What the hell was the Big Ten thinking? Now, I get that New York is a very big city and Madison Square Garden is a big name venue, but what the actual hell. The team that is closest to MSG is Rutgers (Suck it Clemson Carl), which is located a measly 31 miles away. Alright, a short car ride or subway ride, that’s fine. Lets see which team is second closest to MSG…
Maryland, 200 miles away. This isn’t too bad, just fly them in for a short flight. Not too bad, but for any other conference, this may be the longest or average flight. Maybe its the average distance because smart conferences have the Arena centralized to the teams, not out in left field.
You may be wondering “Hmmm’ isn’t Minnesota in the Big Ten? What about Iowa or Nebraska?” Why you’re correct. Lets take a look at the distances for these schools:
900-1000 miles. Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea? Take all these schools from the Midwest and lets place them in the most crowded, overrated (yeah, I said that), and sleepless city. Oh, and they have to play basketball with some praying for a ticket to the dance while others are trying to play the upset. And the cherry on top, they are in college and still have classes, homework, projects, etc.
This is the dumbest thing the Big Ten could have done. The average distance for a team to travel is 630 from its campus to MSG. That’s insane. This is a greedy and stupid idea made by the Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney. Chasing money more than a dog chasing its own tail. Delaney has said that it “Gives the Big Ten a chance to be in the Big Apple”. That is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard as an excuse. He thinks because B1G will be in New York… At this rate Alicia Keys and Jay-Z are gonna come running singing Empire State of Mind. Well, sadly I don’t even think you could pay me to attend this tourney.
The Big Ten has been AWFUL this year, and the bracket for the tourney isn’t pretty either:
So, congrats to the Big Ten for becoming the next Mid-Major of college basketball. I will be giving more attention to the FunBelt and the WAAC than watch your attempt at making the Big Ten relevant. Can’t wait til the Big Ten works out a deal with Elon Musk and we see the Tourney on Mars next year.