Potential Big 10 pods

[Caven]

As an Iowa grad living in Lincoln I am curious as to all of your take on potential pods which would become your primary rivals. Would you prefer to be in a pod with Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota or with Missouri, Illinois and Northwestern? I would love to have Nebraska in our pod because it would be a fun game and I would either end up with several weeks worth of free lunches or one really big lunch bill every year

 

I don't know how deep the Missouri rivaly feeling is and if you would prefer to have Iowa/Wisconsin vs. just Missouri for other good teams in the pod.

[bbeerma2]

It makes geographical sense to join the Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin pod. Obviously a 7-hour drive is the worst commute out of that bunch and the travel costs would be pretty minimal. Personally, I think that being with 2 other teams (not Illinois and Northwestern) will be the outcome. Illinois and Northwestern will get paired with Purdue and Indiana to keep the current protected rivalry games alive. Missouri will join the Iowa pod or our pod. I think you will see us team with Pitt and join either Penn State/Michigan State or Ohio State/Michigan.

 

My predictions:

 

Penn State/Michigan State/Syracuse/Rutgers

 

Michigan/Ohio State/Pitt/Nebraska

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri/Minnesota

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Indiana/Purdue

[GMoose]

It makes geographical sense to join the Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin pod. Obviously a 7-hour drive is the worst commute out of that bunch and the travel costs would be pretty minimal. Personally, I think that being with 2 other teams (not Illinois and Northwestern) will be the outcome. Illinois and Northwestern will get paired with Purdue and Indiana to keep the current protected rivalry games alive. Missouri will join the Iowa pod or our pod. I think you will see us team with Pitt and join either Penn State/Michigan State or Ohio State/Michigan.

 

My predictions:

 

Penn State/Michigan State/Syracuse/Rutgers

 

Michigan/Ohio State/Pitt/Nebraska

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri/Minnesota

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Indiana/Purdue

That's pretty bold, I don't know if that's how it would shake out. You have arguably 4 of the top 6 teams in the conference in one division. I would think they would try to even it out a little more.

[bbeerma2]

You could put it as Penn State/Michigan State/Nebraska/Pitt just as easily. I'm not sure why I chose Ohio State/Michigan over those two.

[Jadler]

My predictions:

 

Penn State/Michigan State/Syracuse/Rutgers Decent Balance

 

Michigan/Ohio State/Pitt/Nebraska Gauntlet

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri/Minnesota Gauntlet

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Indiana/Purdue Cake Walk

 

Seriously, they would have to do a better job dividing the football/basketball power houses than that.

[Nexus]

The way Tom Dienhart divided it up was like this:

 

Penn St./Syracuse/Rutgers/Pitt

Ohio St./Purdue/Indiana/Illinois or Northwestern

Michigan/Wisconsin/Michigan St./Minnesota

Nebraska/Iowa/Missouri/Illinois or Northwestern

 

I think he broke it down like this for a reason and that is to keep the 4 most prestigious schools in separate divisions in order to create a 4 team playoff race between Penn St., Ohio St., Michigan and Nebraska for the Big 10 conference title.

[bbeerma2]

You won't see a playoff race unless they petition the NCAA to allow it, or have the other teams play an additional conference game as a consolation. As a result, you will see them join to form 8-team divisions that may vary year to year to seed 2 teams to the championship game. This is why having a week pod is not necessarily detrimental. And yes, the revision would probably need to be the following for parity:

 

Penn State/Michigan State/Pitt/Nebraska

 

Michigan/Ohio State/Syracuse/Rutgers

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri/Minnesota

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Indiana/Purdue

 

 

 

You won't see his prediction without consent from certain schools because it eliminates certain rivalry games (Penn State would lose one or both, Ohio State would lose one or both, Illinois or Northwestern would lose one or both, and several other teams could lose one protected game) You also won't see a 2-2 game split with 4 intrasubdivision games because it doesn't allow for protected rivalry games.

 

There is no way the conference expands without holding onto most of it's tradition. That's what sets it apart from other conferences...

[Caven]

Illinois will be paired with Missouri as they already have that rivalry thing going on.

 

We are 95% certain that Michigan/Ohio State/Michigan State would be kept together as would Iowa/Minny/Wisky. Then Penn State would be put with the new eastern teams since that is what Papa Joe has always wanted.

 

That leaves Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern to fill out the pods. The Indiana schools and the Illinois schools don't actually have much in the way of rivalry hatred going on so either pair could be broken up safely. With one power pod already existing it would make sense to make another power pod to always stand opposite them and play them as cross divisional games leaving the 2 other pods to rotate. If that is what they end up doing then adding Nebraska in with Iowa and Wisconsin would make a decent power opposite to Michigan/Ohio State/Michigan State. The problem with that of course is that Nebraska loses Missouri as an every year game and it becomes like Oklahoma in 2 out of 4 years. Granted the 2 years that you would have them would be divisional games with more meaning.

 

eta: When I say we in this context I am referring to several Big 10 fan boards that have been debating this type of thing for a while now.

[Nexus]

You won't see a playoff race unless they petition the NCAA to allow it, or have the other teams play an additional conference game as a consolation. As a result, you will see them join to form 8-team divisions that may vary year to year to seed 2 teams to the championship game. This is why having a week pod is not necessarily detrimental. And yes, the revision would probably need to be the following for parity:

 

Penn State/Michigan State/Pitt/Nebraska

 

Michigan/Ohio State/Syracuse/Rutgers

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Missouri/Minnesota

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Indiana/Purdue

 

 

 

You won't see his prediction without consent from certain schools because it eliminates certain rivalry games (Penn State would lose one or both, Ohio State would lose one or both, Illinois or Northwestern would lose one or both, and several other teams could lose one protected game) You also won't see a 2-2 game split with 4 intrasubdivision games because it doesn't allow for protected rivalry games.

 

There is no way the conference expands without holding onto most of it's tradition. That's what sets it apart from other conferences...

 

I think they've already considered rivalry games as being locked into the schedule regardless if they're split up into different divisions. It would just mean they would play one or two less non-conference games per year.

[bbeerma2]

All rivalry games can be protected by having you pair with one pod to form a division and allowing the 8th conference game be played against a protected rival. Correct pod formations like I've noted above will keep all protected rivalry games intact. It also opens up new match-ups to be created.

 

Penn State - Ohio State would be protected

Nebraska - Missouri would be protected

Michigan - Michigan State would be protected

 

This holds onto 6 teams out of 16, meaning you can form 5 more protected match-ups and create even more rivalries for the future. There will undoubtedly be very little expansion after this for a long time.

[RedDenver]

All rivalry games can be protected by having you pair with one pod to form a division and allowing the 8th conference game be played against a protected rival. Correct pod formations like I've noted above will keep all protected rivalry games intact. It also opens up new match-ups to be created.

 

Penn State - Ohio State would be protected

Nebraska - Missouri would be protected

Michigan - Michigan State would be protected

 

This holds onto 6 teams out of 16, meaning you can form 5 more protected match-ups and create even more rivalries for the future. There will undoubtedly be very little expansion after this for a long time.

Keep in mind that travel costs figure prominently into division/pod assignments. Nebraska and Pitt are not going to want to play every year due to the cost of travel.

[Nexus]

All rivalry games can be protected by having you pair with one pod to form a division and allowing the 8th conference game be played against a protected rival. Correct pod formations like I've noted above will keep all protected rivalry games intact. It also opens up new match-ups to be created.

 

Penn State - Ohio State would be protected

Nebraska - Missouri would be protected

Michigan - Michigan State would be protected

 

This holds onto 6 teams out of 16, meaning you can form 5 more protected match-ups and create even more rivalries for the future. There will undoubtedly be very little expansion after this for a long time.

 

Ohio St/Michigan > Ohio St./Penn St.

 

According to the majority of Big 10 fans that have seen Dienhart's division breakdown. Of all the scenarios listed they want to make sure that Ohio St/Michigan is a protected rivalry game more than any other game within the Big 10.

[bbeerma2]

I was drinking too much whiskey when I sat down to think about this the first time and didn't realize you could split the teams up a bit differently

 

If you want to throw Missouri in with Illinois, you'd have to rearrange that pod into something as follows:

 

Penn State/Michigan State

 

Michigan/Ohio State

 

Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota

 

Illinois/Northwestern/Missouri

 

Indiana/Purdue in with either PSU/MSU or UM/OSU

 

Further seeding would be awkward but possible. You'd almost have to place Nebraska in with Missouri to strengthen the pod. Pitt would undoubtedly want to combine with Penn State, leaving Rutgers or Syracuse in with the Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota trio. That's the worst part about it, and will be killer for someone such as Rutgers to deal with travel expenses.

 

Protected Games:

Illinois-Indiana

Purdue-Northwestern

Michigan-Michigan State

Penn State-Ohio State

Nebraska-Missouri

[bbeerma2]

All rivalry games can be protected by having you pair with one pod to form a division and allowing the 8th conference game be played against a protected rival. Correct pod formations like I've noted above will keep all protected rivalry games intact. It also opens up new match-ups to be created.

 

Penn State - Ohio State would be protected

Nebraska - Missouri would be protected

Michigan - Michigan State would be protected

 

This holds onto 6 teams out of 16, meaning you can form 5 more protected match-ups and create even more rivalries for the future. There will undoubtedly be very little expansion after this for a long time.

 

Ohio St/Michigan > Ohio St./Penn St.

 

According to the majority of Big 10 fans that have seen Dienhart's division breakdown. Of all the scenarios listed they want to make sure that Ohio St/Michigan is a protected rivalry game more than any other game within the Big 10.

 

They will be placed in a subdivision with Michigan, meaning that they will play every year. One of your two protected rivals must be in your pod to make this system work out. With the games I've listed it covers all current rivalries in any given year in a 7 game + 1 protected format.

 

Sadly, the final 3 protected games will feature the Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin trio playing against the new Big East blood.

[Judoka]

Illinois will be paired with Missouri as they already have that rivalry thing going on.

 

We are 95% certain that Michigan/Ohio State/Michigan State would be kept together as would Iowa/Minny/Wisky. Then Penn State would be put with the new eastern teams since that is what Papa Joe has always wanted.

 

That leaves Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana and Northwestern to fill out the pods. The Indiana schools and the Illinois schools don't actually have much in the way of rivalry hatred going on so either pair could be broken up safely. With one power pod already existing it would make sense to make another power pod to always stand opposite them and play them as cross divisional games leaving the 2 other pods to rotate. If that is what they end up doing then adding Nebraska in with Iowa and Wisconsin would make a decent power opposite to Michigan/Ohio State/Michigan State. The problem with that of course is that Nebraska loses Missouri as an every year game and it becomes like Oklahoma in 2 out of 4 years. Granted the 2 years that you would have them would be divisional games with more meaning.

 

eta: When I say we in this context I am referring to several Big 10 fan boards that have been debating this type of thing for a while now.

I would say that Nebraska and Missouri have the beginnings of a rivalry. Nothing that we would be heartbroken to lose if we were to both join the Big 10/11 and be placed into different pods.