[Canalejas]

The addition of USC/UCLA was a bit of a no brainer for the B10.  It increased their payout per member and at the same time increased their overall academic standings.  A win for both the ADs and the Presidents.

Turning down UW/UO was similarly a no brainer.  It would have decreased their payout per member and while UW would have fit well within the B10 academic world, only Nebraska has a lower academic standing that UO.  And as Hulk has pointed out there is probably some buyers remorse with Nebraska.

If you look at the other members the B10 has added (PSU, MD & RTG) they are all strong academic schools in the middle of the rest of the B10.  They also all added to media rights per member.  MD & RTG added based on the importance of conference networks and charging higher cable rates for in network markets.  My sense is that this has gotten a lot less important in the media world so the B10 might be a bit more thoughtful about this going forward.

That brings us back to Stanford & cal.  We would be a big win in terms of academics.  But it is clear that we would be a negative to media rights per member.  Of course ND solves this for Stanford potentially.  The other thing that solves this is agreeing for the first deal to take less.  But to take Stanford & cal the B10 would have to do something they haven't done before.....

And depending on what your preferred source of school rankings is, Oregon can be ranked worse than Nebraska.

[Canalejas]

The addition of USC/UCLA was a bit of a no brainer for the B10.  It increased their payout per member and at the same time increased their overall academic standings.  A win for both the ADs and the Presidents.

Turning down UW/UO was similarly a no brainer.  It would have decreased their payout per member and while UW would have fit well within the B10 academic world, only Nebraska has a lower academic standing that UO.  And as Hulk has pointed out there is probably some buyers remorse with Nebraska.

If you look at the other members the B10 has added (PSU, MD & RTG) they are all strong academic schools in the middle of the rest of the B10.  They also all added to media rights per member.  MD & RTG added based on the importance of conference networks and charging higher cable rates for in network markets.  My sense is that this has gotten a lot less important in the media world so the B10 might be a bit more thoughtful about this going forward.

That brings us back to Stanford & cal.  We would be a big win in terms of academics.  But it is clear that we would be a negative to media rights per member.  Of course ND solves this for Stanford potentially.  The other thing that solves this is agreeing for the first deal to take less.  But to take Stanford & cal the B10 would have to do something they haven't done before.....

And depending on what your preferred source of school rankings is, Oregon can be ranked worse than Nebraska.