We all know the schools which are being mentioned as potential new Big Ten members. But if one were to consider the popularity of these teams based on attendance at home games, plus the size of their TV markets, we might come up with a different list. Neither Cal or Stanford have good live attendance at their home games. Cal’s stadium is actually much larger than five B1G stadiums, but their attendance vs capacity is more like Maryland and Rutgers. Utah averages 47k, but that exceeds their stadium capacity. Washington and Oregon often sell out their home games.
The combination of Stanford and Cal is only attractive because San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose is the 6th largest TV market in the country. But why aren’t Arizona and Arizona State included in the Big Ten expansion conversation? Both have larger stadiums and higher average attendance than all the schools being mentioned except Washington by quite a margin. Phoenix is the 12th largest TV market, but combined with Tucson would be a larger market than Tampa and only slightly smaller than 10th-ranked Atlanta. Seattle-Tacoma is ranked 14th, Portland 25th and Salt Lake City 34th.
Considering both live attendance and the sizes of TV markets, the Pac12 schools which should be in the conversation as new B1G members, ranked in order of desirability, should be Cal, Stanford, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Utah. All these schools except Arizona State are AAU members.
So why aren’t all these schools being mentioned “in the conversation”?
The combination of Stanford and Cal is only attractive because San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose is the 6th largest TV market in the country. But why aren’t Arizona and Arizona State included in the Big Ten expansion conversation? Both have larger stadiums and higher average attendance than all the schools being mentioned except Washington by quite a margin. Phoenix is the 12th largest TV market, but combined with Tucson would be a larger market than Tampa and only slightly smaller than 10th-ranked Atlanta. Seattle-Tacoma is ranked 14th, Portland 25th and Salt Lake City 34th.
Considering both live attendance and the sizes of TV markets, the Pac12 schools which should be in the conversation as new B1G members, ranked in order of desirability, should be Cal, Stanford, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon and Utah. All these schools except Arizona State are AAU members.
So why aren’t all these schools being mentioned “in the conversation”?
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