Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is a much smarter man than I, and most of the people are criticizing the additions of Maryland and Rutgers to the conference.

He’s got quite the track record.

He first added Penn State in the ‘90s. That was a no-brainer.

The two biggest decisions after that weren’t as popular at the start.

Sure, branching out on your own, in what was considered to be a very risky move at the time to create a television network when there are already established networks to compete with, sounded crazy.

His idea to start the Big Ten Network in 2007 was based around demographics and television markets. To put it simply, he did his homework.

His idea was so genius that it was profitable in just its second year of existence and further solidified the Big Ten brand and its power in collegiate athletics.

I wonder what former ESPN honcho Mark Shapiro, whose low-balling of Delany in negotiations played a large role in the Big Ten Network’s creation, thinks of the Big Ten’s worth now?

Adding Nebraska was controversial at the time because it was a founding member of what was the Big Eight and then the Big 12, but Delany wanted a conference championship, so he gave one of the nation’s elite programs the opportunity to shed its allegiance to a conference that favored Texas and Oklahoma to join the Big Ten, be treated equally and add to the university’s already proud tradition.

Before I discuss the recent additions, there’s two things that Big Ten presidents view as vital when pondering adding a university: It lies in a contiguous state and is a member of the American Association of Universities, something that 60 of the nation’s elite research universities are a part of.

Nebraska was a member of the AAU when it was added but lost its status in April 2011, and it borders Iowa. Besides the money that came with adding a 12th team ($25 million value on a championship game) and that 12th team having the fourth-most victories of all time, the Big Ten presidents and chancellors voted unanimously to welcome Nebraska.

Now with Maryland and Rutgers onboard, traditionalists have a point, and I completely understand. No one wants to see an Illinois-Rutgers football game anymore than they do an Illinois-Indiana game. Plus, I’d rather watch Illinois lose to Ohio State four years in a row as I did during my time in Champaign than throw away some of those conference games to replace with games against the Terrapins and the Scarlet Knights.

Change happens all the time, and tradition is going out the window as each day passes in many cases, including college football.

Of the six BCS conferences, only three can now say they haven’t had a school announce departure since Miami and Virginia Tech left the Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2003 — basically the first of these conference shifts.

So why were Maryland and Rutgers unanimously approved last week?

The bottom line is this move was based around the thing that makes the world go around — money. And technically, Maryland and New Jersey border Pennsylvania, so the extension of the footprint keeps that trend going.

Both universities acknowledged the financial stability the Big Ten provides, and the offers were simply too good to pass up.

In a constantly changing college landscape, this move shouldn’t come as a surprise given the markets that will come into play with the immense success of the Big Ten’s own television network.

But when you replace the current distribution of television money per school ($24.6 million) with the reportedly projected amount of $45 million by 2019, the Big Ten is going to be at an even further advantage financially than it already is. And where do you think that money is going to go?

College football and television money is driving this thing, so you can bet that each school’s football budgets are going to get even fatter as this conference grows financially. If you’re a recruit and don’t like cold weather or you think the Midwest is boring, it’ll be harder to turn down a scholarship to Michigan or Ohio State or any other Big Ten school, especially when they’ll have more money to build even better facilities and pay coaches to have the best resources to get their players to the NFL.

I understand that money-first moves can ruin tradition and turns off fans, but Delany has a good track record and I trust people that are smarter than I am.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @WELINandDEALIN.