COLUMBUS — Another 10 thoughts about Ohio State football and college football, as we’ll give you every weekend before kickoff.
Ohio State president Ted Carter set off a wave of speculation (and often overreaction) with these words, in an interview this week with USA Today, about the future of revenue sharing in the Big Ten.
“I think that's going to be a conversation that will be had over time,” Carter said.
A CONVERSATION! Oh no. Call the greed police.
That’s not sending shockwaves through college football. The OSU president broaching the idea of Ohio State, Oregon and Michigan getting larger pieces of the Big Ten cash pie than Rutgers, Northwestern and Purdue … that’s just reality.
It’s expected. It’s obvious. And it doesn’t foretell the death of the Big Ten.
Quick primer. The Big Ten has always shared its money equally. Yes, when new schools join the league, it takes time for them to work up to a full cut. Other than that, it’s even. The ACC is moving to unequal revenue sharing to placate big dogs Clemson and Florida State. So the door is open for it to happen in other conferences.
Ohio State playing nice during this tumultuous period of college football has been a primary reason the Big Ten has thrived. Texas didn’t want to be treated like lesser schools, and it wound up leaving the Big 12. USC fell off a cliff as a national power, and it helped kill the Pac-12. Ohio State’s staying power and sharing power has been the backbone of Big Ten financial success.