Big Ten and Pac-12 announce plans to suspend scheduling agreement
Hope this isn't true:
Whoa, the Big Ten and Pac-12 announce they're suspending plans for their scheduling collaboration.
Quotes from delany rolling in as well. Looks like we're playing Utah and Colorado just for fun.
Looks like 4 PAC12 schools wouldn't agree to it: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/53126/big-ten-pac-12-pact-dissolves-fans-lose
Well that sucks.
I understand the PAC 12 teams (some of them) having a problem with this. they play 9 conference games and we play 8, so this would increase their schedule difficulty--teams like Stanford and SC already play ND every years, so with 9 conference games plus a B1G team added, that's togher than many want.
I sort of understand the tougher schedule issue but not the Notre Dame issue. Michigan, MSU and Purdue play Notre Dame every year too. It didn't seem to be a big deal for the Big 10 teams, why is it a big deal for Stanford and USC?
Does 1 extra conference game make that much of a difference?
Well you figure that extra game they're playing a conference opponent and we are probably playing a MAC opponent.
"Does 1 extra conference game make that much of a difference?"
Yes. It effects bowl eligibility as much as anything. You're replacing 6 body bag MAC games with 6 losses.
That partnership really did nothing for me. And, this should give us back a little more control of our nonconference schedule.
The original idea was that the B1G would expand the conference schedule to 9 games. This scheduling arrangement with the Pac-12 was in lieu of that.
I assume the push for a 9-game conference schedule will return, so in the end you'll have the same result: 3 non-conference games that the school controls, 9 that it doesn't.
But I prefer 8 conference games, because the schedule is balanced (i.e., same number of home and road games).
The problem is that it gives us back a little more control of our nonconference schedule.
Well that stinks. Back to Northwest Indiana and Southcentral Delaware College
As opposed to Cal, Colorado, and Washington State?
Northwest Indiana == Notre Dame.
that is all
with the new format, teams won't want to schedule top BCS opponents. You'll have a better shot at the final 4 by playing lower BCS teams that are easier to beat, ie. Kentucky, where you get credit for playing teams with a pulse, but have a better shot at winnig all your games. There won't be any Div II teams on the schedule, but no more big time OC games. Woo.
If Strength of Schedule counts, as they say it will, separating yourself from the other 10 or so one or two loss teams will be much easier if you aren't playing teams like Kentucky, but those like Michigan, USC, OSU, etc.
those games will be too high of a risk. If you lose, you're out of the running before the conference games begin. If yuo schedule UCLA or Kentucky, it will look better than a MAC snack. This is still going to be a beauty contest. Teams will find a way to make weak schedules look better so they get more credit for playing BCS teams, even if they are snacky too.
The article mentions that the Big Ten now may pursue another conference to have a similar scheduling arrangement.
The MAC!
Who? The ACC? The Big East?
Big 12 and SEC are taken.
Also, how the hell do you announce something like this and not follow through? Unbelievable...
already have little thing with the ACC for b-ball, football would be great. some of those schools are within iowa-like driving range for road games; va tech, uva, unc, soon pitt, syracuse (guh mcnabb flashback).
I think McNabb just scored another touchdown...
Though SU was flat-out robbed in the 1999 game when our receiver was tackled in the endzone a la Desmond against MSU on what would have been the winning TD.
a**hole to everyone i knew in the weeks before this game, defending champs, tons of returning starters. then this....
Pussies.
This kind of sucks, but I wasn't blown away with the ability to play Colorado and Utah, so those types of matchups won't be missed. I know that some Pac-10 teams were annoyed with having to play an extra tough opponent, which is understandable. Hopefully UM still plays the USC's and Oregon's of the world, but not as part of this general relationship.
Wow. That's really disappointing. This was one of the more exciting developments of the past year, IMO.
"At least four Pac-12 schools ultimately decided they would not accept mandatory scheduling, ESPN.com has learned. One proposal called for eight intra-league matchups per year, featuring the willing Pac-12 schools, but the Big Ten wanted a complete collaboration or none at all." - from the EPSN article in the thread above
I understand why the Pac-12 didn't want the mandatory scheduling as they do have numerous extra-conference agreements (Utah-BYU, for example) and Stanford and USC already having ND on the schedule (only because they probably want to "right-size" their schedule to have a shot in the new playoff format, or that's my guess - tough, sure, but not necessarily brutal), but I think I get why the Big Ten insisted on full collaboration. I would guess that the quality of the matchups came into question then, and the schools that might have readily agreed wouldn't necessarily be the schools that were top-tier and the matchups that were projected were ones that neither conference was necessarily high on.
I like the idea of going to nine conference games in the Big Ten anyway, and if we can get a good Pac-12 team on the schedule on occasion, that would still be worth seeing. I still think that this arrangement could have had some great games in it.
home and home's with Indiana, Purdon't and Minneshoda?
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Regardless, hopefully those conferences can pull this off as a one-time or occasional event. The yearly thing actually seemed a little excessive to me.
Nobody in the Pac 10 will play Penn State. Sad, but I believe unfortunately true.
The timing smacks of opportunism. It seems as if both teams, given the new playoff format, decided to lighten their loads. That being said, who really cares if M does or doesn't play a steady diet of mostly uninteresting P10 teams? Utah? Colorado? Whatever. The top teams will (usually) meet in the Rose Bowl. That's the important thing. Personally, I always thought the regular-season "relationship" undercut the Rose Bowl relationship.
I am pretty sure that they'll replace this deal with a similar deal involving another conference, or they'll go back to their original idea, which was a 9th conference game.
If not, I personally think the ACC is a very intriguing option...
Because? Why lock yourself into a bunch of games against teams from a conference that's way more basketball than football? The only top-tier ACC football team right now is FSU, and they're looking to leave. Miami is dying. Clemson, VaTech, and UNC often produce very good teams. But are they really all that exciting to B10 fans? ACC football gets mediocre TV ratings. The ACC and the B10 have no meaningful relationship in terms of either football or academics. A deal would benefit the ACC far more than the B10.
but the Big Ten will benefit as well:
* Interesting regular season match ups without having to worry about scheduling difficulties. The most realistic alternative to this would be to load up on MAC teams again.
* better national reach for the Big Ten as a whole - anchoring the Rose Bowl to the West and an ACC partnership to the East will give better reach to the Big Ten and will probably help out with recruiting as well. The ACC isn't the SEC but they are in many of hte same states...
SEC teams, despite their dominance of late, have proven largely unwilling to go home-and-home against top programs. LSU went to Oregon; Bama went to PSU. Florida, Tennessee, Georgia: they never venture north. This is partly because these teams consider the SEC schedule tough enough and partly because they're afraid to venture out of the South, whose climate gives them a decided advantage. Every January, B10 teams play in blazing Florida heat. But when was the last time you saw an SEC team play in cold weather?
Never because our goll'ram commish gave into their demands and dropped the home site proposal for the 1st round of the playoffs.
I do not and will never understand the infatuation with the Rose Bowl; its a game played over a 1000 miles away from the closest B10 member and is a defacto home game for the school down the road.
because it's shiny.
If this leads to a 9 game conference schedule (Add Wisco or PSU to the home slate in even years), + ND + 2 middling BCS teams (Vandy, Baylor, Arkansas, Boston College, etc), I won't be completely devestated. But we all know that won't happen that way. We'll be stuck playing Western, Eastern, and Central in the same season.
I really was looking forward to a potential USC/UM game in Ann Arbor. That would have been so cool.
stood to legitimize the Pac 12 more than to boost the B1G. Don't think their backing out hurts us in any way.
Return of the MAC.
You lied to me, Jim Delany.