What a Big 10 & Big 8 Merger would have looked like

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Nice! This is a fun post. Would these be the most realistic protected/pod games in that case? I don't know much about the histories involving the Big 8 and their traditional rivalries.
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He excluded Colorado, which is one thing, but also excluded Northwestern? Not a thing.

If we're playing that game, I would have kept Colo and NW, added PSU, and excluded Okla State, giving pairs of:
Neb - OU
Colorado - K-State
KU - Mizzou
Iowa - IA St
Minn - Wisc
ILL - NW
Pur - IU
Mich - OSU
MSU - PSU

If somehow forced to take Okla State as well, then I'd target Arkansas as an ideal geographical pair for them. Keep in mind, this was 1985 before TV took over everything.


Oh and, of course, have forced Okla State to add (women's) volleyball. One of only 2 or 3(??) P5 schools that don't have the sport, with Vanderbilt finally adding it soon.
 

mngg11 said:
Nice! This is a fun post. Would these be the most realistic protected/pod games in that case? I don't know much about the histories involving the Big 8 and their traditional rivalries.
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My perception was that Missouri was more of a rivalry game for Kansas than Kansas St.

Also Missouri and Illinois has had a boarder clash basketball game in St Louis, so that may have made more sense.

Not sure why Northwestern is not pictured.
 



Ope3 said:
My perception was that Missouri was more of a rivalry game for Kansas than Kansas St.

Also Missouri and Illinois has had a boarder clash basketball game in St Louis, so that may have made more sense.

Not sure why Northwestern is not pictured.
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Agreed.

If the Big 8 and Big 10 were going to merge in 1985, then they would've merged ... you know, all Eight of them together with all Ten of them.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Agreed.

If the Big 8 and Big 10 were going to merge in 1985, then they would've merged ... you know, all Eight of them together with all Ten of them.
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Yeah, that seems most likely unless there was some mythical ceiling level of 16 teams in a conference.
 


It would not have been a good academic fit.
 





I think the best version of this would put Penn State and Pitt in and leave Oklahoma and Oklahoma State out.
 




short ornery norwegian said:
the OP clearly says "State Schools" - so I assume that is why Northwestern is not included.

I suspect the goal was to come up with a 16-team midwestern conference.
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I missed the "state" part, but that's still just silly because he arbitrarily lopped off state school Colorado.

16 wasn't anything back in 1985. The SEC hadn't even expanded to 12 yet at that time, when they became the first conference to have two divisions and play a championship game.

The WAC expanded to a 16 team conference in 1996. And the eight biggest schools promptly left to form the Mountain West.



I don't think mega-conferences were a glint in anyone's eye back in 1985. The thing that largely supports/creates them now, TV money, wasn't there yet.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
the OP clearly says "State Schools" - so I assume that is why Northwestern is not included.

I suspect the goal was to come up with a 16-team midwestern conference.
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Colorado was left out too. Would make more sense to kick out K-State and keep Colorado.
 

Ope3 said:
Yeah, that seems most likely unless there was some mythical ceiling level of 16 teams in a conference.
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It’s pretty odd people assume 16 is the default model.

If 16 because more money made, then why not 20? 24? 32?
 

Gophers_4life said:
I missed the "state" part, but that's still just silly because he arbitrarily lopped off state school Colorado.

16 wasn't anything back in 1985. The SEC hadn't even expanded to 12 yet at that time, when they became the first conference to have two divisions and play a championship game.

The WAC expanded to a 16 team conference in 1996. And the eight biggest schools promptly left to form the Mountain West.



I don't think mega-conferences were a glint in anyone's eye back in 1985. The thing that largely supports/creates them now, TV money, wasn't there yet.
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If it was just to keep an even number of state schools, I suppose Colorado would somewhat make sense to leave out just for being the only team outside the Central/Eastern Time Zones.

At least that might have been logical in 1985. In 2024 the Conference is leapfrogging over the Rockies into the Pacific Time Zone.
 

Some guy said:
It’s pretty odd people assume 16 is the default model.

If 16 because more money made, then why not 20? 24? 32?
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It will likely happen sometime in the next decade or two.
 

I prefer what has actually happened over this exercise.
 

So they would have kicked out Northwestern and the Chicago market? Stupidly stupid concept.

This makes 0 sense. Nice clickbait.
 

It’d be more perfect if the Big8 and Big10 were the same independent conferences that they were in 1985.
 

btowngopher said:
It’d be more perfect if the Big8 and Big10 were the same independent conferences that they were in 1985.
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The Big East could easily still be a Power conference in football today, if Penn State had joined it in 1991 instead of Temple.

Their eight football teams then would've been: BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami (FL), Rutgers, WV, VT, and Penn State. Notre Dame joins in 95 or perhaps earlier in this scenario, to round them out at 12 members non-football.

Would be interesting to see how the history evolved from there.
 


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