M-Wolverine

February 12th, 2010 at 1:51 PM ^

Invite all 120 teams. Then for the championship games, break them up into divisions. We can call them things like "The Big 12" and "The ACC"...maybe "The Pac-10" for those teams, you know, out by the Pacific... I think we've got something here...

Joined: 10/04/2009

MGoPoints: 42190

DeuceInTheDeuce

February 12th, 2010 at 2:23 PM ^

The winners of the MAC, WAC, Mtn. West and Sun Belt divisions will play each other in a 4 team playoff. The winner of this playoff will be eligible for consideration for entrance into the lottery that awards the 7th place trophy.

Joined: 10/29/2008

MGoPoints: 1029

Tamburlaine

February 12th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^

Over on Scout, they're greasing each other's palms over a rumor posted by a troll that the Big Ten offered Syracuse some sort of payola--and that this has been going on since the summer. If it's Syracuse, the only people who would notice would be Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois--the teams Syracuse would fight over last place with. In other words: Syracuse=turd. Now Nebraska? Do it. Big name, Big game. Coming back in football, travelling fans, near enough to the Big Ten Footprint LOLZ, and they might keep UM basketball out of the cellar.

Joined: 01/30/2010

MGoPoints: 5

CRex

February 12th, 2010 at 1:47 PM ^

I've always been high on Nebraska as the 12th member. Big 12 Football isn't making it easy for them to rebuild their program. If you consider the rumors about unfair revenue sharing in the Big 12, NEB would make more in the Big 10. Also if the conferences were set up along the lines of: NEB Wisconsin Iowa Minn Ill/Ind/Purdue (pick two) NEB would have a pretty good shot at being to stand as a contender for an invite to the conference championship. Plus the Big 10 could have a fairly easy time of structuring it to keep rivalries in conference. You'd have NEB, Wis and Iowa as teams that typically end up ranked. On the other side we'd have Michigan, tOSU and PSU as teams that are typically ranked. So you'd have good odds of getting at least one strong in each conference.

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 9010

white_pony_rocks

February 12th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

i keep hearing that people are worried about the east/west division of the conferences with the east being stacked . why do we have to split them this way? why not just put michigan and ohio state in different divisions and then put penn state with ohio state and iowa with michigan and then throw the bad teams wherever. of travel doesnt matter now, since we have no east and west division and teams in the big 10 already travel from iowa to pennsylvania, why worry about it when dividing the conferences up? the only issue i see is naming the divisions since east/west wont work

Joined: 02/16/2009

MGoPoints: 2950

Seth9

February 12th, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

There is a reasonable fear that should Michigan and OSU be placed in different divisions, both teams may play each other the last week of the season and then go at it again in the conference championship. This could make the rivalry game less important than it is now, and the only real solution to the problem would probably be to move it to the beginning of the season, which would kind of suck.

Joined: 04/01/2009

MGoPoints: 2493

wile_e8

February 12th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^

  • Non-geographic divisions are stupid. Nobody outside the ACC has any idea who is either division, as opposed to the Big XII and SEC
  • Team strength changes. Eventually there will be years one division is much stronger than the other no matter what you do, so you might as well set up divisions that aren't stupid
  • The divsions will be for all sports, so setting them up based on current team strength in one sport would be shortsighted
  • Even if you do set divisions by football team strength by splitting Michigan and OSU, they could end up playing two weeks in a row, and no one wants that

    Joined: 06/30/2008

    MGoPoints: 7381

    BlockM

    February 12th, 2010 at 1:52 PM ^

    Can I join the Big Ten on my own? I'll come up with some great university name, and I'll just personally play against the Big Ten teams in every sport. TV ratings for a 1vs11 game of football would be pretty high I think, and I could use the extra money.

    Joined: 07/03/2008

    MGoPoints: 40727

    MGauxBleu

    February 12th, 2010 at 1:57 PM ^

    but I have always thought Nebraska made a lot more sense than anyone else. They fit what the Big10 is looking for, and the Big12 grip on them is a lot weaker than even the most football heavy/basketball light Big East team. I will always hate them for '97, but their fan base is large and classy. I think there would be instant rivalry fodder in the west division that CRex suggests, and I think a potential UM/Nebraska rivalry would be fun too.

    Joined: 05/08/2009

    MGoPoints: 1698

    cjffemt

    February 12th, 2010 at 4:15 PM ^

    I have been in favor of Nebraska joining. I think with the rich tradition they have in football, they would be a great fit in the Big Ten. I don't have any common knowledge on their academic status, however, no matter what it is the BIg Ten can easily set the standards for them higher than they are now. I would love to see a Cornhusker and Wolverine game year after year. My Father was a huge Nebraska Fan, and well I fell in love with Michigan and the rich tradition of the Maize and Blue. I would love to see my father roll around in his grave knowing his team is joining the most elite conference.

    Joined: 12/17/2009

    MGoPoints: 166

    Don

    February 12th, 2010 at 1:58 PM ^

    The season is 365 days long, and we just dispense with the whole going-to-classes thing so there's enough time to allow for the Happy Valley-to-Austin road trips for the women's volleyball team and the Coral Gables-to-Eugene trip for the men's wrestling team, and football will just pay for it all.

    Joined: 06/30/2008

    MGoPoints: 148278

    Blue Ninja

    February 12th, 2010 at 2:04 PM ^

    As much as I've come to despise them for the NC and our bowl game a few years ago....I would welcome Nebraska with open arms. A school with tradition, desire to excel in football and fairly close to being considered midwest. I think Texas will in no way accept, Mizzou would be nice but Nebraska is heads and shoulder above them IMO. Now if they wanted to expand to 14 (hopefully not) they could add Nebraska, Mizzou and Pitt.

    Joined: 11/17/2009

    MGoPoints: 5719

    Hannibal.

    February 12th, 2010 at 2:06 PM ^

    We should just have a big national conference consisting of Texas, USC, Michigan, Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Oklahoma, Oregon, LSU, and Alabama. If having regional identity isn't important, might as well go all out.

    Joined: 09/09/2008

    MGoPoints: 9051

    Blazefire

    February 12th, 2010 at 2:07 PM ^

    I heard somewhere that the Big 10 will add universities from Africa, India, China, and Australia and become the Imperial Conference. That's just what I heard somewhere.

    Joined: 04/17/2009

    MGoPoints: 25038

    imablue

    February 12th, 2010 at 2:34 PM ^

    Nebraska would be good, but what are their academics compared to the Big 10/11? As far as a TV market, they have a big following around the country.

    Joined: 09/01/2009

    MGoPoints: 1552

    Feat of Clay

    February 12th, 2010 at 4:41 PM ^

    I don't know, they're not THAT much worse than Indiana or Iowa. I cut them some slack given what they are--a flagship university of a highly-agricultural state with a smallish population. If this happened it would truly be a "head asplode" moment because I grew up as a Husker, and both sides of my family (MI & NE) cannot get past that split national championship. It would be awesome to be in the same conference.

    Joined: 08/10/2009

    MGoPoints: 3759

    blueheron

    February 12th, 2010 at 4:57 PM ^

    What is the most important feature of the Big 10 as a conference? I suppose that's debatable, but I'd say it's academic reputation. If not, we may as well hit up LSU and Alabama while we're at it. By U.S. News and World Report, Nebraska is ranked *below* our friends in East Lansing, who are currently in last place in that category (in the Big 10). They'd bring football (to a significant degree), but even that has been diminished since they're not longer allowed to feed steroid-laced raw meat to their home-grown no-name O-linemen. They have basically no basketball. It's one of the worst D-1 programs. Hockey, too (in Omaha) is pretty lackluster.

    Joined: 03/26/2009

    MGoPoints: 30747

    South Side Wolverine

    February 12th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

    Jim Delany will be on 670 The Score for those in Chicago, or who can receive the signal, at 2pm CT. to dicuss Big Ten expansion. I think they said they will have a podcast up of the interview for those interested but not in Chicago.

    Joined: 02/12/2010

    MGoPoints: 1

    mstier

    February 12th, 2010 at 9:17 PM ^

    Texas >> Nebraska for a lot of reasons. The Big Ten is going to want a major research institution that is also competitive athletically. That is Texas in a nutshell. Can't really say the same thing for Nebraska.

    Joined: 09/18/2008

    MGoPoints: 258

    Tamburlaine

    February 12th, 2010 at 11:58 PM ^

    2.0 GPA and a 17 on your ACT gets you into Michigan if you is fast and shit. Enough with the "academics" bullshit from a fan base that has its nose up in the air despite the fact that the vast majority of said fan base has never set foot on a college campus before.

    Joined: 01/30/2010

    MGoPoints: 5

    bdsmvdch

    February 13th, 2010 at 7:34 AM ^

    Academics is a very real contributor to the Big Ten's decision here. Granted you've only been 'round these parts for two weeks, but it has been noted many times on these pages that Big Ten schools constitute the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (w/ former member U-Chicago), which has a $5.6 billion research fund (per Wikipedia). I expect that candidate institutions are well aware of this, as would be the Big Ten members of the Committee.

    Joined: 09/07/2009

    MGoPoints: 54

    mstier

    February 13th, 2010 at 8:51 AM ^

    Yeah...we're not talking academics for football players. Of course Michigan lowers the bar for that. We're talking about research, the AAU, etc. The Big Ten conference is way more than athletics.

    Joined: 09/18/2008

    MGoPoints: 258