More than 27,000 people attended the basketball-ice hockey, day-night doubleheader between Penn State and Michigan in person.
In addition, the event played well on TV. From pre- and post-event coverage to the actual game action, it was all a success.
Still, the first edition might have been the easiest for the Big Ten Conference as it works to establish its foothold for the event in New York City and set the stage for the Big Ten Tournament to be played in the historic arena in 2018.
A pair of Penn State-Michigan matchups produced competitive action Saturday. More importantly, the Penn State presence provided a critical mass of people at the World's Most Famous Arena and prevented the games from being contested before limited crowds with a sports-as-a-studio-show feel.
Going forward -- because the Big Ten plans to repeat the event annually -- it might not be as easy to attract crowds.
Next year, it's Wisconsin-Rutgers in basketball and Wisconsin-Ohio State in hockey. In 2018, the Big Ten set Ohio State-Minnesota as the basketball opener followed by Minnesota-Michigan State in hockey. In 2019, it's Illinois-Maryland basketball with the hockey matchup to be announced.
Without Penn State, though, it might be hard to get a crowd for many of those matchups beyond the Rutgers basketball game.
Even with just-half-decent basketball team, Penn State fans flocked to the inaugural event at MSG. On the university campus Friday, there was a pep rally in the student union building as a sendoff event. And on gameday dozens of buses filled with students left Happy Valley just after dawn to get to the event.
The energy all those people provided means something. And Penn State's proximity to New York City provides something that cannot be rivaled by any other conference school execpt Rutgers.
That makes RU a wise pick for next season's basketball game as part of the twinbill. Beyond that, though, no other team in the conference has enough alumni or a fanbase in New York City to ensure a solid turnout for the games. While Maryland and Rutgers pulled the footprint of the Big Ten toward the east when they joined (and, more importantly, helped the Big Ten Network gobble up some bigger cable fees from subscribers of those states), Penn State remains the only Big Ten team with any cache or history in the east.
With hefty marketing -- and a hefty influx of conference or school dollars to help with travel packages -- future Super Saturdays could go well. They'll just require much more work. That's because Penn State, and Penn Staters willing to support their teams, made the doubleheader idea an inaugural success. That was something people who were there appreciated -- and something viewers at home could see as well.
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