A Better Big Ten Conference Championship

There's an old adage which says when two systems are presented that give equal results, use the simpler system. There's another saying which says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Your proposal gives an unnecessarily complicated answer to something that isn't really a problem. There's only one scenario in your example which would give us an undisputed champion. Every other result leads to a tie. 

While a rematch isn't always as exciting as a matchup between two teams that haven't played each other, it is far superior to this proposal. 

"Hey dad, how do they decide who wins the Big Ten?"

"Well son, you see, they take the top teams that haven't played each other, and...er..."

Creative thinking, OP, but keep thinking harder.

Upvote, simply because I scanned back up to the top after reading this, looked for the "I came up with an incredibly complicated solution to something that might not be a problem" tag, and found it.

EDIT: Although now I'm thinking about taking it away since the tag you were supposed to use was "i come up with an incredibly complicated solution to something that may not be a problem". That tag has all of Brian's incredibly complicated solutions

I like the creativity but don't like the proposal.  It has too many outcomes that are unsatisfying/unclear, creates some games of minimal interest (e.g., Minnesota-Indiana), and presents logistical problems since these games couldn't be determined until after the season.

I am with you in not being satisfied with the current system.  I'd much prefer [1] some shuffling across divisions and the elimination of that cross-division rival thing or [2] the removal of divisions altogether, leaving the top two teams to play in the conference championship game every season.  I'm not as bothered by the possibility of a rematch in the BTCG.

...a week after we play Ohio State.

Think about that.  Then think about it some more, then get back to me.  Just please understand; I consider the Nationwide Insurance Conference Championship Game at Lucas Oil Field on the Fox Sports Sponsored By Cadillac to be no better than a necessary evil.  And probably not even that.

It wasn't boring to watch the two teams with the best records play each other, just because they have played before.

I thought the Super Bowl where New England faced New York quite exciting, and more so because they had already met in the very important regular season.  the regular season is important because it determines who get's the easier playoff schedule.

As a fan I like to watch the games that put the strongest teams against each other.  Would I watch Michigan versus Ohio twice while giving up a Michigan vs Indiana, ummm, YES PLEASE!, and that with only one week separation between contests!

I don't really understand the hand wringing that Michigan gets the toughest schedule, and then there is a complaint that the non conference games are too easy.  Well which is it? Do you want to maximize exciting games, or decrease risk of losses?

What would really excite me is if the NCAA finally realized that they would have room for playoff games if they reduced the number of non-conference games allowed.  And we would really see some exciting schedules if the first two Non-Conference Games did NOT count toward the placement in the playoffs at the end of the season!  Then not only would Michigan have a chance of playing Alabama again after a loss in the first game of the season, it would be way more exciting at the end of the year watching the Big Ten Champion againse the SEC Champion, and all the hype about revenge, pressure on the first winner for "repeating" etc.  Yes way more exciting than watching both Umass and Air Force, no matter how many jets fly over Michigan Stadium.

I've been proposing something similar for one or two games (a "showcase") but I might flip to this idea because it is awesome and more fair.

To make it easier I suggest they just flip home/road games between the divisions each year so that the stadiums/cities/programs know far in advance they'll be hosting a game against one of three teams. All hotels etc. can be booked in advance. They would have to put the Bo Division host years the years that Michigan plays Neb-ND-OSU on the road, thus adding marquee game to the even year schedule. And tickets could be sold with season tickets so there would be little chance of not selling out, or at least they can sell the tickets on preseason hype and not just announcements at the end.

Please do this Big Ten!!!

why not just look at what other sports do to avoid rematches in the post-season? Now that I have my snarky response out of the way I'd like to point out some of the possible holes in your plan.

1) Whether this would be a 13th game or replace a non-conference game is not up for debate. You are eliminating the conference championship game as well as a non-conference game for each team.

2) Don't you think schools would much rather know how many home games they are going to have when drawing up their non-conference schedules and selling season tickets?

3) You are suggesting giving priority to intriguing matchups. Just who would make that determination? You can be assured that every school will want the extra home game. Hard to foresee any problems there.

4) How would you handle teams that are ineligible for the post-season?

5) With your 2011 pairings, a Penn State win leads to a 3-way tie. If it involved Wisconsin rather than us, it would be broken by sending the least recent team to go, MSU. How do you break a tie like that involving Nebraska?

6) After using a sample size of one, can you foresee the pairings being much less attractive some years?

7) Wouldn't a much simpler solution have been to simply make the championship game between MSU and PSU? You could say Wisconsin was ineligible since they had lost to the champion of the other division and take the highest finishing team that hadn't played them.

I don't quite understand what everybody's problem with a Championship rematch is.  I want to see the best two teams play for the title.  That's it.  There's nothing else.  You win your division, you play for the title.  If it's a rematch, then so be it.  MSU-Wisconsin was an amazing game last year.  MSU-Wisconsin part 2 was even better.  I don't want to see MSU-PSU last year just because Wisconsin already played MSU and lost.  PSU was an inferior team, lost to Wisconsin as well, and most importantly, DIDN"T WIN THEIR DIVISION.

Now some people may throw Alabama-LSU in my face and argue that it's the same situation, but it's not.  MSU-Wiso is ok, because they each won their division, and thus earned the right to play for the championship.  They didn't earn the right based on arbitrary poles or voting.  They played each team in their div. and came out on top.  Alabama did not "Come out on top".  They made it to the title game because of voting.  They didn't get it done on the field against LSU the first time, and so didn't win their division, and didn't win their conference.  They shouldn't have been eligible.  Now, let's say LSU plays USC at the beginning of the year, then at the end, USC and LSU both win their conferences and end up #1 and #2.  Then I have NO problem with a rematch because they both won their conferences.  I'd still rather see a couple undefeateds go at it, but I can at least live with this situation.

In any case, the point I'm trying to make is this.  I like the set-up the Big Ten has come up with.  It ain't broke, so don't fix it.  It's as simple as it gets, and the teams settle things on the field, which is all you can ever ask for.  Don't try to complicate things when it isn't necessary.

Another suggestion:

If we're going to make this into a 9th conference game anyway, why not put it at the start of the season? Rather than create the matchups we want at the end of the year, we could create the matchups we desire this year. That avoids all of the formalization and makes it easy enough to switch off between divisions as to who hosts it. So my whole plan would be:

BiG TEN KICKOFF WEEK: Game 1 of the conference season is a matchup of teams off their rotational schedules that we most want to see, prioritized from the top down, and decided upon following the previous year's NCAA playoffs. Home venue would switch off between the divisions, with the Bo Division's host year the year Michigan plays OSU-Neb-ND on the road. So this year's schedule:

Wisconsin @ Michigan
Illinois @ Iowa
Ohio State @ Northwestern
Penn State @ MSU
Indiana @ Minnesota
Nebraska @ Purdue

The conference would be guaranteed a high-draw game to start the season on a weekend many teams are still going through their snackycakes.