BREAKING: Oregon & Washington joining Big Ten, becoming latest schools to leave Pac-12



Absolutely need to get to 20 - it makes too much sense. Stanford for sure - and Notre Dame. If not Notre Dame - how about Cincinnati? 4 divisions of 5 teams. Something along this line

View attachment 26267

In Football, you play your pod and then all the teams in another pod for 9 games. Switch pods every year. So you play everyone at least 1 time per 4 years. Pod winners play off for the championship - including a 3rd place game as that might mean another team in the playoffs. The only downside - no OFFICIALLY scheduled Ohio State - Michigan. But how many times do you think they play in the 4 team playoff? (Answer - Lots)

In basketball, home and away with your pod - then 2 pods (1 home, 1 away). Switch pods every year. 18 game conference. Then I'd do a POD playoff to get 2 teams from each pod to the B1G tournament.

All the other sports work similar to basketball.

Less travel. Lots of games in every time zone for TV. Nearly all the traditional rivals remain intact.

Way too much sense - so It will never happen.
It will be ND, no fckgway they accept Cincinnati! We just raided one of the most storied conferences of their powerhouse programs and you want to settle for Cinni? I bet the B1G could even steal a powerhouse from the SEC!
 

Absolutely need to get to 20 - it makes too much sense. Stanford for sure - and Notre Dame. If not Notre Dame - how about Cincinnati? 4 divisions of 5 teams. Something along this line

View attachment 26267

In Football, you play your pod and then all the teams in another pod for 9 games. Switch pods every year. So you play everyone at least 1 time per 4 years. Pod winners play off for the championship - including a 3rd place game as that might mean another team in the playoffs. The only downside - no OFFICIALLY scheduled Ohio State - Michigan. But how many times do you think they play in the 4 team playoff? (Answer - Lots)

In basketball, home and away with your pod - then 2 pods (1 home, 1 away). Switch pods every year. 18 game conference. Then I'd do a POD playoff to get 2 teams from each pod to the B1G tournament.

All the other sports work similar to basketball.

Less travel. Lots of games in every time zone for TV. Nearly all the traditional rivals remain intact.

Way too much sense - so It will never happen.

Even though I hate this realignment and the poaching of the Pac-12, I agree that it now makes too much sense to go to 20. I think the only way Stanford gets invited is if Notre Dame requires it. Obviously the Big Ten would move mountains to get ND in the conference. I'd bet that it's going to be two of Clemson/Virgina/North Carolina. I know that football makes more than basketball, but I'm also not so sure North Carolina would leave Duke in the dust so easily. I think they would struggle with that decision. That is the biggest rivalry in college basketball, and I think that means something still. They could play a non-conference game every year, but that doesn't always happen if feathers are ruffled.
 

most of the talk has been about football - but this shakes up the B1G in hoops.

looking at last season's Pac-12 standings -
UCLA 1st (31-6 overall)
USC 3rd (22-11 overall)
Oregon 4th (21-15 overall)
Washington 9th (16-16 overall)

so the B1G is adding 3 of the top 4 teams from the old Pac-12. that makes the B1G a pretty damn solid hoops conference.

Meanwhile, the Big-12 gets
Arizona 2nd (28-7 overall)
----maybe Arizona State 5th (23-13)
---maybe Utah 7th (17-15)
Colorado 8th (18-17)
Men's Hoops is so screwed.

At least, Women's Hoops had Whalen know she was in over her head, so she got out while the getting out was good.

Ben is piloting the Hindenberg right into the sharp pointy object.
 



It really is. We had modest realignment in the 1990s (Penn State, a few others around the country), it accelerated a tad in the early 2000's (Nebraska, Colorado, a few others, fine). Then Big Ten Network comes in and college sports is changed for the worse forever. Expansion rapidly increases, NIL, Portal, expansion increases again and here we are, with Oregon and Rutgers in the same conference. Sigh.

What made college sports special was regional rivalries, tradition, etc. This is not "old man yelling at clouds" this is a self-inflicted seismic change in the landscape of college sports, all driven by TV deals.

Go Gophers!!
 
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Transfer Portal will be replaced by intra-League trading.
Players will be allowed to change teams at halftime.
 

Absolutely need to get to 20 - it makes too much sense. Stanford for sure - and Notre Dame. If not Notre Dame - how about Cincinnati? 4 divisions of 5 teams. Something along this line

View attachment 26267

In Football, you play your pod and then all the teams in another pod for 9 games. Switch pods every year. So you play everyone at least 1 time per 4 years. Pod winners play off for the championship - including a 3rd place game as that might mean another team in the playoffs. The only downside - no OFFICIALLY scheduled Ohio State - Michigan. But how many times do you think they play in the 4 team playoff? (Answer - Lots)

In basketball, home and away with your pod - then 2 pods (1 home, 1 away). Switch pods every year. 18 game conference. Then I'd do a POD playoff to get 2 teams from each pod to the B1G tournament.

All the other sports work similar to basketball.

Less travel. Lots of games in every time zone for TV. Nearly all the traditional rivals remain intact.

Way too much sense - so It will never happen.
Mostly aligned with the football part (not gonna play "what if" over ND or the actual teams in each region), but I do think they would just go perfect round robin with the basketball schedule at 19 games OR make it 20 games and have you play one pod team home and away.
 

They’ll never play an odd number of conference games.

With 18 teams I could see the Big Ten maybe go to 22 games, but it seems more likely they’ll stick with 20, playing 3 teams twice & 14 teams once.
 






Men's Hoops is so screwed.

At least, Women's Hoops had Whalen know she was in over her head, so she got out while the getting out was good.

Ben is piloting the Hindenberg right into the sharp pointy object.
Lol, firing should be swift and painless, we now might grab a staff that can bring us back to mediocrity
 




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