I don’t think most people view Johns Hopkins as a Big Ten school.
- Northwestern
- - 14. All the rest
Well, someone must be buying all of the “Big Ten”-branded JHU merchandise. I personally like the coffee mugs featuring the B1G logo juxtaposed with the lacrosse-playing crab.
https://hopkinssports.cbsi-store.com/rfsj-big-ten-lax-crab-mug.html
I am not sure how much of the Big Ten/JHU merchandise is actually sold. But how do you think it compares to Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Nebraska, Wisconsin or Penn State merchandise sales?
Of the 9 conference schools who published attendance figures for spring football games (essentially an intra squad scrimmage), 7 (including football powerhouse Rutgers) couldn’t have held it in JHU’s lacrosse stadium because it only seats 8500.
http://gridironnow.com/2017-big-ten-football-spring-game-attendance-figures/
If you asked most people, the Big Ten conference members are the 14 schools who are full members of the conference. Not ones that participate in one sport.
In terms of sports, the Directors Cup standings for 2016-2017:
Michigan #4
Northwestern #36
Go Fighting Illini! 
37
Johns Hopkins #5*
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*in NCAA Division III
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nacda/sports/directorscup/auto_pdf/2016-17/misc_non_event/June1FinalDIIIOverall.pdf
I saw your edit, so I edited. 
Although this is a Big 10 thread. And JHU isn’t in the Big 10.
You know, I never look at D3. That’s very interesting.
Except sometimes.
http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/043015aaa.html
Well, the conference affiliation for JHU (D3) is Centennial, according to their Leerfield Director’s Cup standings. And no one associates JHU with the Big 10 for academics.
And when the TV commercial plays at halftime for Big 10 schools, showing their locations/symbols, JHU is notably absent.
No one cares about lacrosse anyway, except my D’s best friend and her dad, who went to Williams. :))
“Which is the best Big Ten school?”
Doesn’t this have to be based on football? When I was in university, the best was Michigan. More recently it appears that the best is Ohio State (based solely on football results, of course).
Not that this is determinative in terms of best school but as the Directors Cup has been cited by multiple people, the standings as of June 14, 2017:
JHU plays most sports at the D3 level in the Centennial Conference. However, Johns Hopkins plays men’s and women’s lacrosse at the D1 level, and is an affiliate member of the Big Ten for those two sports.
http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/060313aah.html
http://www.bigten.org/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/061715aaa.html
The Big Ten Network cares. They can cover football in the fall, and basketball and hockey in the winter. But they need more in the spring; baseball/softball isn’t enough.
Lacrosse is a spring sport, it already has a regional base in the northeast, and it is growing fast in other parts of the country. So the B1G is making a strategic investment in lacrosse, which is probably a smart move for the long term. The admission of JHU, a traditional lacrosse power, is part of that plan. There was no such thing as B1G lacrosse until the 2014-2015 season, yet the B1G is now seriously challenging the ACC as the NCAA’s top league.
“Strategic investment”? We have the PAC 12 Network out here and while I have no statistics to back it up, I’ll bet the entire spring schedule of sports receives almost no TV ratings including baseball, track, softball, lacrosse and field hockey. Heck, I’m a huge sports fan and I actually watch the NCAA lax tournament, but it gets tough to watch at times.
“Investment” is a term I’d use loosely here. :))
We’re getting pretty far afoot here from OP’s thread.
Which would mean that the Big Ten Network gets higher ratings than the Pac-12 Network in the spring. That’s the point.
College lacrosse is popular in the eastern part of BTN territory, in the TV markets of NY, NJ, PA, MD, and DC. The BTN can now provide premium-quality college lacrosse for those audiences to view. Result = higher TV ratings in the spring. So the “investment” has already paid off. If interest in college lacrosse spreads westward (and Ohio State and Michigan are already on board), then it will pay off even more.
Note that no Pac-12 school actually fields a “real” NCAA men’s lacrosse team at this time; some of them play men’s lacrosse in the MCLA, but this is “minor league” compared to the NCAA. The Pac-12 does plan to officially sponsor a “real” NCAA women’s lacrosse league starting in 2018, so they are moving in the same direction as the B1G, but they are way behind.
^^ MCLA is club and while many of the teams are very good, they do not play against NCAA D1 teams. They aren’t ‘real’ or ‘fake’, just a different level.
I live in a PAC12 state, but our cable company carries the BTN. Plenty of lacrosse games carried on it (and popular out here in the west too), and on ESPN-U or ESPN 2. Big Ratings? No, but are there big ratings numbers for college baseball or gymnastics? Lacrosse is extremely cheap to broadcast. Set up a camera or two, get one or two announcers who are usually former college players. Done.
“Higher TV ratings”, “investment” and “popularity” are all relative terms. BTN or anywhere else. Show me where the TV ratings of any LAX team, college or professional, are more than a tiny blip. Even the NCAA soccer tournament doesn’t get much in terms of ratings, which is another low-rated TV sport.
But I’m happy for the college LAX fans in the BTN territory, all 12 of them. =))
"North Carolina’s 14-13 overtime victory over No. 1 Maryland (Monday, May 30, at 1 p.m.) averaged 476,000 television viewers … "
http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2016/06/2016-ncaa-mens-lacrosse-championship-game-sees-significant-audience-increase/
Exactly correct: it’s relative. But this means that college lacrosse doesn’t have to pull big ratings to make sense for BTN – it just has to be better than other spring sports options. In your judgment, do you think that the alternatives, like maybe college tennis or college golf, would be more likely to draw hundreds of thousands of viewers?
The lowest rated Fall 2016 TV show, which aired on the CW network, was “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” with 738,000 viewers. So, 476,000 viewers for a college championship is really teeny weeny.
As I said, I watched the LAX final four this year, magically with two B10 LAX teams not named JHU, so I’m part of that really teeny weeny audience. But when I see a ball, I’m like a dog, I go chase it. :))