OT - BIG losing demographics

[bearcatbret]

http://archive.freep.com/article/20140910/COL08/309030190/big-ten-football-drew-sharp

The Big Ten lost a generation of promising football talent with the population flight from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt.

“I think people are moving out of the Midwestern towns that were industrial based,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said last month. “I think it’s more about economics. People are moving into areas where they can find a better lifestyle. Just take a look at Pennsylvania and the great high school teams that used to be in that area. Now, because of the steel towns and the exodus of so many jobs in that area, high school football is not what it once was. I think that’s happened in a lot of these industrial cities throughout the Midwest as well.”

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/big-ten/2014/09/17/big-ten-struggles-to-generate-power-in-college-footballs-new-alignment/15803191/

"But while the pride of the Midwest has been able to fight that perception for many years — it had 28 appearances in Bowls Championship Series bowls — that battle is a losing one this season.

No longer can the Big Ten say, from top to bottom, it is on par with the other Power Five conferences. A 1-10 mark against those teams, along with a 5-3 record against the Mid-American Conference, has cemented the Big Ten as a solid No. 5."

I really do not think that adding basement teams of Rutgers and Maryland is going to add to their prestige.

[longtimefan]

It's a point you see a lot, but Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are all among the 10 most populous states, and New Jersey is number 11. So it's not just about population, but the Big 10 is definitely in decline, probably because it was always vastly overrated. Long before the population shifts, the big 10 was getting blown out in the Rose Bowl every year. With the new structure in college athletics, it is more noticeable now.

[richard k.]

It's a point you see a lot, but Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are all among the 10 most populous states, and New Jersey is number 11. So it's not just about population, but the Big 10 is definitely in decline, probably because it was always vastly overrated. Long before the population shifts, the big 10 was getting blown out in the Rose Bowl every year. With the new structure in college athletics, it is more noticeable now.

The Big 10 made its football reputation with black athletes from the south - when the major southern universities integrated, black athletes started, slowly at first, to stay home. Along with population shifts that has created an ever increasing difficulty for the Big 10 to maintain its claim to football preeminence, and now relies mostly on OSU and 1 or 2 other schools out of its entire body of universities to present a case that it belongs with SEC and PAC 12, while it is really more like the ACC.