Scheduling - 2011 season just got a lot tougher.
So I would guess Nebraska is going to drop all of its B12 games for 2011 and then the current schedule will be scrapped in conference for each other B10 team. Then they just shuffle Nebraska into the mix and lay it back out.
Of course, division alignment will have to be thought out and taken into consideration, but I think the B10 is not crazy, and will therefore schedule Penn St, Michigan, Ohio State, and Nebraska to all play each other once in 2011. At the very least they will make sure that Nebraska plays all three of the others for sure.
I think our easy schedule for our breakout 2011 season just got a lot tougher.
I don't agree with that. I think they'll just set up a rotation and let it start where it may.
...on whether or not Big Ten expansion is over. Since it's probably not, there's really no need to start building pretend 6 team divisions and speculative schedules.
One thing that should stay the same for 2011 -- the ND night game. Most likely it's the Big Ten opener for both teams.
That'd sure be interesting Re: ND. If ND can get their act together and stop being such assclowns about their perceived "independence". One thing I fear, however, is that ND is going to get an autobid the first year in the league, considering USC is going to be in shambles. Big Ten Schedule, plus Army, Navy, 2011/2012 USC = Straight to the top.
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/supposedly-notre-dame-clock#comment-508441
I think this pretty clearly lays out ND's point of view. I have to say it's a pretty compelling argument and unless they are forced into change I don't think they will.
That was kind of my point, poorly expressed by me. I was just saying that the independence they have isn't actually their own - it is actually tied to everyone else - and if the "super" conferences suck up the BCS bids, ND has no choice but to join. Looking at some of their numbers, they rely heavily on conference affiliation. EDIT: Which is why the concept of an unstable Big East is a threat to them.
Yes of course, I agree completely (well, maybe not the ND thing...). This idea purely stems from the situation as it sits now. Of course I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with only 12 teams. The rest of the B12 might band together yet, even if Texas and A&M leave. Hard to see, the future is.
Tougher - yea, probably. However, I hope that Nebraska's first Big Ten game is against Michigan. I think it would be smart for the conference. 2nd choice would obviously be OSU, and then Iowa. If they do East/West conference alignments, the Big Ten East is going to be tough:
Michigan
OSU
PSU
MSU
Indiana
Purdue? NW?
West:
Nebraska
Iowa
Minny
Wisconsin
Illinois
NW/Purdue
Beast of a conference, friends.
NW is in Illinois and Purdue is in Indiana. I would assume those two would go with the other universities in their states.
You can't necessarily say they are going to divide by state. Delany said so himself.
Well, I figured you were going for the East/West split so the team that was further east would be in the East and the team further west would be in the West.
Delaney made it sound like he was in favor of dividing the confrence by strenght then by geography.
DiNardo came up with something like this
Bo Division: UM, Neb, MSU,Minn,Iowa, Illinois
Woody Divison: OSU,PSU,WIsc,Purdue,Ind, NW
With three crossover games 1 permanent and two rotating.
I like this except for two things:
1)even if they have OSU as a permanent crossover I still dont like the idea of UM possibly playing them twice a year.
2) I wouldnt name a division after an asshole like woody. Its like naming a preschool after michael jackson.
versus Nebraska does not work for me. I think you have to divide those 4 up 2 and 2. Of course, we'll see if the Big Ten is stopping at 12.
I do want to see Big Red take on Michigan (go Blue!) in 2011. It will be a purple mess.
In all seriousness though, the field full of red and white when Wisky plays Nebraska is going to confuse the eye.
This has to be one of the reasons Nebraska wanted to join .... They would own the West
Really? Iowa and Wisconsin are not exactly pushover teams. Neither is NW many years.
Also, I don't know is Nebraska will jump right into playing the B10 schedule in 2011. That's not how it worked for PSU, anyway. The Big 10 schedule has already been set and many teams already have a few, if not all, of their OOC games set. It might be another year until they start playing Big Ten games.
Yes, PSU was independent, but the point is that all of these teams already have schedules for 2011 so it's not exactly easy to throw in another team.
Everything said today implied that NU would be a full B10 member in 2011 and play a full B10 schedule. Delany even went so far that they messed up on the transission of PSU to the B10 by not getting them hooked up fast enough with the conference schedule.
Everything said today implied that NU would be a full B10 member in 2011 and play a full B10 schedule. Delany even went so far that they messed up on the transission of PSU to the B10 by not getting them hooked up fast enough with the conference schedule.
I think "own" is a little strong. Iowa and Wisconsin are both good teams. I wouldn't expect too much out of Minnesota and Northwestern, but Illinois occasionally has a good season too.
Nebraska's pretty good, but not that good. It will pretty much be like playing Wisconsin or Iowa again.
You crazy.
Nebraska will come back to the elite, just like just about every program of that level does. That many wins didn't come without some down spells.
I think by 2011 we'll have more than 12 teams. If 5 new teams all come in then, they'd probably have them all play each other, so that they don't mess up everyone else's schedule too badly.
Rutgers, ND, Texas and Syracuse join you could put Rutgers and Syracuse into the east side and ND and Texas into the west side and it would balance things out pretty nicely.
I will +1 you but point out that "Maryland" does not start with an R.