Who would you realistically replace Rutgers with?

[MarqHusker]

Indiana which demonstrated its Northern bonafides in many ways during the CW sure does have a southern element in pockets of the state, mostly (again) south of I-70, but not really until you get out of Indy, and certainly South of Bloomington and again towards Louisville and SE towards Cincinnati.   There's quite a broad range of dialects from N to S in this state.

[847badgerfan]

Illinois is much the same in that regard. "Downstate" is typically in reference to anything South from I-80. It's different, for sure.

[MarqHusker]

I've always been of the impression that Bloomington Normal is that dividing line of N and S.   Cubs or Cardinals.  People who still try to claim they live in Chicagoland vs those who know it's bulljive.

[Cincydawg]

Cincinnati has an interesting "culture", or blend thereof, being a few miles from Indiana and across the river from KY.  You hear a lot of different accents there.  

Atlanta of course seems to be mostly transplants from Ohio and Michigan plus a lot of Hispanics.  Part of the town is heavily Vietnamese populated and they have some good places to eat.  In the park near us, one can see just about every kind of person and accent, even some French speaking folks at times.

[Cincydawg]

Georgia Tech would be an interesting program to consider for a conference, but I suspect they are locked into the ACC for all practical purposes.  They often do well in baseball.  Their football seems to have fallen off quite a bit of late.  I don't think a new coach would help much there though.  Their offense is good for programs that can't recruit at a high level.

I'm somewhat surprised more teams don't adopt some version of that offense.

[jhetfield99]

Meh, Big 11 sucks.  This is what I'm talking about:

This is great.  How old is this and where did you find it?

[ELA]

For realsies....

Non-B10 AAU members with FBS football:
Buffalo

I mean, they are on the list

[847badgerfan]

Just coming here to post it. May as well try the other side of New York. Hell, add Cornell too. We need another Big Red.

[MrNubbz]

Repeating myself from another thread but sheesh Jeebis at home no less,hopefully Maryland comes around at least it'll be a wash.I know back in the '70s-'80s Northwestern was pretty weak but they are an original member and weren't reached out to like they were some kind of catch.Thanx Big Jim

[Cincydawg]

I think we all realize that a good coach can turn around a program in a few years.  Illinois is a sleeping program now.

Look at Purdue, the best 1-3 team in the country.  Nobody wanted to kick Purdue out when they were bad though.

Rutgers is pretty clearly the weakest team in the conference at the moment, I think, but they were half decent just a couple years back.  Or so.

And maybe they have good lacrosse teams.

A flagship NJ program has potential.  

Maybe Nebraska should get the boot though.

[847badgerfan]

Illinois has been a sleeping giant ever since Mike White was fired for cheating.

[847badgerfan]

Put M, MSU, PSU, UW, Iowa and NU in a division. The others are in a separate division. Last place team from upper division drops to lower division and first place team from lower division moves up.

[Cincydawg]

The Illini could be an 8 win team with a decent coach, but of course said coach would get poached soon enough if it happened.

Wisconsin managed a turnaround that has been pretty long lived.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Rutgers isn't just normal "worst in the conference" bad.  Blown out by Kansas and Buffalo is a special kind of awful.