College Basketball: The Big Ten Conference's Digital Presence

We're heading to the Midwest. To the Big Ten Conference. I grew up in Missouri, so I'm super excited to dive into the heartland... As with my breakdowns of the ACC (link here) and Pac-10 (link here), I will go through the Big Ten at a conference level and then play it out with pre-season (or pre-looking at it) predictions. I hope you enjoy!

First, a quick overview:

What's Good about the Big Ten Experience? The Big Ten hits you hard with lots of Twitter, lots of Blogs, and a lots of video on a pretty solid digitial TV network

What Could Be Better? Organization. There's so much content, but it really isn't maximized because things are a bit all over the place.

Let's check it out...

Hitting the Big Ten's home page, here, really doesn't give you a feeling that the amount of content is crazy. That the site is popping full. Oh what lies ahead...

What that savvy eye will see is the Twitter icon on the left side, beneath the main window.

So, let's zoom in.

You'll also note that there is quick access to the Big Ten's football, volleyball, and fall sports blogs here as well.

Hang on.

Did I say Volleyball?

Yes. Now I have nothing against volleyball at all. But I'm a believer that you elevate your big guns to the home page. And I'm not sure volleyball and "other" fall sports, albeit in season are more critical than hoops. It's Fall, Midnight Madness, practices start, conference meetings happen, elevate it. Bring on basketball!

Let's move forward and click into the Twitter button. You're taken to a LARGE list of Twitter sites, and a Facebook page. (What? Facebook?) This is just one of the surprises the Big Ten throws at you. So though I love the Facebook page, it needs to be called out if it's going to be here. Again, lead with your guns, and Facebook could be a gun.

OK. But I digress. You'll note there are also a lot of Big Ten Twitter pages. That's an amazing strength. I'll paste images of a couple of them below, or you can click here... or here... or here... or here.

This is tough. I'm so torn. I love the fact that the Big Ten organization is active on Twitter. But I can't help but feel a little confusion over where to go from here. What they could really use is a combined Twitter site. Let everyone post, and sum all of them here, into the Big Ten site. That would make the site feel alive and really lose all this guesswork. It'd be amazing!

Next I clicked into the Men's Basketball home (shown below). You'll see a button for their Men's Hoops blog beneath and to the right of the main feature (or check it out here). There's our gun!

This blog is updated, and it contains prominent links to the Big Ten Twitter and Facebook presence as well. Well done. The setup is here to be amazing. At the conference level you get a unique perspective. Access to coaches, sports information directors, and passionate (or crazy) fans. You have a chance to share that energy and also be the place where that energy comes together. I am really excited to see if this can evolve.

You'll also notice on the Basketball page a call out for the Big Ten Network. I clicked in and was taken to a different Big Ten site, complete with (see image in the upper right) its own Twitter feed (link here) and another handful of Big Ten blogs. (Are you still with me?)

Looking around, it was exciting to see that the Big Ten Network offers the ability to create your own video mashups -- your own compilation of Big Ten football highlights, then share them. I'm betting we see a hoops version of this soon -- I just wish these compilations bubbled up into the Big Ten's main site, or into a YouTube channel....

Next, I clicked into the Big Ten Network's Men's basketball area (link here). It's honestly very similar to the Big Ten's basketball area.

Which got me thinking. If there is this much content, it really needs to be fit together. Imagine how much better the basketball section would be with the Basketball TV content built in. Or if the Twitter feeds were merged or played off each other? Explosive potential. Which summarizes the Big Ten to me perfectly. Potential to be great. But not there yet.

All this has me just itching to go. I can't wait to dive into this conference, school by school. But before we start that (next Monday), here's my Pre-Looking at Anything Prediction (or PLAP):

1. Michigan
2. Wisconsin
3. Indiana
4. Purdue
5. Michigan State
6. Ohio State
7. Illinois
8. Iowa
9. Minnesota
10. Penn State
11. Northwestern

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!

Andy