1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Does the B1G have Too Many Teams? - July 21st, 11:25am

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Does the B1G have Too Many Teams?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. Shout out to the folks from downtown Lincoln. Todd Ogden and folks and companies, what they're building in the downtown area. Greatly appreciate it. We appreciate all you, Texas. Lane says this. Marilyn Rutgers, Washington, USC, Oregon, and UCLA should not be in the big in the big tent.

Bach, what is your response to that? I find that very funny because that is every team that's joined the big 10 except for Nebraska since Nebraska's joined the big team. So he's very big and all the new additions except for Nebraska. Because if Maryland and Rutgers shouldn't be in, shouldn't Penn State be included in that list? Could be. Yeah.

I mean, that's, are you going back to geography? It's the same trip. Yeah. It's the same trip. I mean, you see it like, winning championships. As a matter of fact, they're the top athletic program in the country. USC top five, top five athletic program in the country. Those two, why would you kick them out? Oregon, top 10, overall athletic program in the country. Why would you kick them out?

And I think you're, again, I think he's just going back to geography, which is fine. I don't have any problem with that either. I mean, I personally kind of like when conferences or that way, too. Now, you mentioned like Penn State. That was an addition in the 90s. You know, and so it's not the Midwest. It's not on the Midwest. It's close to Ohio. Oh, good heavens, man. Everything is close to Ohio.

If you're using Ohio, that's like saying it's close to Nebraska. That doesn't matter to Rutgers. It doesn't matter. Thomas Lincoln says, take out the West Coast schools and add Texas, OU, Kansas, and Kansas State. Now that, does that mean it is, it is too big or big enough. I guess big enough just wants to switch some things around.

If it's big enough, and then the other question is, if it's big enough, if Notre Dame comes to the table, do you add them? And can you add just Notre Dame? Don't you have to add somebody else? I would think so, but I mean, this new kind of rule that they're throwing down is maybe stop the expansion at 19 teams. It's just so odd because the Big Ten obviously has 18. It feels like that's just like the Notre Dame.

rule. Like just in case the Notre Dame ever decides they want to the Big Ten, we don't want to prevent it. But don't they want somebody else? There has to be somebody else. Maybe, maybe it's Kansas. Maybe it's Kansas State. I don't know. Maybe, right? Maybe Oklahoma State. Maybe, right? That maybe somebody in the Big 12. I would prefer an even number, but the ACC's got 17 and they're

playing, they're playing nine and eight game conference schedules. And their schedules are screwed up. Add a team. Yeah. What is wrong with you? And it's going to come down to analytics if it's a tiebreaker. Well, but they should just call Maryland and say, come on. Yeah. Like, come home. It's okay. You're not doing that well in the Big Ten anyway.

Lane says the Big Ten is about geography. Let me explain. The Big Ten is about money. The Big Ten is about cash. Straight cash, homie. That's all it's ever been about. The Big Ten is about money. It is now.

Has been. Bill and Bennett says, The Big Ten is way too big. If you ask me, I think conferences gotten way too big, too greedy, when they accept certain teams

just for their fan base and TV value, market value. Cash. Cash. Lane, I didn't say it was bad. He goes, isn't that a capitalistic society?

I didn't say it was bad. I'm just pointing out, when you make your business about geography, when you make your recruiting about geography, when you make, make your culture about geography, you're missing the lead. You're missing the layup. You're doing

business. If we had identified 10 years ago in college athletics that it was about money all along, all of the NIL and transfer portal stuff would have been fixed then. If it was the case 20 years ago, it would have been fixed then. And it would have been fixed under a greater boundary and a greater control. The fact that people allowed, the fan bases allowed these programs to lie to you that it wasn't about money, that they didn't have it, they weren't making it, they weren't spending it, wrong. They've always had the money. They were always making money, and it's always about, what do you think that big budget that exists at each university, there's a big budget for the university, then there's a big budget for the athletic department.

And then there's a big budget for each program. And then, hey, Bob, there's a big budget now for coaches, for the coaching staff. How much you're going to spend? How much of that big budget you have for football goes to the coaching staff? I'm sincerely curious. How much of the revenue share compared to the coaching staff revenue? The coaching staff challenge. Have we compared those?

Have you compared the salaries per program in the Big Ten conference, the salaries for the coaches at Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, versus the programs at the bottom of the Big Ten in football? Have you compared those budgets? Have you compared the coaching? Hey, Bach, you're doing big business. always been doing big business. You did big, big business so much that you could, you know what? There's some stray money over there in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. There's some stray cash

leaning out there in Los Angeles, man. Somebody better go get that money. Oh, you mean there's, you mean there's L.A. TV money? What part of that is the budget? What are the media rights? What part of that is the budget? This is all about money. It's always been. The problem Now is that the lie has now been discovered and now you have to change the way you do business Or at least you have to be more transparent about how you do business. And if you're doing Big Ten business, the Big Ten is an accumulation of athletic programs and universities that agree to do business together. And they bring in good partners and not so good partners.

They need big business and then they need, you know what, we need fair or middling business. business that the big business can occupy and get cash off of. You know what Ohio State need more than anything else? Opponents. They need opponents. They need people to show up to the horseshoe and spend money to watch Ohio State beat them up. Michigan and the big house, you know what?

They need business partners. They found one, Ohio State. Hey, man, if we just complain. each other all the time. We just make all the money in the world. We don't need anybody else. But then Michigan figures out, well, there is some extra cash right here in Michigan. Hey, Michigan State come to part. Indiana, Illinois. We know what it is. Northwestern. We know what it is. You're not going to leave Illinois's money alone. Illinois and Northwestern need to do business together. Amen. Can we just promise to not break each other and then can we

promise to just not get beat up and kicked out. Penn State, tons of money. What did Penn State need? Business partners. Local business partners. Hey, man. Maryland can drive Penn State for ball games, so can Rutgers. Is Nebraska driving to Maryland for football games?

No, probably not, especially not all the time. You need those regular business partners. This was always about money. And if you say to the Big Ten Conference that 18 teams is the number. Now, we used to be ten, right? Ten is the number. Big eight, eight was the number.

Big 12, 12 was the number. Pack eight, pack ten, pack twelve. Until money. Money. Now, from a common sense standpoint, Brock, it makes sense that you could replace. some of the peripheral teams, geographically peripheral teams, with closer, same clientele business partners.

But here's the problem. You sent Oklahoma to your best friend, SEC. And, man, the neighborhood is really nice. It's the conversation we had yesterday. The houses are nice. the return on investment is nice. Man, it's kind of nice to be able to have Alabama show up and Texas. Good money shows up, right?

Brock, you're not trying to invite people to the party who don't want to come to the party. Oh, no, yeah. When Nebraska and could have kept Texas and Oklahoma to themselves, they could have invited Kansas and Kansas State to the party, but Kansas and Kansas State don't have Texas and Oklahoma money. Right? Well, that's why they're not at the big time. That's the only, listen to me.

That's the only reason. And why do they keep one more spot open in the Big Ten? Locke, you said it yourself. Who are they waiting for? Notre Dame. Notre Dame. Why? Money.

Money. At some point, they will admit that if we're doing business, the SEC has enough talent in the southern part of this country. Remember, it used to be southeast. Texas is no home or not east. Not to my knowledge, so geography doesn't match. The map isn't mapping. So then it's money.

But if you regionalize Division I, Power 4 athletics, and Bakke can do this because you do it all the time with basketball. You do it all the time with baseball, right? regionalize it and you say quite frankly from a financial standpoint it makes more sense to do this regionally we'll all do better business if we do it regional but we better do better business and bach do you want to give up your best friend and your best business partner because of geography well we've seen the answer money more what's been more important than geography Sir, say that.

Say that, Bach. All right, we'll go to break. We'll close out 101 and come back.