Thoughts on 1 Division?

The Big 10 West is O-fer in the Title game, 0-7. Some of the games have been competitive, but at some point the TV partners are going to want something more than a coronation of the Big 10 East as the overall Champ.

Granted, this set up as probably helped get teams (mostly Ohio St) into the CFP.

The whole Championship Game itself could go by the wayside if the CFP expands to 8 teams (or more).
The west going 0-7 in the championship game is a valid point. IMO, that has as much to do with OSU being what they currently are, versus anything else. It’s all cyclical. If they removed divisions, what is OSU’s record in championship games? Probably not any different. Not sure it accomplishes anything.

edit- Bob beat me to it!
 



If the big ten ever added two more teams I think they’d go to 4 scheduling pods and one big set of standings with top 2 going to game.

Nebraska
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa

michigan
Michigan state
Northwestern
Illinois

Indiana
Purdue
Ohio state
New team

Maryland
Rutgers
Penn state
New team




Play the 3 in your pod. 1 full other pod
Plus 1 team from the other two pods.



actually in that scheduling model we would see the 3 teams in our pod every year plus the other teams in our conference more often than we currently see the other division teams we aren’t locked with.
In 3 years you’d play every team in the conference at least once.
In 6 years you’d play every team in the conference at least once at home.
and for all but 2 schools you’d see them more than that.


that schedule design would also make it
mathematically impossible to have more than 2 unbeatens in a 9 game conference schedule even with 16 teams.
What if one of those new teams are Iowa State?
 

It's a function of adding teams to the conference. Doesn't change with no divisions. Too many teams and not enough games. Eliminating all nonconference games would help but I don't see that happening, as it would probably lead to the elimination of more than a few G5 programs, and there would be no P5 cross conference games.
It would change with no divisions. We would never go longer than 1 year without playing a team in our own conference.
 




That's largely because of Ohio State being better than everyone. The two other years were fantastic games. Since the end of the Legends/Leaders, Ohio State has lost a total of 4 Big 10 games (Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, and Iowa). This isn't an East dominating the West thing, it's an Ohio State thing.
This is valid, sure.

But practically, all you're doing is caving into the whining of teams like Penn St, Michigan, Michigan St, and Indiana that say "it's not fair, we have to play Ohio St every year, we're better than the West champ, whaaaaaa!"

If you can't beat Ohio St in the regular season, you don't deserve to get a rematch with them in the championship game. I vote no.
 

So do away with yearly rivalry games.
I would do one guaranteed rivalry for every team with ours being Wisconsin. We would no longer play Iowa every year but we would get to play for the jug in the years we don’t get to play Floyd which is an older more historic trophy anyways. Some rivalries like MSU-Michigan wouldn’t be every year but getting to play everybody more often would be worth it IMO.
 



Current 14. I would keep 2 rivals

Play 2 teams every year
2 teams you would play 3 times in 6 years and
9 teams you would play 4 times in 6 years
 

What if one of those new teams are Iowa State?

The whole point of adding teams to the conference is to get more eyeballs on BTN and other various TV packages. Iowa St does pretty much zip to move that needle.
 

The whole point of adding teams to the conference is to get more eyeballs on BTN and other various TV packages. Iowa St does pretty much zip to move that needle.
Mizzou and Vandy.
 

I would do one guaranteed rivalry for every team with ours being Wisconsin. We would no longer play Iowa every year but we would get to play for the jug in the years we don’t get to play Floyd which is an older more historic trophy anyways. Some rivalries like MSU-Michigan wouldn’t be every year but getting to play everybody more often would be worth it IMO.
It might be older and more historic, but it is broken up since divisions.

And which of the following two teams does it "make more sense" to play every year, for the Gophers:
- team A: >100k attendance per game, pays head coach $7.8M, I think is usually top 15 nationally recruiting
- team b: ~7xk attendance per game, pays head coach $4.xM, I think usually top 40 nationally recruiting?

No brainer for me.
 



Thorny issue. Merits to a few suggestions along with demerits. Tough one as to what is best for the long haul.
 

The whole point of adding teams to the conference is to get more eyeballs on BTN and other various TV packages. Iowa St does pretty much zip to move that needle.
Well, they would add ISU fans and Alumni, but more to the point they probably wouldn't add more cable systems/subscribers.
 

Current 14. I would keep 2 rivals

Play 2 teams every year
2 teams you would play 3 times in 6 years and
9 teams you would play 4 times in 6 years
Is this with 3 noncon games?
 


That's largely because of Ohio State being better than everyone. The two other years were fantastic games. Since the end of the Legends/Leaders, Ohio State has lost a total of 4 Big 10 games (Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, and Iowa). This isn't an East dominating the West thing, it's an Ohio State thing.
Right. How often has a team on the SEC east won lately. It's always Alabama (or LSU).
 

We want fewer conferences games, and fewer games against OSU.

Easier for us to win an 8 game than a 9 game schedule.
 


Mizzou would add Missouri tv sets and Vandy would let us go to Nashville for road trips (plus their tv sets I guess).

West division:
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Mizzou
Vandy
Sconnie
NW
Illinois

East:
Everyone else
 

I would mind just combining with the big 12 into a 24 team super league that negotiates contacts together.

4 divisions of 6.
The two highest ranked division winners play for the big 24 championship
The 3rd and 4th highest ranked division winners play for the big 10 championship

play your 5
Play an entire other division.
11 game conference schedule. You’d see every team twice every 6 years. You’d see your division every year.

Big Ten northeast
Rutgers
Maryland
Penn state
West Virginia
Ohio state
Michigan

big ten central
Michigan state
Northwestern
Purdue
Indiana
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Big ten west
Iowa
Iowa state
Kansas state
Nebraska
Kansas
Illinois


Big ten south
Baylor
Texas tech
Texas
Oklahoma
Ok state
TCU
 

I would mind just combining with the big 12 into a 24 team super league that negotiates contacts together.

4 divisions of 6.
The two highest ranked division winners play for the big 24 championship
The 3rd and 4th highest ranked division winners play for the big 10 championship

play your 5
Play an entire other division.
11 game conference schedule. You’d see every team twice every 6 years. You’d see your division every year.

Big Ten northeast
Rutgers
Maryland
Penn state
West Virginia
Ohio state
Michigan

big ten central
Michigan state
Northwestern
Purdue
Indiana
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Big ten west
Iowa
Iowa state
Kansas state
Nebraska
Kansas
Illinois


Big ten south
Baylor
Texas tech
Texas
Oklahoma
Ok state
TCU
You need to work us in with some schools farther south. I don't like cold weather.
 

You need to work us in with some schools farther south. I don't like cold weather.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next round of conference realignment isn’t just two major conferences agreeing to play a bunch of non conference games and negotiating tv rights to it.
ACC-big ten challenge.
 

Mizzou would add Missouri tv sets and Vandy would let us go to Nashville for road trips (plus their tv sets I guess).

West division:
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Mizzou
Vandy
Sconnie
NW
Illinois

East:
Everyone else
Missouri is not going to pay to leave the SEC and also walk away from the brand new deal that the SEC made with ESPN
 

Missouri is not going to pay to leave the SEC and also walk away from the brand new deal that the SEC made with ESPN
Honestly there aren’t a lot of good candidates for a small expansion.

you cut one more piece out of the pie you have to make the pie bigger and not many do that outside of Texas and Oklahoma who could be picked off as stand alone.

If expansion comes it will be some Oklahoma Texas for play or it’ll be a North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia Tech +1 play or some combo of that.


adding Kansas and Iowa state costs net revenue to schools in the big ten
 


Mizzou would add Missouri tv sets and Vandy would let us go to Nashville for road trips (plus their tv sets I guess).

West division:
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska
Mizzou
Vandy
Sconnie
NW
Illinois

East:
Everyone else
In 2020, no thanks.
 

The Big 10 West is O-fer in the Title game, 0-7. Some of the games have been competitive, but at some point the TV partners are going to want something more than a coronation of the Big 10 East as the overall Champ.

Granted, this set up as probably helped get teams (mostly Ohio St) into the CFP.

The whole Championship Game itself could go by the wayside if the CFP expands to 8 teams (or more).
Wisconsin has won multiple big ten title games before they went East/west

The fact of the matter is whatever division Ohio state is in the last 5 years is going to be at least 5-2.
If not for two or three plays Ohio state might be 7-0 the last 7 years
 

If we're going down the adding a team track I want to go crazy and suggest that if the B12 blew up (no reason just because) ... we add:

Texas.

Even if just on a temporary deal basis while Texas decides where to go longer term.
 




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