But did the Big East collapse because the lowere tier distribution programs weren’t receiving enough or because the top tier wasn’t….
The clear thing is what alternative does Northestern and Purdue have? They have none. What they are already receiving is far more than the value they bring.
Wellllll...
The school that was complaining the most about unequal revenue distribution in the Big East was...Miami...because in the "lean years" we made so little money that we incurred massive operating deficits.
I realize that the "Michigan is better than Northwestern" crowd has probably never worked for an entity in the sports industry. But I have. And I can tell you one simple thing, you need REVENUE CERTAINTY. Sure, it's awesome when you can EXCEED expectations (such as what Miami accomplished with the CFP championship game run), but you need absolute revenue certainty in a number of areas, including all your "contractual" arrangements (sponsorships, etc.).
It wasn't about the "top tier", because the top tier of the Big East was based solely upon year-to-year success. Thus, while Miami was arguably one of the "top tier" teams of the Big East, our payouts were feast-and-famine. Thus, a "lesser" program like Boston College (or God forbid, St. Johns) might have made more money than Miami in any given year simply by succeeding at football or basketball while Miami was on probation.
So you can crap on the "lower tier" schools all you'd like, but the reality is not whether you are "lower tier", but whether the lowest payouts are enough to pay the bills and keep the lights on.
Thus, when Miami wanted to explore ways to improve payouts in the Big East, many other schools (especially the basketball-only schools) mischaracterized our efforts out of jealousy, knowing full well there was no way to have EQUAL distributions in a league in which some schools WERE basketball-only schools.
There's no way in **** the Big 10 will ever boot Northwestern or Purdue. Now, Rutgers and Maryland are different, but I doubt that will happen either. And the "value" of Northwestern and Purdue is about much more than their football records.