big ten expansion

Now for a game of keepaway. [Bryan Fuller]

The conference is meeting this week to figure out its 2024+ scheduling. It seems they're already leaning towards doing away with divisions, and now only need to decide how to protect rivalries. So let's discuss the different ways they might do things, what's best for fans, the conference, and Michigan.

DIVISIONS?

Seem to be a dead letter. The result of the February meeting established two core tenets for their scheduling, in order:

  1. Do whatever we can to get teams in the (12-team) College Football Playoff.
  2. Every four-year player should get to play on every B10 campus at least once.

This was well-received, and means they are almost certainly heading towards a divisionless system with a championship game. Removing divisions effectually takes Big Ten teams from their current six protected rivalries to between one and three, freeing up those games to see the rest of their conference opponents.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME? SHOWCASE?!?!

Now would be a good time to implement my alternate conference Plus-one plan. To reiterate, the most basic version of the plan is you play the top three conference games that weren't played and determine the champion by final record. Benefits:

  1. It's two more good games to broadcast.
  2. A clearer and more deserving conference champion.
  3. No chance of replaying Michigan-Ohio State a week after The Game.

When I presented the plan I ran through every year since 2008, and most of the time the Showcase 1 game was the de facto conference championship and matched the same two teams who played. Without divisions they're also probably stuck playing these at neutral sites, which I don't like, but is probably more palatable to the conference.

[After THE JUMP: What the rivalries would look like, what's the future?]

Somewhat relevant, I promise [Bryan Fuller]

HI. Let's get back on the horse. Hello, horse.

Local politics bits. I won't be writing a full-fledged endorsement post this year largely because two other people have done the work for me. I endorse the endorsements of Damn Arbor and Brandon Dimcheff. If you are an Ann Arbor resident please check those posts out; over the past two years we've seen a sitting councilmember drop a homosexual slur because he was mad at a local reporter for supposedly taking unflattering zoom screenshots of him; his faction on city council declined to even slap him on the wrist. There are two toxic CMs running for re-election in Wards 4 and 5 who need to get the boot.

Oh so that happened. The Big Ten added some schools, as you may have heard. USC and UCLA will get a full revenue distribution immediately, unlike Maryland and Rutgers. This is because uh well:

…the price tag for the Big Ten’s rights will exceed $1 billion, first reported earlier this year. Interestingly, Ourand claims that the additions of UCLA and USC to the conference could result in the rights fees increasing “more than 15%,” which would be (at least) another $150 million.

I'm long past the point where I look at this as good news since it doesn't seem to do anything to help close the gap with the SEC but does presage even more commercial breaks. If all that TV money didn't help Michigan retain Erik Bakich when a school getting relatively pathetic ACC money came in, what's it really going to do for fans?

I am in broad agreement with the Ringer's Kevin Clark:

College football, I believe, is not built on TV markets and cable sub fees. It is built on crisp, perfect fall days, and pure spite. College football is propelled by a type of fury that is completely unintelligible to anyone who does not experience it. Fury at your rival, their coach, your own coach, the people who make recruiting rankings, the people you work with who once taunted you after the wrong loss. It is about the most American force possible: vague, mostly unexplained hostility toward your coworkers and neighbors.

Most people have never set foot on their rival’s campus—some fans have never set foot on their own team’s campus—and yet college football is their favorite thing in the world. Not, crucially, because it’s a farm system for the NFL, or even because it makes them happy: The only real goal is for your rival to be more miserable than you are.

I guess it'll be fun to play USC and UCLA occasionally, but I'd rather lose 13-11 to Iowa. Is this a cry for help? No. Probably not. Maybe.

[After THE JUMP: Oh hi, Ono.]

1 hour and 10 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, SignalWire (use the code MUPPETS), Prentice 4M, where we recorded this, Team Fan Club, and introducing The View from the Cheap Seats podcast by the Sklars, who join us for the Hot Takes segments. Please go subscribe and like their podcast,and leave your hot takes about this game in the reviews.

1. Remembering Gary Moeller

starts at 1:00

Welcome to a very special mid-summer podcast which starts out with a discussion of the corn in France. Brian and Seth reflect on the sad passing of Gary Moeller, who passed away last week at the age of 81. Gary was a very important step in the modernization of Michigan football, particularly the offense, and left the program in such a state when he left that they were able to win a national championship in two years. Listen to the "coach's audio" of Desmond's 4th and 1 against Notre Dame in which Gary Moeller asks a very important question. Rest in peace, Gary.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]