Big Ten Meetings, Brought To You By Barbasol And Facepalm

Yes, who in the B1G is getting the incentive ($) to say these things? Why would you give away a home field advantage and reward your fans? Why not at least negotiate?

FWIW, I thought it was Brian that wrote this article at first. Well done ACE.

Personally, as a Michigan alumn, the prospect of returning to the big house for a cold playoff game in Ann Arbor is far more appealing than a generic warm weather neutral site game. I'd even prefer visiting an opposing stadium.

Outside of sites with tradition (Rose Bowl), the neutral site locations are terrible. I hate Florida, Arizona, Southern California, Texas, etc.

Ace, do you think the main reason that the B1G coaches and ADs don't want to lose the Rose Bowl is because of the massive pressure Hollis and others are putting on Delany? For example, the idea that MSU's last Rose Bowl bid being 1988, has to eat at their inner core.

This is part of the reason why everybody laughs at the Big Ten

When even Adam Rittenberg is openly mocking the Big 10, it's a clear sign that they're doing it wrong.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/50184/big-ten-to-discuss-tie-in-with-pinstripe-bowl

So earlier this morning I sent Dave Brandon an email about this issue, just to make my loud and irritable voice heard, and this was the meat of his response:

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If anyone still believes that the game should be about the student-athletes (And, I do!), then they would quickly learn how much the players look forward to traveling to unique locations where many of them have never been ... being greeted by a host committee who treats them great ... playing in special venues and often in nice weather ... and, having a unique experience to end their season. I understand why most fans like to only think about "the fan experience," but I weigh the student-athlete experience heavily in any of these discussions.

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I suppose it would be pretty fantastic to be treated like the players are treated during their bowl games, but as dropping attendance shows, the fans (and their money) are losing interest more each year... I would think that as a student-athlete, playing for a place in the national championship game in front of your home fans in your own stadium wouldn't be so bad. Surely not a bad trade; as a player, you gain home team advantage and play in front of a sellout crowd (instead of tens of thousands of empty seats) in return for the lack of pampering.

They don't want to play football in the cold, which makes them wimpier than most of us were when we were eight years old. 

to see these half empty semifinal sites. I'm guessing most fans will be saving their money to see if the team gets into a title game rather than spend money on a semi-final game.  

would be vastly preferable to the current setup - it will at least be a true neutral site game and we will finally be able to test the theory of how well SEC teams perform outside of the south

The Bears and the Packers play outdoors in winter.  There are domes in Indy, Minny and some town east of Ann Arbor.  While I'm truly sorry the Midwest lacks a Disney facility, the region does have football stadiums that are suitable for playoffs.  They just aren't being used appropriately and responsibility reposes with the suits.  Consider the economic benefits and drive for playoff and marquis games here please, DB.  Sheesh.

There's something very familiar about all of this.

What is it I'm thinking of? It's at the tip of my fingers...

Oh, yes. Neville Chamberlain capitulating to you-know-who and declaring "peace for our time" in 1938.

The B1G has a lot of leverage and is throwing it all away for an occasional Rose Bowl trip. Great news! We get to watch B1G teams lose the Rose Bowl instead of occasionally win national championships. Honestly, the overstretched fans of B1G teams are going to start rebelling with their wallets if we get left out in the cold again.

I just deleted a long rant about how ridiculout this is. I think invoking Godwin's Law pretty much sums it up, though.

They are just having a good old time brainstorming and sending out random thoughts over the twitter waves. Life is grand.

I'm all for the Alaska Bowl. Basking in the shadows of Mt. McKinley.

Or how about the Kamchatka Bowl sponsored by the board game Risk

but one thing that executives, advertisers, stadium owners, (aka ,the money) like when setting this stuff up is to know months ahead of time where and when the event is. we talk all year long about where the super bowl is or the national title game or the ncaa finals. the way college football works, the big ten would need to organize a game on one of 12 campuses in 3 weeks. while this seems simple to us, it essentially means that every year there would need to be big ten plans in place for 12 games, one at each conference, meaning all sorts of contract issues, since it would be the conference and not the university paying and that gets into all sorts of logistical nightmares.

if not on campus, you are asking the owners of, lets just say, the lucas oil dome in indy to save a date for something that may or may not happen. so, don't have that boat show or monster truck thing, because if michigan can win the championship game and lsu loses their conference game but georgia loses to florida by a wide margin, michigan may host the regional 2-3 game if the voting turns out right and we will need someone there to sell 20,000 t-shirts and pretzels.

the easiest part of stuff like this is not saying how it should work, its actually figuring out how it can work with the infrastructure you have to work with.

That isn't even the most horrifying thing DB said today:

According to Mark Snyder:

Dave Brandon at Big Ten AD meetings on many topics: FB jerseys will have single rollout explaining what will happen game by game for 2012

So, to be clear, we need an actual rollout to know which jersey goes with which game, which means there are at least, at minimum, three jerseys and potentially more.  Ye gods man.

The Brand.  The Brand.  The Brand.

But wouldn't home playoff semis recreate the problem of trying to choose who deserves the number 2 and number 3 seed?  I realize that playing an away playoff game is better than being left out completely, but still, that's a huge competitive advantage being given to a team based off of what has been deemed arbitrary in years past. Can someone explain this to me?

everyone had to travel to the most distant part of the states to play in their bowl or championship playoff series. That would take care of the advantage to the sec or left coast or anywhere else. Pick the best locations on the warmest areas of the country. Everybody takes a holiday and see who has the fanbase. Just my idea.

"Frankly, we will never get schools outside the midwest (particularly southern schools) to travel to the mid-west in January to play football. And, the impact on the current bowl system would be very negative - and that is not in the best interest of our student-athletes (who this is all supposed to be about!)"

I think they know, after already having preliminary hearings, that the other conferences aren't going to go for homefield sites.  That being the case, might as well fight for the second-best thing, which is a strong Rose Bowl, I guess. 

I still would prefer that the other conferences have to say publicly that they're too wimpy to come up north to play football.  But, that's not the way it's going to go down, I guess....

Why not break the country down into 4 regions, let sites bid for the right to host the playoffs in the region and let the BCS conferences approve the site choice by a vote? That way the southern schools can assure it's done in Indy or Detroit with no weather. Yet local fans could still drive to the games and get the majority of the tickets.

Bidding would create another profit center you'll never get from a bowl which basically just leaches TV money in exchange for use of their stadium.  Trust me, those cities will treat these players like rock stars and it won't cost the schools all the money it does currently for bowl games.

Also trust me, the mere possibility that these stadiums could host these events will cause them to gladly not book any events for that weekend.   

It's funny how otherwise big thinkers from some of these BCS schools suddenly start thinking real small and relying on the most tired of silly arguments to justify the bad outcome they want.  They are playing us for fools.

They'd keep playing us for fools with the current system forever if we weren't turning off their "BCS Bowls" in record numbers. That's the only reason were seeing 4 team playoff. Because ESPN and the like told them they aren't going to pay the big dollars for another 10 years of meaningless games without more meat on the table.

These turkeys only play the student athlete experience card when it suits their ends.

i am not really on board with the idea that weather would be much of a determining factor in games played at big ten stadiums. home crowds, yes, weather notsomuch.

what is the impact of bad weather on denard turning the corner or throwing the ball? what is the impact of bad weather on nebraska's pitch happy offense? what is the impact of bad weather on meyer's spread? what is the impact of bad weather on alabama's power running game and agressive defense?

wisconsin and michigan state, at this point, are really the teams whose style of play would benefit from the opponents being in cold weather, since they both play ball control, power running games with sturdy defenses.

Perhaps another unspoken reason the BiG is easing on home bowls is recruiting would suffer.  In the NFL, draft/trades predominantly define a player’s destination, whereas, stating the obvious, it is purely elective for elite talent selecting their college team.  Homer high school talent wouldn’t be impacted, but for that large portion of elite talent that migrates cross country, home bowls would:

Remove one arrow from the BiG’s recruiting quiver – “Aaaah warm January 1 in L.A. with perks and feasts and all that Rose Bowl tradition.”

Move said arrow to the SEC/ACC/Big12’s recruiting quiver – “Dear High School Blue Chip,  why would you want to play for UM or Ohio if at the end of a great season your reward is freezing your ass January 1 in the Big House or the Shoe?  Come our way where you can bask in January warmth, sun and fun.”

Diabeetus’ purported response from DBrandon indicates such a focus not on fans, but on the student-athlete.   Negative impact on national recruiting may also thus be an underlying concern, and I doubt countering with "If you're too pussy to want to play in our tundra in January vs LA or Miami we don't want you" will do much to improve BiG recruiting rankings.

I still say that a B1G fan who is facing (for example):

Indianapolis in early December for the B1G Championship game

Pasadena on January 1st for the semifinal

Miami on January 14th for the National Championship

or an SEC fan who is also facing

Atlanta / New Orleans / Miami

Isn't going to make all 3 of those games.  Unless you are retired, a 1%'er, and have an extremely accomodating wife, you aren't going to all 3 of those games.

TV ratings will be through the roof, but come on.  I was at the Sugar Bowl, and I couldn't believe that a 10-2 Michigan team playing in an awesome city after three years of misery couldn't sell out the building.  As much as I loved the experience, there's no way I could justify two of those trips in one year.

These AD's and conference commissioners are crazy.