By Woodrow Carroll
When once a collegiate conference with more than a dozen member schools was considered unusually large, we now see a good many conferences adding to their membership with each passing season. Or, so it seems.
The heavy hitters in college football, and we are talking about the Big Ten Conference and the Southeastern Conference at the moment now have a combined membership of 34 schools. And, if anything, those two aforementioned leagues will likely grow before they downsize in the years to come.
The Big Ten Conference, which was down to nine schools at one point in the 1940s after the University of Chicago’s exit, has a present membership of 18. And, as for the Big Ten, membership today stretches from the West Coast to Maryland and New Jersey.
The SEC now has 16 schools under its aegis with the league’s banner proudly flying in Florida and Texas among other locations.
A touch of trivia! Can you name the two Big Ten schools that are not public schools? Northwestern likely will come to mind given our geographic proximity. The other school happens to be Southern California.
In the SEC, 15 of the league’s 16 schools are public operations. Only Vanderbilt is a private operation.
Most of the schools in the Big Ten and SEC have names that are geographic representations. And, you have a state attached to the school in many cases. Most of us are familiar with the Big Ten and SEC to the point where we know where each school is located. Still, a bit of a refresher course never hurts!
Northwestern is in Evanston, Ill.. Purdue, like Northwestern, a longtime fixture in the Big Ten, operates out of West Lafayette, Ind.. Rutgers is officially the State University of New Jersey and has Piscataway for its address.
Over in the SEC, we might need to touch upon Vanderbilt and Auburn. As for Vanderbilt, the Commodores are based in Nashville, Tenn.. The Auburn Tigers are well know for their rivalry with state (and SEC) foe the University of Alabama.
What is a protected game? We have seen the term on a number of occasions when talking about college football. Now for a word or two about the designation.
Down through the years, a number of rivalries have come about in college football. In time games such as these have become legendary. With all the changes taking place in the ranks of collegiate football of late there was some concern that many famous rivalries would come to an end. And, in the minds of many, that meant lost revenue! It’s hard to imagine the Michigan-Ohio State game not being played. With the protected game in place there would be no danger of that happening.
Illinois has two opponents, Northwestern and Purdue, that will be on the (protected) schedule every season. Not everybody gets a protected game? Penn State will not have such an opponent. Why? Penn State didn’t join the Big Ten until 1990. While Penn State has long been a football power, the school has not engaged in historic rivalries with Big Ten Schools to the degree that many other league foes have.
For the record, the University of Chicago is the only Big Ten school to have withdrawn from the conference. The University of Chicago was an original Big Ten member when the school joined the conference in 1896. The Maroons pulled out of the conference for football after the 1939 campaign.
You will probably see both the Big Ten and SEC making further changes and adjustments in the coming years. Keep a sharp eye peeled! You will need it!