First off, I want to apologize if this has been mentioned in previous posts, comments, etc.  But I feel like this is a completely crazy, but potentially fun way to look at the new Big 16.

The conference would be split into 2, 8 team divisions (however you want to divide them is irrelevant to this discussion).  Each division would play round robin style, 7 games with no inter-divisional play at this point. After 7 games, the standings from each division would look something like this:

After the 7 game round robin schedule, the conference tournament would start.  The “Champions Bracket” would have the top 4 teams of each division and the “Bowl Bracket” would have the remaining 8 teams.  Each team in this scenario would have played either 3 or 4 home games.  Things get a little dicey at this point with the matchups. 

Assume that Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana played 4 home games in the round robin schedule and the rest played 3. In each tournament, the highest seed from one division would play the lowest seed from the other division with differing schedules. The matchups in the tournament would be as follows:

(1) Ohio State at (3) Notre Dame

(4) Michigan State at (1) Iowa

(2) Michigan at Nebraska (4) – Tiebreaker scheme to determine home field for this game

(2) Penn State at Wisconsin (3)

(8) Indiana at (5) Missouri

(6) Northwestern at (5) Pittsburgh

(7) Illinois at (7) Rutgers

(8) Purdue at (6) Minnesota – Tiebreaker scheme to determine home field for this game

Assuming all the top seeds win, the following teams would be left in their respective tournaments:

All teams at this point will have played 8 conference games, with the majority of teams having 4 home games.

For the second round of the tournaments, the highest seed from one division will play the lowest seed from the other division, with the higher seed getting home field, unless there is a matchup available to even the number of home games.  The matchups would be as follows:

Champions Bracket

(2) Penn State at (1) Ohio State

(2) Michigan at (1) Iowa

Bowl Bracket

(6) Minnesota at (5) Missouri

(7) Rutgers at (5) Pittsburgh

Winners of each of these games would play another game at a neutral field to determine the conference champion for the Champions Bracket and whatever bowl tie-in for the winner of the Bowl Bracket.  The losers of these games regular seasons would be over and they would be eligible for bowl selection.

The rest of the teams that lost in the first round would be matched up similarly to the winners with the highest seed from one division will play the lowest seed from the other division, with the higher seed getting home field, unless there is a matchup available to even the number of home games. The matchups would be as follows:

(8) Indiana at (3) Notre Dame

(7) Illinois at (3) Wisconsin

(6) Northwestern at (4) Michigan State

(5) Nebraska at (8) Purdue

The regular season would be over at this point with each team playing at 9 conference games and 3 out of conference games (4 teams would play 10 conference games).

Some of the issues with this format are:

· Entire schedule unknown from the beginning of each season

· Potential conference champion being crowned with 3 (maybe more?) losses

· Potential for the winner of the Bowl Bracket to have less than 6 wins

· Potential for repeat matchups late in the season

· Potential for unbalanced home and away schedules

Comment below and tell me what you think!