STrib: Big Ten football coaches comment on possible realignment

Or on the flip side, hope it's really easy, you go undefeated and win the conference championship. No unbeaten P5 team has been left out of the playoff...

Maybe. I just think going undefeated is really hard to do regardless of your schedule. Having a very tough schedule can allow you to have a mulligan.
 

Maybe. I just think going undefeated is really hard to do regardless of your schedule. Having a very tough schedule can allow you to have a mulligan.

ONLY if there aren’t four other undefeated P5 champs and/or Notre Dame to steal the bids away from you. If you get in a tie with other 1 loss champs, then the strength of schedule is huge. But the argument always ends up lopsided in favor of the SEC and Notre Dame because they end up playing so many ranked teams during they season.
 

Honestly, I think I like the idea of pod/protected games better than divisions (I think Bill Connelly wrote an article about it). You have three other teams you play every year, and then cycle through the rest in the big ten in an even way. Does that help OSU of Mich make the CFP? No, but I think it's a better system than the current one where we go years without playing certain teams....

100%. Pods are the way to go.
 

ONLY if there aren’t four other undefeated P5 champs and/or Notre Dame to steal the bids away from you. If you get in a tie with other 1 loss champs, then the strength of schedule is huge. But the argument always ends up lopsided in favor of the SEC and Notre Dame because they end up playing so many ranked teams during they season.

Only 6 of the 20 teams to ever get in the playoffs were undefeated. The other 14 had 1 loss before the playoffs started. Having 3 undefeated teams last year was unusual (at least to this point).
 

Ok, this what I propose if the Big Ten add two teams and changes alignment.

Big Ten Classic

1.) Michigan
2.) Minnesota
3.) Wisconsin
4.) Iowa
5.) Illinois
6.) Northwestern
7.) Purdue
8.) Indiana

Big Ten New Schools

1.) Penn State
2.) Ohio State
3.) Maryland
4.) Rutgers
5.) Nebraska
6.) Michigan State
7.) New School #1
8.) New School #2
 


Only 6 of the 20 teams to ever get in the playoffs were undefeated. The other 14 had 1 loss before the playoffs started. Having 3 undefeated teams last year was unusual (at least to this point).

But all the more reason why the Big Ten would like to have the best chance at an undefeated champion every year.
 

The West is getting stronger - will be a free-for-all this season. No reason to change East-West setup
 




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