Default Division Decisions

Submitted by Snidely Doo Rash on

 

If this is it.  Pac 12 

N                           S

UW                       ASU

WSU                    Arizona

Oregon               Colorado

OrST                    Utah

Stanford              UCLA

Cal                       USC              

This works out pretty nice.   No protected rivalries needed?   Does not seem overly difficult. 

Compare to...The League of 12 

N                          S

Minnesota          Nebraska

Wisconsin          Iowa

MSU                    Penn State

Michigan            Ohio State

NW                      Illinois

Purdue               Indiana

Works out pretty nice.   One protected rivalry needed.   Better top to bottom than the Pac12 and at least on par with the SEC Conference.  I'd be good with this.  

SpartanDan

June 15th, 2010 at 11:55 PM ^

Simple E-W split. No protected rivalries needed (unles you want to keep Illinois-Indiana and NW-Purdue). Reasonable competitive balance (last year you would have had the three best teams in the conference by a mile in the South, maybe the four best depending on what you think of Wisconsin v. Nebraska). Makes more sense geographically (your South division includes teams 1100 miles apart; an E-W split maxes out at 550 miles from State College to West Lafayette).

E-W comes out ahead on all three factors (rivalries, geography, balance; personally I think the last is the least important because it's guaranteed to shift over time).

BlueNote

June 16th, 2010 at 1:37 AM ^

and other conferences need as well, is to stop using numbers in the names of our leagues. 

Now, I'm not useful enough to come up with a solution to the problem I've identified, but I'm sure someone could devise a catchy name with no numerical digits.

B

June 16th, 2010 at 12:13 AM ^

Something tells me the California schools will stay together in the Pac-12.  I predict:

South:

ASU

Arizona

USC

UCLA

Cal

Stanford

North:

Utah

Colorado

Washington

Washington St.

Oregon

Oregon St.

 

I also think there is no way they split Michigan and Ohio St. and there is no way they put OSU, PSU, and Nebraska in the same division.

Ohio_wolverine

June 16th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^

I have a feeling that UM OSU PSU and we know Nebraska will bring the fans to away games. If 3 of those 4 are in the same division that is more revenue for that 1 side of the league. That is another thing they will look at. Also if you split up them every year a team will get to have 3 of the big 4 on there schedule and at least 1 of them at home 1 year with 2 the next year. 

Rasmus

June 16th, 2010 at 7:25 AM ^

if you think USC v Stanford and Cal v UCLA are not protected rivalries. My father is a USC alumni, and the only team he hates more than Stanford is Notre Dame.