in FCS body-bag game repelacement, Rutgers provides little to the B1G. Many people thought that being close to NYC would be incentive for the midwestern teams to visit, it does to some extent, but most people don't care to visit NYC often due to costs and no other ties than visiting the city to say the visited the city and caught their team playing in Jersey, once is enough. While SU and the ACC has many ties to NYC, the Midwestern states relate better to Chicago. [/QUOTE]

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