Expansion is BAD for UM
It will RUIN the absolutely best and most unique thing about the UM athletic program -- having the Michigan - Ohio State game at the end of the year and meaning so much whenever either team is good. Delaney doesn't get it or even care. He is and always will be an ACC basketball player. How can be expected to understand the Michigan - Ohio State tradition? All he cares about is finding money, no matter what else is lost. Even national people get it. In USA Today on Friday Mike Lopresti had an article about what it will be like 20 years from now to explain to kids what sports used to be like. Fairly far down in the article, after suggesting a number of things, including the extinction of the Big 12 and Bowl Games, he adds the following:
"A lot of tradition sank that day. The Big 12 had great history and the Big Ten had an interesting event called the Michigan-Ohio State game. But the people in charge had big dollar signs in their eyes, so those things were pretty much sacrificed for the cause.
Michigan-Ohio State became just another date on the road to the conference championship game, and the Big 12 ended up like Atlantis and the carrier pigeon." See
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2010-06-10-usc-confer…
I wish he weren't so right, and I will always blame Delaney.
I understand the general point you are trying to make, but the UM-OSU game will still be immensely important in determining who will be competing for the conference crown, as well as possible major bowl bids. And I actually like the idea of Big 10 teams playing another week or two into the season, as it keeps them in front of pollsters eyes and makes it harder to forget about them when casting those last ballots that oftentimes decide who gets to play for a championship and who doesn't.
As for "tradition", the only thing lost is that there will be another game after the UM-OSU final. The teams will still meet at the end of the year, the battle will continue to be a pitched contest between (we hope) two of the best teams in the country, and national implications will hinge on the outcome. That won't change with expansion.
Crazy solution: protected rivalry games happen the week after the coference championship games. They mean nothing for the conference championship game, but could drastically affect BCS placement. Just requires a bye week around thanksgiving for every team in conference, then everyone plays their rival that next weekend.
At first thought, that seems stupid to make rivalry games not count toward the conference championship. But the more I think about it, with the number of bowls that are available these days, that extra win could really put extra pressure on bowl order. I think it's a tremendous stretch obviously, but it may make the gray hairs feel better?
/billy-madison-quote-about-all-being-dumber-for-having-heard-that
thats the best idea. I like the idea of Michigan-OSU on the last week of the regular season to determine who goes to the conference championship game.
I mean really, if OSU wins the CC game, do you really think they'd want to have a chance to blow all the positive vibes they got by having to play Michigan the week after? One of the points of a CC game is to get exposure for the best teams in your conference. Winning a CC game should be a huge boost, not a hinderance because you have to play another team afterwards.
I like the outside the box thinking though.
Yeah, I know it was a stretch and it would never work. But in that above scenario, if Michigan beats them as Big Ten champs, that could theoretically knock them out of the MNC and into just a BCS game.
For the record, I'd rather them play for the right to the championship, or more importantly face off in the championship. That was just some crazy idea.
having an acc basketball tournament has never taken anything away from the north carolina- duke basketball games,
The Big Ten chose to evolve. It was either that or watch the football landscape render them irrelevant and eventually be in a position where they were miserable and bitching about the old days when they used to be relevant.
Congrats to the Big Ten and Delaney for actually doing something instead of just talking about it while everyone else acts. The Pac Ten might have acted first, but the Big Ten definitely were the people who got the ball rolling this time, and they changed their "etched in stone timetable" when they had to. This is progress.
AFAIC, evolution and progress are good for Michigan.
And I'll even add to that. Michigan has always been at its best when it is leading, changing, and evolving. Fielding H. Yost, Fritz Crisler, and Glenn E. "Bo" Schembechler were innovators. I find it amazing that so many associated with the great University of Michigan seem to think that tradition is blindly doing the same thing over and over again whether it makes sense or not. No. The tradition here is and has always been the pursuit of excellence with high integrity.
what if we play in the same division, which would be the strongest division in the conference, and therefore determine who got the conference title berth?
or is that NOT GOOD ENOUGH for you? Are you going to go cry to your picture of Bo and Woody? Jesus, man.
Expansion is bad for the national importance of the Michigan-OSU game because it would determine a conference championship game berth instead of a conference championship. That being said, it'll still matter just as much to real Michigan and OSU fans, just like 2009 did. I also don't see how the national importance of the game turns into "expansion is BAD for U of M". Playing a tougher conference means that you do better in bowls and out of conference, and I think those play a greater role in U of M's image than the number of people watching Michigan-OSU.
While I disagree with most of what the OP said, I don't understand the argument that UM-OSU matters just as much nationally. Most people seem to be appealing to ignorance, but it's pretty common for a conference championship game berth to be less interesting to people than a conference championship.
I couldnt disagree more. We're not living in the 1970s anymore.
Good luck finding your misplace World's Fair Spoons
We were aghast that Michigan wasn't given a second chance to take on OSU in the National Championship Game, after one of the most closely played Games in history.
What would be the harm in putting UM and OSU in separate divisions, and scheduling The Game for the last week of the regular season? Would it be so bad to have a rematch in the Conference Championship game?
In the National Championship Game? After UM and OSU both knock off fellow Big 10 members Texas, Penn St,, Nebraska, Notre Dame and everyone else, then battle it out in two 42-39 slugfests, everyone else can buy a ticket to The Game Of The Century (at the Rose Bowl, natch).