Football's huddled masses -- Super Bowl, Pac-10 (!), Big Ten (?) -- head for New York

You may have heard this once or twice in your lives, but New York is where it's at.

As Sammy Davis Jr., once said, “When you leave New York you ain't goin' nowhere.”

Which was strange grammar and a stranger thing to say, since Sammy spent a lot of time in Las Vegas.

Lately, we've been reminded New York is the epicenter of civilization. The NFL announced it will hold its 2014 Super Bowl there. Well, in New Jersey, actually.

Earlier in the month, Pacific-10 Conference Commissioner Larry Scott said all of the league's head football coaches would attend a conference “media day” of sorts in New York before holding another one in Pasadena.

For those who aren't geographically inclined, New York is on the Atlantic coast, not the Pacific. It's 2,773 miles from the Empire State Building to the Rose Bowl.

The Pac-10 isn't holding a media day in Boston or Philadelphia. Just New York, New York.

Which is also where a Super Bowl will be played. Outdoors. The prospect of playing the NFL's ultimate game in the cold has a lot of people hot and bothered.

That's funny, such caring for the quality of the game. In 2008, the New York Giants played the Green Bay Packers in an NFC title game in Wisconsin cold unfit for any outdoors creature, let alone football players.

The games aren't for the players, or the schmoes who pay to see them in person. They're for television. The NFL probably

 hopes there will be lots of big, fabulous snowflakes for its New York Super Bowl. That would make a nice backdrop for the halftime show starring Liza Minnelli and Jay-Z.

But this will be a one-city deal, this outdoors Super Bowl in a wintry climate. Baltimore and Cleveland need not apply for Super Bowl LVI, LVII or LVIII.

Why? Because they aren't New York, New York.

Do you really wonder why the Big Ten might like to add Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey that's a short train trip/drive/ferry ride from Manhattan?

The Big Ten Network collects rights fees of 70 cents to 80 cents per month from its subscribers in the eight states its schools inhabit. Those in other states who get the channel via a sports tier pay the BTN about 10 cents per month.

It's been said New York is a pro town with little interest in college sports. By and large, that's true. But college football fans live everywhere in this country, and every Big Ten school has alums who live in the Big Apple or its surrounding area.

Tell me there wouldn't be excitement in New Jersey when Penn State came to Piscataway (or maybe the new NFL stadium in East Rutherford) to play Rutgers, which is just an hour from Philadelphia. Tell me things wouldn't be stirred up there when Ohio State or Michigan came in to try to flex their Midwest muscles.

The Big Ten can overlook Rutgers' relatively small home stadium and unremarkable football history. There are a lot of television sets in New Jersey and New York.

New York, New York. If the Super Bowl and Big Ten can make it there, they can make it anywhere.