Big Ten ADs double down on East Coast

ROSEMONT, Ill. - Northwestern Athletics Director Jim Phillips was forceful and direct when asked about the Big Ten shifting its focus eastward.

The addition of Rutgers and Maryland, along with moving the 2017 men's basketball tournament to Washington D.C., have drawn complaints from traditional Big Ten circles that regard the league as strictly Midwestern. Instead of appeasing those voices, however, Phillips doubled down on the eastern push.

'You've got to go out there,” he told reporters at Tuesday's Big Ten spring meetings. 'You've got to be active out there, and you've got to flex your muscle out there. I think that's something ... are you going to be a renter in that region or are you going to be somebody who actually picks up ownership out there? We're going to be aggressive. That's just been who we've been. Not everyone has agreed with every one of the schools we've added, but that's OK. We need to be active out there.”

The last 18 months has featured massive upheaval of the league's footprint. The Big Ten considers the northeast as part of its territory. It hopes to capture markets to expand both its influence and the Big Ten Network. Maryland has tradition and a sizable following in Washington D.C. and Baltimore.

The hope is New Jersey-based Rutgers can solidify the New York market under the Big Ten umbrella. When asked about what Rutgers brings to the Big Ten, Minnesota Athletics Director Norwood Teague was fairly blunt.

'For me, it's all about New York,” Teague said. 'They're not the Yankees, I understand that. Hopefully, in the areas that they're weak they'll improve, and it'll be more of a New York penetration for us. Maryland, in the D.C. area, I grew up in the ACC and they have a major, major footprint and a major player in that market. That's a thriving economic market.”

Athletics directors did discuss rotating the league's basketball tournament at both eastern and central sites. For the last 17 years the men's tournament was held in either Chicago or Indianapolis. The league now is flexible in where it stages future tournaments, from the East Coast to the Midwest. It considers both equally viable.

'When you look at the next 10 years going out to the East Coast, Washington D.C. and you go out and do something else on the East Coast, you're still going to have Indianapolis, you're still going to have Chicago,” Northwestern Athletics Director Jim Phillips said. 'And when you look over a 10-year-old cycle and you have a basketball championship and a football championship, you're talking about 90 percent you're still going to have in the initial footprint, in Chicago and Indianapolis.

'For us to integrate Maryland and Rutgers in a way that I hope we will, I think these are all steps in the positive direction,” Nebraska Athletics Director Shawn Eichorst said. 'The demographics, the geographics, all those other sorts of things play into that corridor. If we're going to be accepting of the eastern side of the league, then we have to live and play there.”

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