Agree. Rutgers addition to the Big Ten was based on attracting the NYC and New Jersey TV markets.
My best guess is that Rutgers games were limited to regional broadcasts. The survey studied only games broadcast nationally.
Michigan is a much bigger school and has many many more alums to watch.
USC, Oregon and Stanford play in the pacific time zone, and it’s just too hard to stay up that late. Plus the Pac12 network really really really sucks, and some games aren’t carried (my cable company has BTN but not Pac12) so that means going to a bar, and not just any bar because of those bars have the same cable feed as I do. Sometimes I’ll watch on my computer but that’s not ideal and I don’t think they count me in their stats.
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Seems like you have to control for opponent. If Indiana is playing one of the power B1G teams and on ABC/ESPN that’s far better than playing Cinci on ESPNU. But if Cinci plays tOSU how much worse would it be than Indiana? Minnesota hosting tOSU on Thursday night is going to be a big deal.
ND’s fandom goes WAY beyond alums. I’ve been a fan of ND since I was a little kid and I have no connection to the university other than a couple trips there to see the campus.
And they’ve had their own TV contract with NBC to broadcast every one (or virtually every one) of their games on NBC.
Also, if you haven’t noticed, Michigan football and Jim Harbaugh haven’t been that good lately. He nearly fired everyone (recruiting and coaches) from the past few years. Certainly the Michigan fans have been left wanting more.
CA isn’t a small state. 
And the LA and SF Bay Area TV markets are big, where a lot of USC, Oregon and Stanford alums live (I live among them), certainly bigger than a lot of teams/cities in the markets above them. But yes, Pac-12 football has been terrible lately.
To all readers: This article offers lots of insight. Summarizes everything to date.
SEC power play to turn the CFP (college football playoff) into a mini-SEC tournament.
arizonasports.com/story/2778995/ap-why-would-the-acc-big-ten-pac-12-form-an-alliance/
With schools paying athletes over profiting off likeness i think kids are going to want to go to biggest conferences.
www.sportsbetting3.com/ncaafb/college-football-betting#matchups
To compete with Michigan and OSU they need play the best every year.
From the link…
The reality of all of this discussion is that there are only 3 slots for games every Saturday (4 if you want to include a night game on the West Coast, but ratings are much lower). There are 5 or 6 networks. You can re-arrange conferences as much as you want, but in the end, you only end up with a handful of primary games (including Thursday night).
If the BIG 10 adds Rutgers for the NY market, and then adds USC or ND or pick your big-time football school…you can’t blame Rutgers for not being a big draw on TV. Rutgers isn’t happy either…it’s hard to recruit on regional ESPN with the NIL rules making it even worse.
Schools are not paying athletes for their NIL.
What is different is that athletes are now allowed to make $ via sponsorship, endorsing products, monetizing social media presence, etc. There are still some state/school rules regarding that though (e.g., no alcohol or tobacco endorsement).
With that said, athletes in popular sports at big conferences with tv/streaming deals are likely to be the ones earning the most $ off their NIL. Some local/regional athletes will likely be able to make some money too. Should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Fresno State twin basketball players have signed deals that are expected to earn them several million dollars:
NCAA NIL guidelines
Are athletes prohibited from endorsing alcohol, tobacco, or gambling in all jurisdictions ?
Indeed Michigan’s coach is on the proverbial hot seat. You don’t want to make any of these lists, let alone all three.
https://www.coacheshotseat.com/
https://athlonsports.com/college-football/college-footballs-coaches-on-the-hot-seat-for-2021
I am not sure if it’s state/local laws that rule, or if there is an overriding NCAA rule prohibiting working with those types of companies.
I did see BYU banned athletes from endorsing coffee.
Mississippi, Illinois, and Tennessee prohibit athletes from endorsing alcohol, tobacco, and gambling:
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Publisher -
I’m just making my way through this thread, and I have to say, you need to make your way over to Frank the Tank’s Slant (https://frankthetank.org) ASAP. The articles are great, but the real draw is the comment section - it’s the epicenter of the college football realignment community. I’ve been lurking there (and occasionally posting) since back in 2010, when Frank was one of the first to suggest that Texas and/or Nebraska might be good fits for the B1G. There are now almost 1000 comments on Frank’s latest post, and he’s working on a new one. I recognize a realignment junkie when I see one, and I think you could get lost for days in the comments. There will be the occasional head-scratcher, like the guy who’s oddly obsessed with the B1G inviting U of Toronto (???), but for the most part it’s very sophisticated analysis that focuses on actual statements by conference leaders and professional journalists rather than the home-team-blogger stuff that often circulates around the interwebs.
One other thing to bear in mind that hasn’t been much discussed here: the media landscape is very different than when Rutgers/UMD joined the B1G a decade ago. Back then, the way to increase revenue was to get a conference-owned network onto as many cable packages as possible so that the conference would collect a small carriage fee from every subscriber, whether they watched college sports or not. This made the NY and DC markets incredibly attractive targets due to their millions of cable households, and adding Rutgers/UMD was immediately worth it to the extent that those additions prompted cable providers to add Big Ten Network to their packages. Nowadays, people are cancelling cable subscriptions in droves, so getting your network included on Comcast is Major Market X is less valuable every day. Instead, you want major brands that attract eyeballs, no matter how the content is distributed. Bear that in mind as you see people asserting that Team X is valuable in part because it brings the “#7 media market” or whatever - unlike 2010, that’s only valuable today if a large number of those people care enough about Team X to watch the games.
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Rutgers is currently ranked 14th in the country for 2022 recruiting class. They’re ahead of everyone in the B1G, but for Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. So, NIL, recruiting, TV visibility, alumni base, conference affiliation, etc. aren’t the problems.
Rutgers is #72 or 73 teams because they’ve been a historically bad football program. Period. But now they have a Coach (Schiano) back in town and he’s building the program back again.
si.com/college/recruiting/football/top-25-college-football-team-recruiting-rankings
The very end of the article lists teams which dropped out of the top 25 for recruiting as well as the next in line, including Northwestern, Vanderbilt, & Georgia Tech.
No one pays attention to SI. It’s either 24/7 or Rivals.
Can you post the links ?
All true, but the recent census data from the 2020 census shows more of the population is moving to cities. And college football is still very popular.
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