[NU Sports] final thoughts RE: 4th Quarter

[Jonathan Hodges]

Good point about the revenue sharing - the Big Ten is pretty equal in terms
of its revenue sharing (at least from TV contracts - obviously revenue from
memorabilia sales and ticket sales is another story where NU is lacking) and
thanks to being in the conference, NU can fund its other athletic programs -
of which many have seen lots of recent success.

Jonathan


On 10/3/07, Jeff Beamsley <jeff.beamsley at hilgraeve.com> wrote:
>
> There is some logic to your argument if all the BT cared about was
> football
> and basketball.  Were that the case, I agree that NU likely would have
> left
> for a less football-centric conference.
>
> Fortunately, as other posters have already pointed out, the BT is about a
> lot
> more including academics.
>
> So what we may lack in basketball and football (at least in attendance),
> we
> more than make up for in academics, women's sports, golf, etc.
>
> With the understanding of a biased perspective, I think that the BT is
> proud
> to have Northwestern as a member.  We are the only private school.  We are
> the smallest school.  We are an academic and research leader, and we're
> still
> willing to strap it on every Saturday and slug it out with the "big"
> schools.
> Just as one example, our student graduation rate helps balance out the low
> rates from schools like OSU.  In return, OSU shares a little football
> revenue
> with us.  It's a good deal the whole way 'round.
>
> Jeff
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
> Behalf Of Arthur Miller
> Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 11:35 PM
> To: Eric West; nwu-sports at tssi.com
> Subject: [NU Sports] final thoughts RE: 4th Quarter
>
>
> Eric, I'm not insta-panicking.  I am going to offer some final thoughts,
> and
> then shut up and return to Lurker Mode ("at last!", they said):
>
> I don't like the idea of reducing academic standards; it's just not the
> culture at NU, and agree that something seems wrong about it.  I'd love to
> see NU form a football-only conference with like-minded schools: Duke,
> Stanford, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Rice, BC, Army, Navy, and
> Air
> Force.  I think such a conference would be a lot of fun to follow, and
> could
> send the right message to the rest of the country about the ideal of the
> student-athlete by imposing high standards around academic eligibility,
> academic progress, graduation rates, etc.  The member programs would
> compete
> on a more equal footing, which should result in parity over the long term
> (ask yourself: is there a perennial doormat or superpower in the list
> above?)
> The benefits would IMHO more than make up for the reduced TV and bowl
> revenue
> of such a conference.  It would allow us to gracefully opt out of our
> present
> arms race against large state universities, some of whom have only minimal
> academic expectations of themselves.
>
> Barring this pipe dream, we must accept that the economics of college
> football & men's hoops have changed dramatically in the past 20 years.  If
> NU
> doesn't pull our weight in the Big Ten (as defined by our ability to
> attract
> fan interest, relative to the others) then our days are numbered.  Oh,
> they
> won't boot us out anytime soon, but it is delusional to ignore economic
> reality, because economic reality ALWAYS catches up with you
> eventually.  Ask
> the USSR.
>
> I agree that we have done fairly well in football over the past 10 years.
> But economic reality says that we have to accomplish much more than just
> being competitive--we have to attract lots of fans.  This is where NU is
> failing miserably, as recent Ryan Field attendance figures will
> attest.  The
> odds are stacked against us, due to our small size and the fact that we
> don't
> represent an entire state, so in order to attract as many football fans as
> even a mediocre Indiana or Illinois, we're going to have to do much, MUCH
> better than going 26-35 in the past 5 years.
>
> "They can't kick us out--we're a charter member of the Big Ten!"  Yeah,
> but
> what if the conference disbanded in favor of some TBD
> super-conference?  If
> this happened, it is almost a certainty that we would be left behind, just
> as
> Rice was when the once-great Southwest Conference disintegrated in the
> face
> of--you guessed it--economic reality.  It could happen to NU.  Something's
> gotta give, eventually.
>
> Cheers,
> Art Miller
>
>
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Jonathan W. Hodges
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