How I Would Schedule a 20 Team Big Ten
I kind of hate this all, but in looking for some silver lining, I came up with this idea for how to schedule a 20 Team B1G in football. Basic idea is four 5 team pods. Each year you get your 9 games by playing the other 4 in your pod plus all 5 from a different pod. Championship game is the best record from each set of paired pods since they'll have identical schedules.
The part I'm most exited about is creating two pods that consist of the 50s - 80s version of the Big Ten. To make this work, I picked Oregon, Washington, Duke, and UNC as the last 4 in.
East: Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Duke, UNC
Central: Michigan, MSU, OSU, Indiana, Purdue
North, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern
West: UCLA, USC, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska
The Big Twenty (aka big ten 2.0)
The Big Twenty
The Humungus. This was Delaney's fever dream.
Again, it's an awfully B1G assumption that ACC teams are going to be able to exit that conference and avoid the huge financial penalty for breaking their GOR commitment.
Very true, now ND on the other hand....
To hell with Notre Dame!!! They’ve had multiple chances. Let them take their chances with independence or sell their souls and align with the SEC.
this. let them sit with their NBC deal and stay independent. i don't want the fig things in the B1G
If the B1G and SEC want teams from the ACC, they'll get them without much difficulty, just like coach's' buyouts didn't stop coaches from changing schools and luxury taxes don't stop teams like my Dodgers from having heavy payrolls. They just figure out the costs into the transaction of it all.
yes, but the schools financial folks may think that paying $50 million (what i've seen it will cost to leave) to exit now and getting in on the $80-100 million a year tv deal (estimate per school I heard on ESPN last night) for the next 10 years might be a good move for the future.
I believe all acc schools are getting ~$35 million a year or less at the moment (estimated to be ~$60 million per year in 2029).
stand pat, and in 10 years you made ~$475 million.
pay $50 million to leave, and in 10 years you'll have $750 million (assuming $80 million per year).
paying $50 million now to profit almost $300 million more over the next 10 years is music to the school budget's ears.
I'm in the same boat as you. Hate it but think the scheduling could be interesting. With twenty teams, i think you could do 1 Perma rival and 10 conference games we'd see every campus over 4 years.
I'll bite and JMO.
Duke and UNC are not plausible. It's still currently a hypothetical Mason Dixon line thing.
Pitt, Cincy or anything in the true Midwest/West are game on. The ACC took the poison pill but doesn't mean they can't be bought out.
At this point, isn't EVERYTHING plausible?
As Craig said on the podcast last year - go for the University of Toronto.
AAU member, hockey power, wonderful city and football would happen fast with all the resources. Become the first International power conference.
All of the above are Craig’s ideas.
Agree but I do think Virginia/Virginia Tech are somewhat more plausible from their perspective. They pull a lot of kids from the the Northeast and I don't think they would be as disgusted to join the North.
I laughed at "disgusted", only because it's true.
They may join if the division was called Atlantic. That would lead to Great Lakes, Pacific, and something tied into water for the other divisions. Mississippi something?
Flood Plains?
What Louisiana school are we getting to legitimize that name?
We already dipped below the Mason-Dixon Line by adding Maryland. Plus, the South surrendered in Virginia. So, it'd be kinda poetic for the Northern Conference to take Virginia again.
Give me some more traction out of that “Finish what Sherman Started M” shirt I had made for the orange bowl.
Or we surprise everyone and grab Hawaii to own the Pacific Ocean!!!
Don't know exactly how the rest of alignment shakes out, but I'm not feeling the conference pods you proposed, particularly for football where you'll likely play roughly half of the 20 team conference at most a given season with non-conference scheduling.
East is basically the Penn St zone. UNC are very hit or miss in the ACC as is and the remaining 3 are solidly below average in football.
Meanwhile Central has both Michigan and Ohio St, with MSU/Purdue/Indiana being solidly better than Rutgers/Maryland/Duke at the very least. Michigan/Michigan St are both further North than the likes of Illinois/Northwestern/Iowa.
As much flak as Rutgers gets for being in the Big 10, they at least (theoretically) bring a media market and are fine academically. If we were to kick a school, Nebraska has been a preferred boot, since they lost AAU status, don't bring a media market, have been culturally been a weird fit as basically all of their rivals are in classically Big 12 and have been scattered in places that aren't the Big 10. Obviously we're not contracting, but they're gonna be weird to fit in unless we take in something like Colorado/Kansas, which I would prefer to take more west coast teams. I struggled to place them the most.
With that we could do:
East: OSU, Penn St, Maryland, Rutgers, Pitt (AAU/Penn St Rivalry built in, and the more you look at the pickings, the more you see the Northeast just doesn't have compelling options)
Great Lakes: Michigan, MSU, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana
Great Plains: Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska
West: USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Utah (would prefer Stanford, but I'd imagine they would like to come with Cal, and I think the Oregon/Washington pairing is more expansive than 2 more California teams).
Obviously it's not perfect, but it does an okay job balancing each pod's strength while preserving regions mostly. I mostly would like if OSU/Penn St can counter balance in the East, particularly since that's going to be the softest region otherwise if Maryland and Rutgers are built in.
That west is too big. You may want a Pacific division: USC, UCLA, CAL, Stanford, OR, and WA. Then west: AZ, ASU, UT, CO WAST, and ORST.
Though I prefer Megumin's schedule & reasoning, kudos to Kilgore Trout for getting the ball rolling.
...and we thought this was going to be a very boring summer...
I imagine Penn State and Wisconsin would love this alignment, but the Central and West Divisions look brutal.
Let's trade Nebraska for Tiger Woods and the Wu Tang.
Those pods look fine, but you have to figure out how to schedule it. In my system at least remember that each pod is only half of a division in any given year. The only year where it seems like it could get pretty off balance would be the year the east and north are together, but that's only a third of the time. And in this system every three years you get the original B1G as a division.
I would say UM and MSU should be in the north. OSU could be in the east. IA and IL would be in the central.
I still would like OSU and Michigan to be in the same division and Sparty can land wherever because f&@k them.
If you do a pod system (which isn't the only option) you need UM and OSU to be in the same pod or they don't play every year. I assume that is something we all want.
The BIG could also go to 22 schools. There can be a 3-6-6-6 format: 3 permanent rivals, cycle through 6 other teams per season. See every team within 3 years.
The additional 6 teams (sorry PAC):
Oregon, Washington, Stanford, Cal, Notre Dame, Colorado
2 rivals for everyone:
- MICHIGAN: OSU, MSU, Rutger
- MICHIGAN STATE: Michigan, Penn State, Indiana
- OHIO STATE: Michigan, Penn State, Illinois
- PENN STATE: OSU, MSU, Maryland
- MARYLAND: Penn State, Rutger, Indiana
- RUTGERS: Maryland, Northwestern, Michigan
- INDIANA: Purdue, MSU, Maryland
- PURDUE: Indiana, Illinois, Notre Dame
- ILLINOIS: Northwestern, OSU, Purdue
- NORTHWESTERN: Illinois, Rutger, Wisconsin
- WISCONSIN: Minnesota, Iowa, Northwestern
- MINNESOTA: Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska
- IOWA: Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin
- NEBRASKA: Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota
- COLORADO: Nebraska, UCLA, Washington
- NOTRE DAME: USC, Stanford, Purdue
- USC: Notre Dame, UCLA, Oregon
- UCLA: USC, Colorado, Cal
- STANFORD: Cal, Notre Dame, Oregon
- CAL: Stanford, UCLA, Washington
- OREGON: Washington, Stanford, USC
- WASHINGTON: Oregon, Cal, Colorado
I will go out on a limb and say the B1G is done expanding (this round). They got the big fish, everyone else short of GT/FSU, and maybe VA/Clemson does nothing for the media rights compared to what we have now.
It's perfect for Pods too:
USC, UCLA, Illinois, NW (travel through Chicago and Soldier Field games for LA teams)
Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota (quadrilateral of hate)
Indiana, Purdue, Penn State, Maryland (Ind/Pur rivalry, PSU/Maryland old rivals)
Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Rutgers.(our rivals and the sacrifice)
The logjam for possible Michigan schedules has long been THE 3 States: the perennially tough THE State, the angry rival MSU, and, in most configurations, the Pen State seemed necessary.
But with this blockbuster news, and more changes looming, I'm starting to think that Michigan State may not be necessary. After all, the Big TEN has long been gone, and though we accepted it was still the same, that pretense no longer applies.
So maybe it's time to let Staee stew in its own juices, and accept that it's now only one of many rivals. Being from the same state is barely more compelling for a rivalry than 2 traditionally smash-mouth teams (UM & Wisconsin), 2 academically elite teams (UM & Northwestern), 2 rival states (UM & THE), or 2 famously traditional powers (UM & USC).
I agree that the forced marriage to Staee needs to end. As strange as it is there are simply too many teams involved to continue playing them every year just because. I know it is basketball and things are different but we only play OSU once a year some seasons whereas we now always play Staee twice a year. It is clear OSU is our real football rival with Staee being our real basketball rival.
The Sparty meltdown would be glorious. I’d be down for it. Of course, the MSU narrative would be Harbaugh is ducking Tucker.
EDIT: Duplication
I think ACC teams are contractually obligated to stay in the conference for the next 15 years or so. To get them to leave would cost an absolutely obscene amount of money.
My understanding was that even if you got them out, the buy-out at this point in time would almost result in a Pyrrhic victory for the B1G.
Never underestimate the power of money. You have to imagine at this point Clemson has already had their lawyers look for a way out just in case and are ready to use it if needed.
Another option I read, that these big changes simply overwhelm the ACC and it breaks up, leaving all those individual ions looking to bond somewhere.
I don't think that the difficult part is leaving. I think that is easy. The poison pill I believe is that the ACC owns the media rights to the various schools until 2034. So, if say Clemson goes to the SEC, their media share money from the SEC would go to the ACC and the ACC would just pocket that money.
We'll call it "The Big One" from now on. Somehow this ends with Kevin Warren wandering around a press box, challenging people from other conferences to play in his own - "You want the Big One? I've got the Big One!"
The B2G vs SEC for global supremacy!!😂
How about we go with two divisions of 10. Then we could call one division the Big 10 and the other division the Little 10. Each year the bottom 2 teams in the Big 10 play the Top 2 teams from the Little 10. Winners are promoted or stay in the Big 10 and the losers go to the Little 10. The top 2 teams in the Big 10 play in a conference championship game.
This is complete sarcasm but it at least makes it feel like they are two separate conferences.
You could call one Division the Big Ten, then the other one could be the Pac Ten. At the end of the season they could play in the Rose Bowl.
Wait a minute....
PERFECT!
So Oregon and Washington are definite takes.
Stanford and Cal give you the Bay Area TV market, though for competitive reasons, I'd rather have Arizona (basketball) and ASU (hockey/baseball).
Now, where it gets interesting is, can we dump Nebraska for ND? That would solve the academic and culture/rivalry issues.
The Big Ten could change the paradigm by adding Notre Dame, Washington, Oregon, and Stanford. Then create a relegation and promotion system of 2 divisions of 10. The bottom 2 from the top division are relegated to the lower division and the top 2 from the lower division are promoted to the top division. The third place and third from last in each division play in a playoff promotion relegation battle for the next years spot in the top division. This system simplifies scheduling and adds infinitely more intrigue to the regular season at the top and bottom of the standings in each league. An end of the season game between USC and Penn St to stay in the top division would do massive ratings.
Can the new BIG have a salary cap? Some way to create an equal playing field for all teams?
dear willirwin1778,
no.
sincerely,
AN ohio state university
How about an NFL Lite schedule if we go to 20 teams...
5 divisions - 4 teams each
Play your own division every year (3 games)
Play one other full division every year (4 games)
Play the other 3 teams that finished in the same place as you (1st plays other 1sts, etc) (3 games)
It does create a 10 game conference schedule but those 1st place matchups are GOLD! It also means you play every team in the conference every 4 years guaranteed and will host every team in the conference every 8 years guaranteed.
With 4 pods could we do a mini 4 team playoff pitting the pod champs facing off for the BigTen title?