I keed, I keed... I know where it is, even though I've never seen a reason to tune into the BigTen network on my TV before now. Now though, now that the Terrapins of the University of Maryland will apparently be moving to the BigTen network (which will wind up, at least temporarily, at 14 teams), well, now I need to figure out how to find my favored team playing their games on my TV.
Apparently the gods at Verizon FiOS that determined which channels needed to be offered in my area were thinking ahead as I've had the BigTen channel for a long time now, just never bothered to pay any attention to it.
While I'm sad to see Maryland move out of the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), they've always been looked down upon by the Carolina teams. I seriously doubt Duke and North Carolina care about losing Maryland from the conference, though it will be interesting to see if Maryland escapes the exit fee that has been tossed around and ballyhooed. Given that Maryland was one of the two teams that voted to increase that fee, they might have a chance at fighting it out in court, though I suspect they'll wind up paying a much smaller exit fee and some other team will be brought into the ACC to take their place.
Eventually I expect all of these various leagues will wind up expanding to 16 teams per conference. That makes perfect sense from a scheduling point of view (at least for football) and sets up nicely for the various conference championships that will feed into a National Championship playoff system. At that point it becomes a case of which leagues and which teams are able to excel and continue the recruiting success that they'll have to have in order to feed their own success. Maryland might be able to make some gains there, though they've been an also ran in football for so long that it is hard to imagine that they'll be able to make it back onto the national stage without a lot of help.
