Quote:
Originally Posted by RedKingGold
Bah, Rutgers and Temple are televised now in Philadelphia. There wouldn't be much difference or interest if they got in the same conference.
I think you overestimate Northeasteastern population's interest in college football, at least in Pennsylvania. I've spent my whole life in Pennsylvania, growing up in Northeast (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and spending some time in the Lehigh Valley and now live in suburban Philadelphia. In Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the ONLY interest in college football was Penn State or Notre Dame. On that note high school football moved the meter much more than either of those two teams. Neither Temple nor Rutgers was ever mentioned in local media. The only time Syracuse got mentioned was during the Gerry McNamara days because he was from Scranton.
Even now, I live on the Main Line (think Villanova) and would bet that there is more local interest in high school lacrosse and soccer games than Temple or Rutgers football games. I doubt it's a suburban thing either, as I've never seen Center City fired up about anything college related.
It may be different in Pittsburgh, but I doubt that seeing Pittsburgh's attendance over the past thirty or so years. In short, there's nothing which would make believe that the Northeast is a viable ground for college football sport; most cities up here are too local sports or pro sports centric.
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Ya, that was my point, though coming from a different angle, is that national presence is really all that matters - I'm not sure there are any college football programs that are big national ratings draws BECAUSE they deliver a specific media market. NYC has the extra strike against it that its so diverse, they don't even draw great ratings for their pro sports, let alone college football. NYC is not going to help the Orange bowl get a better rating for the Orange Bowl with Rutgers, UConn, or Syracuse. It might marginally help Orange Bowl ratings IN NYC, but that's not going to be enough to sway the national ratings over real national programs like Texas, LSU, Alabama, etc.