BHGP's twitter post on Thursday had me thinking of an alternate plan to relegate Purdue.
They are in a redundant state/media market that IU already covers. Purdue brings nothing in football and they're basketball hasn't been good for years. Unless I'm missing some sort of inherent benefit Purdue brings, I would put them on notice now that they need to improve both football/basketball significantly to stay in the conference. With no improvement, I'd replace Purdue with one of the following:
1) Mizzou - Adds STL/KC to BTN footprint and gives us another in-conference border rival.
2) UVA - Solidifies DC market and adds Richmond/Norfolk. It would also be an improvement in basketball/football (only slightly), but add diversification with Lacrosse/Baseball.
3) Cuse - Solidifies NYC market and adds Buffalo/Rochester. It would also be an improvement in basketball/football (only slightly), but add diversification with Lacrosse/Baseball.
While the Illini have been sucking the last few years in everything, Chicago is too big of market to NOT protect.