Big Ten Media Days

billdozer15

billdozer15

All-Conference
Does anyone know if/when the new conf schedules will come out? I am expecting to hear something by the end of this week. I am thinking all the AD's and Presidents have been on conference calls discussing this before this week and possibly with the get together this week will have something finalized.

Also, is T.O. going to talk at the media days?

 
I read somewhere that it will be at the end of august. This week will not be for finalizing/releasing the new schedule or league format.

 
FOrgot where i read it, but TO was to be at the Big 10 media days, and would answere questions if asked.

correct me if im wrong.

 
n.e.husker said:
FOrgot where i read it, but TO was to be at the Big 10 media days, and would answere questions if asked.

correct me if im wrong.
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I believe TO is attending the Big10's preseason meetings of AD's and presidents, not the media days. I'm pretty sure they are two separate events being held at the same time.

Link

 
Delany said today he expected news on divisional alignments in 30 to 45 days. They need that before the schedules will be out. He also said that they would likely be focusing on records from 1993 to today in determining the competitive balance. He said they would look at W-L records, Home and Away records vs. conference, against non con, against non-con BCS teams, conf championships, national championships. He made it sound like the decision would be largely driven by the data points contained in this analysis. Thought that was interesting.

He also said he didn't think the non revenue sports needed divisions, that football needed it to determine divisional champs for the championship game.

Pretty interesting stuff. The Big Ten Network is replaying the entire thing tonight at 7:00 Central.

 
Thank Goodness for the BTN and HD. Its nice to actually be able to see the coaches at the press conference and not have to squint my eyes like I had to watching Big 12 media days. The quality of picture that FSN and the Big 12 had for their media days was amazing! :sarcasm

 
Tressel said he is not a fan of going to a 9-game conference schedule (from 8) because Ohio State has too many athletics that would suffer financially by playing 5 or 6 away games (1 out-of-conference every other year) rather than 4 or 5 away games as it currently stands. There is too much demand at home for opportunities to attend the games and use the athletic facilities that require a lot of money to upkeep to shave off another game from the home schedule.

 
Sounds like Osbourne really knows what he's doing. Here's his comments after the first day of meetings.

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/sports/football/story.asp?list_id=47&story_id=3392619

CHICAGO(AP) Athletic director Tom Osborne insisted Nebraska wasn't seeking riches or ducking competition when it decided to bolt the Big 12 for the Big Ten.
He said the move was about stability.

The Big Ten had it and the Big 12 lacked it, so the Cornhuskers are switching conferences. They'll start play in the Big Ten next year, one of college football's traditional powers joining a tradition-rich league that was trying to maintaining its footing in a shaky landscape.

"There was a lot of uncertainty in the Big 12,'' Osborne said Monday at Big Ten media day. "We felt this was a stable league, that it was going to be here for a long time.''

Switching, he said, was ``a fairly easy decision for us.''

He insisted money wasn't the big draw, saying Nebraska "won't see any tremendous financial reward for some time.'' Anger toward the Big 12 had nothing to do with it, either, nor did the competition. He said Nebraska simply saw a league on solid footing when it surveyed the Big Ten, with goals "that matched up pretty well.''

He also mentioned the Big Ten Network, which has turned into a boon for the conference after a shaky start.
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Now, Nebraska is forming new alliances by joining a conference that sparked all this shuffling when it announced in December that it was looking into expansion.
Adding the Cornhuskers gives the Big Ten a 12th team and the ability to hold a championship game in football that commissioner Jim Delany expects to start next season. Teams will have to be divided into two divisions, with competitive balance and rivalries along with geography determining the alignment.

Ironically, Osborne opposed a championship game as Nebraska's coach when the Big 12 started playing one in 1996. Now, he's OK with it.

"Since that time, more conferences have gone to that playoff game except the Big Ten and Pac-10 so it's a more common occurrence today,'' Osborne said. ``As an athletic director, you can see some reason financially to do this.''

When he was coaching, Osborne had major concerns. He thought it could trip a team like the Cornhuskers that was contending for the national title.

"I believe the Southeast Conference was maybe the only conference that had a playoff game,'' he said. "So naturally, we were hoping to at some point win a national championship. As a coach, you realize that if you have to play that extra game, you're playing somebody that probably has a 50-50 chance to win it. ... It diminishes your chances to win a national championship. I was somewhat concerned about that.''

He was also concerned that most of the teams that got to the national championship game ``would not have to pass that hurdle.''

Now, a new set of obstacles awaits Nebraska.

Osborne see a potential rivalry with Iowa and has a long history with Minnesota, which Nebraska has played 51 times. Penn State could be an interesting pairing, too.

They met from 1979-83 when Osborne was the coach, and Joe Paterno told the media on Monday that he was looking forward to seeing him. He got his chance later in the day, and the two posed for pictures with Delany at the podium.

"Some people wanted people that were really old in the same picture,'' Osborne said.
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