New B1G Divisions

[TGHusker]

Willing to bet that these divisions aren't set for more than two years of play.

I agree totally. I wish we would just get to the main event and do it quickly.. expand to 16 where we know this is where all of this is heading. I wish we could add ND but they are too proud to go to the big 10. Otherwise I'd like to see FSU and GT or possibly VT. FSU and GT make the most sense when it comes to recruiting. I wonder if the Big 10 extends the Maryland travel deal to GT and FSU if they came into the conf. My other choice would be to get Kansas basketball in the conference - but we don't need another egg layer in the west football division. Recruit FSU and place them in our division so we can revenge every year the 1994 referee error prone Orange bowl - that should have given us 3 NC in a row (Ok, I'll go see the shrink now and lay down on the comfy sofa & get that game off my chest ).

[Kiyoat Husker]

Is ANY conference the Big 9?

Crap. I need to not post in the middle of the night...

fixed it.

[Kiyoat Husker]

... I wonder if the Big 10 extends the Maryland travel deal to GT and FSU if they came into the conf...

 

not familiar with this deal. What am I missing?

[Mavric]

... I wonder if the Big 10 extends the Maryland travel deal to GT and FSU if they came into the conf...

 

not familiar with this deal. What am I missing?

I believe he is referring to the "advance" on their share of conference money that Maryland is going to get to help cover some expenses while their athletic department works their way out of their financial hole. Basically, they were only supposed to get a partial share initially - like Nebraska is getting now - but the conference gave them more now and will short them later, iirc.

[husker_99]

... I wonder if the Big 10 extends the Maryland travel deal to GT and FSU if they came into the conf...

 

not familiar with this deal. What am I missing?

I believe he is referring to the "advance" on their share of conference money that Maryland is going to get to help cover some expenses while their athletic department works their way out of their financial hole. Basically, they were only supposed to get a partial share initially - like Nebraska is getting now - but the conference gave them more now and will short them later, iirc.

I doubt they'd help GT and FSU their football programs are in much better shape. Maryland's is litterally in shambles but they have dug their own hole and we shouldn't be bailing them out. I doubt they are going to get any better any sooner since you have the redskins and the ravens which more people probably care about. Plus has delaney thought about what if they decide not to buy the big ten network? It will probably take a long time til most people would care about the games and who they are playing. maryland was an acc founder so deep ties that are cut overnight and just wait and see if people will care.

[WoodyHayes1951]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I thought GIT's athletic program was going through tough times

[nic]

Have been reading this thread and wanted to respond to concerns with the potential West division being like the Big 12 North. I am long time Big Ten fan, Michigan first, Penn State second. Love having Big Red aboard, and have enjoyed (and will miss) the short lived annual NU-Michigan game. I do not think the Big Ten will be at 14 teams for long, if at all. The Big Ten will go to 16 teams and adopt the 4x4 team pod format. I love this idea. You can play every Big Ten team in two years with a 9 game schedule. As an example, lets assume the Big Ten gets the team they really want, ND, and picks up Virginia. Very unlikely I know. Here are some example Pods.

 

West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND

Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St.

East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia

 

NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers.

 

Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland

Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia

repeat...

 

What do you think? You can mix and match the pods to your liking.

[schriznoeder]

Have been reading this thread and wanted to respond to concerns with the potential West division being like the Big 12 North. I am long time Big Ten fan, Michigan first, Penn State second. Love having Big Red aboard, and have enjoyed (and will miss) the short lived annual NU-Michigan game. I do not think the Big Ten will be at 14 teams for long, if at all. The Big Ten will go to 16 teams and adopt the 4x4 team pod format. I love this idea. You can play every Big Ten team in two years with a 9 game schedule. As an example, lets assume the Big Ten gets the team they really want, ND, and picks up Virginia. Very unlikely I know. Here are some example Pods.

 

West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND

Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St.

East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia

 

NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers.

 

Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland

Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia

repeat...

 

What do you think? You can mix and match the pods to your liking.

 

I really like your plan! Mine is pretty similar (you can find it on the "B1G Expansion and more Conference Realignment" thread), except that it consists of 20 teams split into 4 pods. But regardless of whether the B1G decides to go with 16, 18, 20, or even 24 teams, I definitely think a rotating pod structure is the way to go.

[Kiyoat Husker]

Have been reading this thread and wanted to respond to concerns with the potential West division being like the Big 12 North. I am long time Big Ten fan, Michigan first, Penn State second. Love having Big Red aboard, and have enjoyed (and will miss) the short lived annual NU-Michigan game. I do not think the Big Ten will be at 14 teams for long, if at all. The Big Ten will go to 16 teams and adopt the 4x4 team pod format. I love this idea. You can play every Big Ten team in two years with a 9 game schedule. As an example, lets assume the Big Ten gets the team they really want, ND, and picks up Virginia. Very unlikely I know. Here are some example Pods.

 

West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND

Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St.

East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia

 

NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers.

 

Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland

Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia

repeat...

 

What do you think? You can mix and match the pods to your liking.

 

I really like your plan! Mine is pretty similar (you can find it on the "B1G Expansion and more Conference Realignment" thread), except that it consists of 20 teams split into 4 pods. But regardless of whether the B1G decides to go with 16, 18, 20, or even 24 teams, I definitely think a rotating pod structure is the way to go.

It could work. The best part of your scenario is getting ND, which won't happen, but still a workable system. Seems confusing at first, but with good name recognition of the pods, that might not be an issue. Also avoids having to play a semi-final by combining pods that play round-robin.

[StPaulHusker]

It is at least a good starting point for discussion sake. I will be more interested in this if/when there is some sort of "official" announcement that there are teams coming aboard.

[Notre Dame Joe]

Ya know, now that I think about it, this is the EXACT replica of the old Big 12 divisions:

 

Illinois = Kansas, kinda got good for a second, went back to sucking

Iowa = Colorado, thinks they're cool/good, decent second-tier tradition, always loses to Nebraska

Minnesota = Iowa State, comes around every blue moon, never sustains anything

Nebraska = well, Nebraska

Northwestern = Mizzou, very recent upstart who will quickly slip back into being an afterthought

Wisconsin = K-State, recent upstart that will cause problems a lot of the time, preference for JUCO QBs

Purdue or Indiana = combine together, could be Kansas

 

 

Maryland = Texas Tech, ....outlier?

Michigan = Oklahoma, tradition, rivalry with OSU is similar to OU-UT rivalry

Michigan State = OK State, OU's little bro that they don't really care that much about. Decent...sometimes

Ohio State = Texas, tradition, runs the show

Penn State = Texas A&M, tradition but rarely at ELITE level

Rutgers = Baylor, recently got kinda good...probably short-lived

 

Northwestern is more like Baylor. Small private school, can put together a dangerous offense to beat anyone but can't recruit the defense to sustain the long term.

 

As written, NU should have a clear path to the title game but you saw how that worked out in the Big12n. I'd be shocked if they really loaded up the east that way in the long term.

[Comish]

With all the moaning about the impending inbalance in the West, I haven't seen much written about the legacy-lacking resumes of newbies Rutgers and Maryland as fodder for the East..........

[Ocean]

Have been reading this thread and wanted to respond to concerns with the potential West division being like the Big 12 North. I am long time Big Ten fan, Michigan first, Penn State second. Love having Big Red aboard, and have enjoyed (and will miss) the short lived annual NU-Michigan game. I do not think the Big Ten will be at 14 teams for long, if at all. The Big Ten will go to 16 teams and adopt the 4x4 team pod format. I love this idea. You can play every Big Ten team in two years with a 9 game schedule. As an example, lets assume the Big Ten gets the team they really want, ND, and picks up Virginia. Very unlikely I know. Here are some example Pods.

 

West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota

Central: Illinois, NW, Purdue, ND

Great Lakes: Mich, Ohio, Indiana, Mich St.

East: Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Virginia

 

NU would play the three west pod teams every year (great for the fans and travel). For the other 6 conf. games NU would play the The entire central pod and 1/2 of the east pod. Year 2 you play the other half of the east and the great lakes pod. You keep this 2 year rotation, but alternate home and away. You get a home game with every big ten team every 4 years and play every team every two years. NU gets to go out east every year too. CCG is the best two teams. Not sure of the tie breakers.

 

Year 1: Minn, Wis, Iowa, Illini, NW, Purdue, ND, PSU, Maryland

Year 2: Minn, Wis, Iowa, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indiana, Rutgers, Virginia

repeat...

 

What do you think? You can mix and match the pods to your liking.

 

First off, I really like this plan. I do have a question though. This plan is based off a 9 game conference slate. What would it look like with 10, if say the conference stands pat at 16 teams? Maybe having a cross-over protected game at that point wouldn't be such a bad idea?

 

Anyway, good idea on the "pods" and scheduling. Makes for good food for thought.

[nic]

Ocean,

I would love 10 games and 2 good non-conference games, but I think the big boys (OSU,PSU,Mich and NU) are going to want 2 guaranteed home games out of the 3 non-conference games for revenue sake. I would be surprised if they went to 10 games. I see some potential cross-overs. Indiana-Purdue, Mich-Minn, and NU-PSU, but most of the rivalries are within the pods. Not sure how a rotation would work with 4 games every year against the same teams, and the 6 additional spread out over the remaining 11 teams.

 

I do think a 10 game schedule works OK for 14 teams. 6 divisional, 1 crossover and 3 games to rotate across the remaining 6 teams. Unfortunately some crossovers feel a bit contrived, but maybe giving the western teams a chance to go out east every year would be desirable for recruiting?

 

Indiana-Purdue

Mich-Minn

NU-PSU

Illini-OSU

MSU-NW

Wis-Maryland

Iowa-Rutgers

 

I would rather have Wis-MSU play every year and send NW out east.

 

BTW, I think the Commish is on to something...having Indiana, Rutgers and Maryland, plus a potentially injured PSU in the same division doesn't sound too strong. Michigan is not back yet, and I haven't bought into MSU remaining strong either.

 

Not sure how I feel about Rutgers and Maryland joining anyway. Feels like the Big10 is playing chess against the ACC and SEC. If we dont go to 16 with 2 good additions, I will be disappointed and want to retreat back to 12 teams. 18 or 20 is too much dilution, unless its 4-6 great teams. Too bad OU isn't on the radar. It would be sweet to add them with ND.

[Creighton Duke]

Ya know, now that I think about it, this is the EXACT replica of the old Big 12 divisions:

 

Illinois = Kansas, kinda got good for a second, went back to sucking

Iowa = Colorado, thinks they're cool/good, decent second-tier tradition, always loses to Nebraska

Minnesota = Iowa State, comes around every blue moon, never sustains anything

Nebraska = well, Nebraska

Northwestern = Mizzou, very recent upstart who will quickly slip back into being an afterthought

Wisconsin = K-State, recent upstart that will cause problems a lot of the time, preference for JUCO QBs

Purdue or Indiana = combine together, could be Kansas

 

 

Maryland = Texas Tech, ....outlier?

Michigan = Oklahoma, tradition, rivalry with OSU is similar to OU-UT rivalry

Michigan State = OK State, OU's little bro that they don't really care that much about. Decent...sometimes

Ohio State = Texas, tradition, runs the show

Penn State = Texas A&M, tradition but rarely at ELITE level

Rutgers = Baylor, recently got kinda good...probably short-lived

 

Northwestern is more like Baylor. Small private school, can put together a dangerous offense to beat anyone but can't recruit the defense to sustain the long term.

 

As written, NU should have a clear path to the title game but you saw how that worked out in the Big12n. I'd be shocked if they really loaded up the east that way in the long term.

Two problems with this statement. 1: NW is in the weaker region i.e. the "North" while Baylor was in the South. 2: Northwestern is a good school; Baylor...not so much.