We want the Big Ten championship and we’re gonna win it as a team,” said University of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, just prior to the start of the 1983 football
This America Opinion editorial reflects a nostalgic lament for the bygone era of the Big Ten conference when it embodied its name, fostering strong regional ties, traditional rivalries, and a focus on student-athletes, contrasting it with the present landscape of expansion, commercialization, and national TV-driven priorities.
A day after leaving behind more than a century as a tenant to the premier athletic conference on the West Coast, Washington’s leadership said stability was at the forefront of its decision to join the Big Ten Conference.
Larry Scott boasted five years ago that the Pac-12 Conference would be able “to adapt, react and take advantage of this new world media order that’s coming in a way others can’t.”
Larry Scott boasted five years ago that the Pac-12 Conference would be able “to adapt, react and take advantage of this new world media order that’s coming in a way others can’t." Scott didn't have a chance to negotiate a second Pac-12 media deal. Last week’s Pac-12 collapse, which saw five of the remaining nine members announce they were leaving the “Conference of Champions” for either the Big Ten or the Big 12, drove home in a dramatic way two points: football drives college athletics and there are limits to what the media market will pay for content.