Is the B1G done expanding?

Submitted by DISCUSS Man on

Was watching Requiem for the Big East last night and was thinking about further B1G expansion. Is it done or is more on the way?

I personally believe 16 is the endgame. If the B1G were to add two more schools, who would you want? DISCUSS

Real Tackles Wear 77

March 6th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^

I agree that 16 is the most likely number. I wasn't a fan of the eastward expansion to start with but since it happened, I hope the next are 2 of UNC, Duke and UVA. Academic peers of UM with athletics that are strong across the board. I think it's realistic because the B1Gs TV contract is much more lucrative than the ACCs.

jmblue

March 6th, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^

I hope we're done.  Add any more teams, and the average West division team will be visiting Michigan Stadium about once a decade.

Zone Left

March 6th, 2015 at 3:10 PM ^

The only beneficiaries of continued expansion are The Rutgers and Marylands of the world.

16 is the magic playoff number that people want, but there's no benefit to the Big 10 to give away more money to bottom feeders that don't expand everyone's bottom line.

bluebyyou

March 6th, 2015 at 4:34 PM ^

Is it fair to equate Rutgers to Maryland?

Maryland is one of the bright spots in bball in the BiG this year, is a solid academic school and is no worse in football than a bunch of other Big Ten bottom feeders, with the potential to do well if they ever get their act together.

alum96

March 6th, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^

Maryland's men bball team went from ACC also ran to #2 in the Big 10 in year 1 - reminds me of what A&M did the first year in the SEC.  I believe Maryland men went to the tourney only once in a decade.  While the Big 10 is down that is pretty daunting about the BIg 10.

Also their bball women are #4 in the country and went 18-0 in the conf.

Their football team finished 3rd in the division, ahead of PSU and UM no?  But boy they suck. ;)

Maryland football is never going to be great but in a conference with Indiana, Purdue and other rotational cellar dwellars based on the decade they are a fine middle of the pack team no different than 5-6 other teams on an annual basis.

Rutgers is another story but that is an obvious long term TV market.  And I think it will help Big 10 teams recruit that area of the country - which as the Midwest weakens via population loss, is not a bad thing when you think our a few decades.

I dont love the mega conferences but outside of football I can make 100x the case for Maryland over Nebraska.  If football is your only concern than I guess you have a different arguement.

As to OP Virginia seems like a no brainer - creates a MD-VA rivalry inhouse and academically it is excellent and they have a similar type of pedigree in football as say MD or Iowa.  Basketball is picking up recently but that may be coach specific and not something you can count on long term - I think they are generally good in a few other sports (I think soccer is one).   Obviously people want NC too but yes separating NC and Duke seems improbable.  Missouri also makes sense - decent TV market in St Louis and geographically it makes sense - not sure if academically its the same fit though.

Hagen

March 6th, 2015 at 3:11 PM ^

Count me in the group that thinks we're headed to super conferences (i.e. up to 20 teams per conference).  I absolutely would rather this NOT happen, but I feel we're headed that way.  MY ideal would be stopping at 16, if we were going up anymore at all.

Let's play the hypothetical expansion game.  We're at 14 now, but let's say we're going to 20.  Who do you want to add?  The teams who are being added need to make sense as a group, make sense (to a certain degree) with the B1G, and have a likelihood of moving around if this were to happen.  I played this with some coworkers and the common thread were go after some Big 12 schools or some ACC schools (caveat was also no ND, because to Hell with Notre Dame).

Big 12 group of 6: Oklahoma, OK St, Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa City & either Cincy, Memphis, or UConn.  The Big12 schools will never be happy with Texas preventing a conference wide media deal with a more equal revenue sharing process.  I'd take UConn as the last one for more east coastness.  FYI, Iowa St and Kansas are AAUs.

ACC: VT, UVA, UNC, Duke, NC State, and then either Georgia Tech, BC, UConn, or Syracuse.  May be less likely as these schools make up a strong core of the old ACC guard, but it would definitely expand our east coast presence.

Again, I don't want this happening, I'd like to go back to 11 (I have family who go to Penn State, so having them in the B1G makes it more fun).  But if you were to go to 20, what would be your ideal choice?

LJ

March 6th, 2015 at 3:26 PM ^

20!  I have never heard that suggested.  You wouldn't be able to play even half of your conference in a given football season.  Presuming there are two divisions of 10, if you had even 1 cross-division game, you would miss teams from your own division (and that's presuming 9 conference games).  How would you even select teams for the conference championship game?

blueindy

March 6th, 2015 at 3:40 PM ^

once you hit the 16-20 range, you need to split into 4 pods, with 2 pods forming a division on an annually rotating basis. Could be done with 14 teams and the experience would be much better imo. you would play every team in the conference 2 times in a 4-5 year period at a minimum. 

Here's a pretty detailed write up someone did for the SEC when they went to 14.

https://theroommateswitch.wordpress.com

It would apply perfectly to the Big Ten, and I would love to see it happen. Not holding my breath

Wolverine Devotee

March 6th, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^

I kinda figured out a way and I actually am using the Detroit PSL Playoff format. Let me attempt to explain.

For the sake of the argument, let's say the B1G adds Cincinnati, UConn, North Carolina, Duke, Syracuse and Virginia to get to 20. 

Here are your divisions-

B1G North

Cincinnati

Michigan

MSU

OSU

PSU



B1G South

Duke

Illinois

Indiana

North Carolina

Purdue



B1G West

Iowa

Minnesota

Nebraska

Northwestern

Wisconsin



B1G East

Connecticut

Maryland

Rutgers

Syracuse

Virginia

Schedule structure-

  • 9 game pre-set conference schedule
  • 4 division games
  • 5 games against another division that will rotate yearly ala the NFL when it comes to their NFC-AFC yearly rotations
  • 2 non-conference games

Instead of a championship game, you seed the four division champions and play a B1G Tournament. Semifinals hosted by the higher seeds and the championship at Indy. 

  • 1 Michigan vs 4 Rutgers
  • 2 Nebraska vs 3 North Carolina

Yes, you would only have 11 guaranteed regular season games and a maximum of 13 if you advance to the B1G Tournament Championship, but tough shit. No one wants to watch OSU vs Kent State. No one.

The Game will still be the final regular season game, but it will be the 3rd Saturday of November and not the week of Thanksgiving like it has been since 2010. 

Wolverine Devotee

March 6th, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^

It's geographical and it still does its best to maintain rivalries. Protected crossovers aren't possible with that. 

This would be football only divisions. Basketball divisions aren't really necessary. Play the other 19 teams in a 20 game schedule with one protected rivalry game that you play twice. 

bluebyyou

March 6th, 2015 at 4:43 PM ^

I thought one of the reasons for superconferences was to differentiate between the haves and have nots, a major concern when talking about the financial components of college sports.

The more schools you have, the greater the financial diversity between the schools with megabucks and the schools who lack financial means to play with the big boys in terms of dollars.

Remember, only about two dozen programs have athletic programs that run in the black.  

Wolverine Devotee

March 6th, 2015 at 3:12 PM ^

Rescue UConn and Cincinnati from that joke league they are stuck in. 

Cincinnati would be so sweet soley for the fact that OSU would have to deal with an in-state pest like we do. 

UConn, while they are the shits at football (for now), they only strengthen the Basketball AND they have a Hockey team. Plus, it would be funny to see UConn vs Edsall. The circle of weird. 

Only problem is that Michigan would go from playing Iowa every 15 years to 25 years.

Tater

March 6th, 2015 at 4:00 PM ^

I especially like Cincy, but OSU would do everything they could to block them because they don't want their "in-state pest" on their schedule.  They have been running from Cincy about ten times as long as Mayweather ran from Pacquiao.

umbig11

March 6th, 2015 at 3:17 PM ^

Texas would be an outlier geographically but, they would be a great addition. Both additions fit academically and both bring southern recruiting and TV revenue.

East

MSU, MD, Rutgers. PSU. OSU. Mich, Ind, UVA

West

Nebraska, Wisky, Iowa, Texas, Minny, NW, Purdue, Illinois

The Mad Hatter

March 6th, 2015 at 3:24 PM ^

were speculating about a Texas addition recently.  Made some pretty convincing arguments.  I've always thought of the Big 10 as a midwestern conference, but since that has changed, why not add Texas?  Great history, solid academics, and their fans hate Meyer as much as we do.

As much as I dislike ND, I always thought they would be a good fit in the Big 10.  

At what point do we need to change the name of the conference though?  14 teams in a conference called the Big 10 already sounds stupid.

 

umbig11

March 6th, 2015 at 3:29 PM ^

And if 20 is the number in a Super Conference add Ok ST, OKla, KSU, Kansas.

 

EAST

MSU, MD, PSU, MICH, OSU, NW, UVA, IND, Purdue, Rutgers

WEST

Nebraska, Texas, Ok ST, OKLA, Wisky, Minny, Iowa, KSU, Kansas. Illinois

Mr Miggle

March 6th, 2015 at 4:58 PM ^

There are 64 power 5 schools now plus ND. Going to four 20 team super conferences would mean adding 15 schools. No way they're all going to be invited for a bigger share of the pie. Four conferences would almost certainly have 16 schools.

Any 3 conference system would mean the Pac 12 and Big XII merge and the Big Ten and SEC divide up the ACC. I don't see the motivation for this. Do ACC and Big XII TV contracts pay them much less than the others? It doesn't make any of the new leagues more appealing to its current fans.

alum96

March 6th, 2015 at 5:20 PM ^

Based on the enormous amount of JUCO players in the Big 12 I don't see a lot of those institutions passing muster for the Big 10 which actually is looking for top notch academic institutions it seems.  

People yell about adding Rutgers and then you want to add KSU (Bill Snyder will retire eventually).  Kansas doesnt have a football program - and OK State we will see when Boone Pickens departs Earth.

OccaM

March 6th, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^

You'll never get Texas to put aside its ego. It already makes like 60% of the Big12's cash flow. No way it settles for equal splits. 

(60% I made up but I remember Texas making a huge fuss about it when the Big12 was losing teams left and right a couple years ago) 

The Mad Hatter

March 6th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^

be a tough sell for sure.

Also, I think we should get rid of conferences in the Big 10 too.  The two teams with the best records should play for the championship.

Say that Michigan is 12-0 and MSU is 11-1 at the end of the season.  The best team in the west is a 10-2 Nebraska.  Shouldn't MSU get a rematch for the conference championship?