Chicago doesn’t make sense on any level.
Yes, Rutgers blows. But we all know why Jim did it. Money grab. The NYC/NJ media market is largest in USA. He wanted the B1G to get a cut and a footprint in that market.
I hated the move as much as the next guy, but I can see his reasoning behind it.
And his moved backfired. They initially got into the media market at a greatly reduced rate, and have since been moved to a sports tier.
A quick google search and I'm not finding the numbers I want, so this is 5 year old foggy memory stuff.
The state of Ohio paid the most for BTN, 4.4 million subscribers at .80 cents each. (3.5 million a month)
[I think some smaller states may have paid more per subscriber, but Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan were all lower per subscriber than Ohio.]
New York Media Market was a penitence, 6.9 million subscribers at .03 cents each. (just 200k a month)
After a couple years, Comcast went ahead and dropped the BTN network off 1st tier and put it on a sports tier, making it significantly less than the already paltry sum they were getting.
Again Don't quote my numbers as fact, but I think they are pretty close. And again were meant to show that Big Ten didn't get the New York Media Market.
Simple Fact Rutgers has not delivered the media market they promised. They have not used Big Ten Money to improve their lot in either Athletics or Academics. They are by far the weakest School in the Big Ten with in any metric used. ('cept maybe AAU membership over Nebraska I guess. But Rutgers gets to include their Medical Campus and Nebraska doesn't.)
EDIT: It was only Nebraska, that paid more per subscriber.