raising an AB to this (I wish, gotta study)

I went and wrote a message on the matter the other day soley because of the link you put up the ncaa website. so good job to you!

I'll tell you what happened to the big ten....Air conditioning and unions. Air conditioning made the south more inhabitable. With AC in the picture the southern climate is simply better, the cold sucks, the only people I know that like the cold are skiers and hockey players, I live in Boston.

the 2nd factor was the economy in the mid-west sucks now, the manufacturing industry there has sucked the last 20 years and it still sucks the cities of detroit, cleveland, cinncy etc have had declining populations and real incomes fro three decades...partly because the unions forced up labor costs there and it has been cheaper to employ people elsewhere(china, mexico, alabama, florida...pretty much anywhere is better for employers).

Drive around Detroit, then go drive around birmingham alabama....there is huge growth in the south(not just florida and Atlanta). the economy is better in the south partially because they don't have the high labor costs and union problems.

so the population growth means more football players, in the 60's the big ten had a huge population advantage, but that is shrinking rapidly.

Lastly, the percapita nfl players produced has always been higher in the south...with mississippi being right about #1...the state is about 1/3 the population of michigan but mississippi arguably has more nfl all stars produced in it's high schools...walter payton and jerry rice, Brett Farve are some pretty good examples.

i'd refernece a link for the per-capita nfl player production, but the info is out there and I'll just assume that you have used your brains before and looked into this because if you want to argue with me I'll send the spreadsheets out that make you whimper.

the population trends are expected to continue, and football's popularity in the south doesn't seem to be on the downswing so I expect the SEC's rise to continue

...hell look at the coaches, the SEC has the best ones, the most highly paid ones...any successful coach in the big 11 outside of OSU and Mich is at risk of being bought by a SEC school...see nick saban from msu to lsu

look at the attendence figures agian this year the SEC is #1 just like EVERY year. The support is bigger, a bigger % of the population cares more than in detroit. It is all pretty clear to me that the Big 11 is going to have a tougher and tougher time competing

oops comments in wrong article section