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Message: [QUOTE="HtownOrange, post: 4170567, member: 622"] The B1G is merely playing games to increase their TV deal. Considering the B1G rarely plays Alabama outside of the playoffs, this is a farce of a statement. This is a bargaining ploy. They are opening the door for the "advice" of the networks to see what will pay better. If the networks advise they to play 9 league games, they will. If eight, they play eight. Don't be surprised if the networks want a 13th game. Besides, the B1G can only control X amount of inventory (i.e. the home team), it doesn't matter who the visiting team is and when people tire of the boring inventory, the receipts start dropping. You can only beat up Rutgers so many times before people lose interest. Most B1G fans have already lost interest in visiting Rutgers and making a long weekend in NYC. Who cares about Iowa v. Minnesota? Most of the B1G doesn't care either. Similar to the SU v. NCState game, most people outside of the the team fans don't care unless there are post-season implications. As it has already been revealed, nobody cares about PAC outside of the PAC (mostly due to late games and bad football). Even the vaunted SEC does not garner much attention outside of the local areas of the two teams playing each other unless the big boys play each other. My opinion: Once the SEC takes in two more big boys, and everyone realizes they can still only field a few good teams at a time, things will settle down. The big dollars are being doled out because there is still much more money on the table. Additionally, academics will become an issue. Either academics are important or not; if yes, then the academically minded schools will prevail, if not college sports will be doomed to a quick rise and then a huge crash. The NFL, NBA, and other pro leagues are not going to allow a league to rise close to their levels - in quality, influence, money, power, and popularity. The pro leagues will fight to hold their status and they hold more money and they hold the fact that the schools at least hypothetically are academic institutions. One reason ESPN wants the ACC is a bulwark against the SEC's lack of academic credibility. ESPN is hedging their bets, the ACC can leave if there is any bad faith acts by ESPN, thus ESPN must pay the ACC to keep it close enough. Ultimately, academics will win out. Either the P5 lacks enough teams to keep the fanbases happy (recall college football is primarily based on the fanbases of local teams) or the P5 is large enough to leverage the power they do have over the SEC: Academics. Both the ACC and SEC cover the hottest growing areas for the next few decades. The B1G is losing % of the CFB fanbase. The PAC has turned off everyone because they refuse to play early games. The B12 is fading into landscape. The two properties most important are the hot property now and the property which has the most growth potential. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?