...The west is so bad I get wanting the top 2 teams in the championship rather than the east rolling through the championship game every year. The biggest downside is going into The Game knowing that no matter the result there will be a rematch the next week.
I get that the Big Ten nerds want to get rid of the divisions. I don't get that the West would want it. The 7 teams in the west right now will have very little shot of making it to the championship game. If I'm one of the 6 teams out there not named Wisconsin, I vote "no". And if I'm Wisconsin, I might try to figure out a way to vote "no" twice.
If I'm *ichigan or Penn State or Michigan State, I vote "yes" as many times as I can. Lose to Ohio State? fine... just don't lose any other game. It makes those games against Ohio State almost meaningless, and with only 8 conference games, there are 5 teams you don't play. Maybe not for Penn State or *ichigan, but Michigan State will have about a 38% chance of not even playing Ohio State in any particular year.
Even Ohio State would have to vote "yes". In the 11 years of conference championship games, Ohio State made it to 6 of them, just missing on a few others. 2011 was a down year, and 2012 was a punishment year for the magic tattoos that made the players faster or something. 2015 they still would have been out. 2016 would have been a rematch with Penn State. And 2021 would have been a rematch with *ichigan.
Your last point is the the deal-breaker for me. How great was 2018? Ohio State beat up on the losers up north something like 62-39 to give them their only conference loss of the season. Ohio State also finished with 1 loss (to Purdue). Northwestern also finished with 1 loss (to *ichigan). So the tie-breaker would probably mean Ohio State would have to re-match against *ichigan. Everyone would have known this. First, with Ohio State pulling way ahead in the second half, does Harbaugh try to win that game in the fourth quarter? Or does he pack it in, run out the clock, and start working on the gameplan for next week? And does Urban Meyer keep up the curb-stomping, knowing that he has to play *ichigan again next week? Maybe... maybe not.
I like the idea of beating those poo-smellers twice in one year, too. But you know that one of these years, we're going to win the regular season game and then they'll win in Indianapolis, when under the current format they wouldn't have even made it. Don't give them a second chance when the first should have been enough. If Ohio State wanted to be in the Big Ten championship game, they should have realized that they have to stop *ichigan's running game.
