OTish? ACC announces elimination of football divisions
For 2023-2026 the ACC will keep 3 "permanent" matchups and rotate the other 10 schools every other year. (Thus the "3-5-5" moniker) This means every school will play every other school at least twice in the 4-year period, both home and away.
Championship game will be between the 2 teams with the highest conference winning percentage.
The Fig Things are not included.
I'm glad to see that Wake Forest-Virginia Tech is protected... (/s)
I wonder if anyone in the B1G offices will notice...?
So they also agree, "To Hell with Notre Dame!!!"
B1G should do the same. I'd rather watch a rematch of the game or OSU vs PSU, then to see OSU or Michigan destroy the B1G west division winner. Let the top two teams in the conference play each other.
Why? Imagine how deflating it would be to have to beat Ohio State twice in consecutive weeks to win the Big Ten. At best, it dilutes the importance of the Game, and at worst it will prevent us from winning more Big Ten championships/making more playoffs. I'm perfectly fine with the Game being the de facto championship and watching us take victory lap over the West's sacrificial lamb.
Considering how much this blog (rightfully) complains about the conference screwing us over with scheduling, I'm baffled why people are endorsing a change that will make it significantly harder for us to win the Big Ten/make the CFP.
Dave Brandon has entered the room.
Quite frankly, I think it would be delicious to beat tOSU(tm) back to back for tradition and then for the championship..
Sure, but that’s a pretty major hypothetical scenario that recent history would show is a very unlikely occurrence. I’d much prefer the more likely situation that occurred this year where we beat them once and then take a victory lap against the West cream puff
I'm baffled why the overwhelming majority of people on this blog can only see the rematch in one direction, which is a scenario in which UM wins The Game. Is it strictly due to recency bias because we won last year?
So, we're all cool with how 2018 went, in which OSU, UM, and NW are all 8-1, with UM beating NW at NW, and OSU faces NW in the B1G championship after beating UM? None of us would be wanting a rematch? I understand it wasn't a pretty game, but I think we'd take the shot, no?
Didn't we all want a rematch in 2006?
I've read a lot of comments and the authors' takes, but I'm not convinced, and I can't tell if it's because everyone truly disagrees with the principle of it or if it's just a projection of what would have happened last year. If you really think that's how it should be, the last sentence of your first paragraph should actually say "I'm perfectly fine with the Game being the de facto championship and frequently watching OSU have a cakewalk of a B1G championship game".
It's both principle and pragmatism.
On principle, the Game should have tangible meaning beyond bragging rights. I like that it's a conference-championship elimination game -- it adds the euphoria of victory (or the agony of defeat), and makes the Game the climactic showdown it's supposed to be. I certainly wouldn't say I'm "cool with" how 2018 went, but my issue was that we gave up 62 points to Ohio State, not that we didn't get another shot a week later. If you want to win the Big Ten, you need to win the Game. I don't hate when Ohio State has a cakewalk in the Big Ten championship game, I hate when they're in the championship game instead of us.
And pragmatically speaking, there's no point dancing around the fact that Ohio State has been a Death Star, and will be for the foreseeable future. I predict fewer Big Ten championships for us under a no-division system. Sure, there's the possibility of the inverse, but 2018 is the only year we lost and would have gotten a rematch. Ohio State would have still advanced in 2021 and 2016. And they would have still advanced even if we had beaten them in 2013, 2014, and 2017. So I think recent history suggests pretty strongly that no-divisions benefits them more than us.
There's also the practical matter of tiebreakers -- when there's no divisions you're more likely to be left out on dumb tiebreakers because tiebreakers can/will be used to separate teams that didn't play head-to-head.
Fair enough that I wanted a rematch in 2006, but I draw a distinction between a rematch in the bowls/playoff and a rematch in a B1G championship game.
I do understand your opinion, and I respect it. I just don't agree.
A rematch is garbage. The Game won't mean a thing if it comes with a very strong possibility of a consistent rematch. It's one of the reasons the original divisions sucked so much. The Game meant nothing in that format.
Didn't we all want a rematch in 2006?
Yes, because that would have been for the national title, not because we thought rematches were a swell thing in general.
OSU of course wanted no part of a rematch, and we probably wouldn't have either, if we had won the Game that year.
Honestly, I see it as a false choice. I'd much rather have the old system. No divisions *and* no Big Ten championship game. That doesn't seem likely for economic reasons, so I'll settle for "no divisions with BTCG" but (compared to my top preference) I think it puts us at a disadvantage in the current environment, where inertia leaves OSU on easy street and multi-loss regular seasons are exceedingly unlikely for them.
I just don’t see a practical way of determining a champion in a 14 team conference without a championship game.
You’re going to have teams not playing 4-5 of the other teams in the conference and tie breakers will be an absolute mess. It’ll be a mess at times even with a conference title game, but the championship game at least brings some level of “earning it” into play.
The BIG should find a way to have the two best teams play. If it happens to be Michigan and Ohio State, play one game not two and have the game restored to what it once was, the BIG championship. Winner take all
I completely agree with this. However, if this is the format the BIG moves to, then UM/OSU needs to be played earlier in the season rather than the last game of the year. I know it is "tradition" for The Game to be the last regular season game for both schools, but, for me, I would prefer they try to remove the possibility of these teams playing two weeks in a row.
If PSU and MSU continue to play at the level they have been playing over the last decade or so, I see many years OSU vs UM game being the decider of one of the two in the championship game, but not both. Both teams being the best even after one loses may not happen that often, if PSU, MSU and even IOWA continue their level of play. But I can a few years where OSU and UM may have to play more than once.
I rather enjoyed the B1G championship game against Iowa last year...
same
Didn't know that John Amos was an Iowa fan.
Here’s a thought: Tell, Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers to take a hike. 11 team league. 10 conference games a year. 5 away. 5 home. No title game. Do whatever you want with your 2 non-con games.
Find me one person that’s not in favor of that.
I'm almost certain Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers would not be in favor of that.
So that's 3 people.
They're members of the conference - it's not like Michigan (or anybody else for that matter) voted "no" on any of them.
Scott Frost's mom says hello.
Brian Griese's mom too, "hi Brian, now clean up that damn basement bedroom of yours!"
I wish we just didn't have a conference title game. Playing an extra game in an indoor NFL stadium does nothing for me.
If two or three teams share the league title, great.
wonder if/how this impacts their "your our favorite non-conference opponent" designation for ND.
I don't think this will impact Notre Dame at all.
If the ACC moved to 9 conference games, that would have impacted ND. But they're still at 8. Plenty of room both ways for ND to continue playing 5 ACC opponents a year.
So long as we play Rutgers.
when did they earn the "s" back?
when did we stop calling them Buttgers?
(in my immature voice) hehe!
I dont want another recruiting thread so ill just post here. Collins Acheampong visited Miami and is now considered a Miami lean - announcing on Friday. Was a strong win for us, we thought, last weekend. If I had to guess, he'll push back his announcement. But... Miami, some say, is now ahead.
Just sharing without SWIM LANES
How much did Miami offer him?
Boosting the offensive line is a big deal for Texas. The Longhorns have had just two offensive linemen drafted since Tony Hills was taken in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL draft. Connor Williams was taken in the second round of the 2018 draft and Sam Cosmi was drafted in the second round of the 2021 draft. No Texas player was taken at all in the 2022 NFL draft. The 2022 draft was the second draft in the past decade that failed to feature a Longhorn.
Unbelievable, yet we have none. Yet we put guys in the league non-stop. They got 4 in a weekend
To answer your question, I believe this to be the theme. And we can hate Miami, but its not just them. Plenty of guys love Michigan, but we aren't playing the NIL game like the other schools. We can argue about the validity of the approach, but seems like we can't argue with the results (recruiting wise).
To Hell with the Fig Things!
3 permanent matchups doesn't make a ton of sense. Looks to me like every one of those schools has a permanent 'partner' on the schedule they don't really care about one way or another.
Down vote me: beating OSU twice in however many years does not warrant rivalry status... The programs are not equal.
It stinks to say that, but Michigan has to play lights out to beat OSU.
Yeah, but so does everyone not named Alabama or Georgia.
I like any scenario where we win all of our games, but I do miss the days of 10 teams in the Big Ten and Pac 10. Eight in the Big 8 or whatever they were called. The regional nature of football is freaking cool. (Fuck ND.) Having conferences small enough to be identified by a region is cool. Being the toughest/best team in the Big Ten was cool. Now with all of these mega-conferences you're playing Rutgers instead of playing for the Brown Jug.
Having half of the Big 12 in the SEC doesn't make sense. Win the Southwest.
I still have no idea who is in what division for that conference.
ACC.
Isn't that pronounced "Ack!," the catchphrase of Cathy in the cartoon by the UM grad Cathy Guisewhite?
Put Michigan and Ohio State in separate divisions and have them play every year as a protected rivalry. If they happen to rematch in the title game, so be it. If the rematches happen often, move the regular season game to earlier in the season.
Bad news for NC State.