Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Buckeye Maniac]

It all depends on what teams come actually in (if any). I'm just saying in general don't have an over weighted division split just to make sure OSU and UM are in the same division.

I say screw the rest of the conference. If overweighted divisions happen, then they happen. I would not be even remotely ok with OSU and scUM being in separate divisions.

 

[Gatorubet]

That would be ideal (since the #2 team often gets left out in the divisional format), but then you run into the problem of inequal schedules. With divisions, everyone plays else in that division. It's imperfect, but it's a consistent playing field for each division.

Hello??? You do this to have divisions. Without divisions, you have no B10CG, and without a B10CG, no extra $$$$$$ to televise it.

 

[jwinslow]

Hello??? You do this to have divisions. Without divisions, you have no B10CG, and without a B10CG, no extra $$$$$$ to televise it.

You can play a CCG without divisions, it's just a lot more controversial when the #2 team played a lot easier schedule than #3.

 

[Zurp]

You can play a CCG without divisions, it's just a lot more controversial when the #2 team played a lot easier schedule than #3.

Big East to Host a Conference Championship Game in 2011 | Bleacher Report

NCAA rules stipulate that a conference must have two divisions of at least six teams in order to host a championship game.

 

[IronBuckI]

Originally Posted by jwinslow
You can play a CCG without divisions, it's just a lot more controversial when the #2 team played a lot easier schedule than #3.

Big East to Host a Conference Championship Game in 2011 | Bleacher Report

NCAA rules stipulate that a conference must have two divisions of at least six teams in order to host a championship game.

...if that game exceeds the max of 12 games.

Bylaw 17.9.5.2 (c) (page 241) of the 2009-10 NCAA Division 1 Manual states that conferences with championship games must be between divisional champs that have played a round robin within their division. The conferences must have at least 12 members, and each division must have at least 6 members.


This Bylaw is actually just an exemption to the maximum of 12 games allowed. It would probably never happen, because of revenue, but I would think that a conference could theoretically only schedule 11 games in a season, and hold a championship game, as the 12th game, without having to worry about meeting the NCAAs exemption rules.

 

[Zurp]

...if that game exceeds the max of 12 games.

Ok - I remember hearing that now.

I actually would prefer to see a set-up with 12 teams, no divisions, and each team plays its 8 games. Then have the top 2 teams play each other, regardless of whether they already have played each other. It would eliminate things like the short-lived controversy from 2002 when Iowa and Ohio State did not play each other and each ended 8-0, and Ohio State and Michigan each ended the 1973 regular season tied for first place, after they tied each other.

The only way to do that, though, is to wait until the last week of the season before scheduling that 8th conference game. I agree that it is very unlikely to happen.

 

[jwinslow]

They would not pursue that loophole however, since they need to maximize games & revenue during the regular season.

 

[chance]

Pretty good blog post in response to some of the frequent arguments about Texas joining the Big Ten. The section debunking the travel expense is pretty good and does a little comparison with the Irish Independent FB schedule and Big East BB.

Template for Shooting Down Any Argument Against Texas Going to the Big Ten ? FRANK THE TANK?S SLANT

 

[Dryden]

Template for Shooting Down Any Argument Against Texas Going to the Big Ten ? FRANK THE TANK?S SLANT

That blog is awesome.

Further to point #2, it continues to perplex me that a lot of people still advance the argument that Texas won't leave because the revenue sharing in the Big XII favors them. This is the equivalent of saying that you don't want to move to a mansion in Beverly Hills because you own the largest house in Compton.

 

[BB73]

Andy Staples proposes 4 16-team conferences, who would have the ability to leave the NCAA and be called something like the Collegiate Athletic Select Hegemony (CASH).

Here's LJB's thread on realignment from a while back: BP.Conf.Realignment

SI.com

Forget expansion -- it's time for full-blown conference realignment

If the leaders of the nation's top revenue-generating athletic programs want to save the bowl system, if they want to avoid a Justice Department investigation that would destroy the BCS on antitrust grounds, if they want to make oodles more money with minimum interference, they'll forget about trying to move a few chess pieces around the board and realize they need to start playing an entirely different game.

It all starts with leaving the NCAA.

The NCAA began with the noblest intentions, but it has grown into a bloated beast of an organization that routinely does harm even when it tries to do good. Plus, if you're in charge of an athletic department that brings in more than $40 million a year in revenue, you don't appreciate the NCAA's pesky habit of distributing money you played a larger role earning to programs straining to keep their noses above the poverty line. You also probably don't appreciate the president, Congress and the Justice Department telling you how to run the postseason in your most lucrative sport.

So tell them all to go fly a kite.

Use whatever number and organizational structure you want, but it seems most sensible to take the 64 highest earning athletic programs and split them into four regional, 16-team superconferences. Play all the sports you've been playing, but keep the competition within those 64 programs and let the remaining NCAA teams play one another. There's a ton of money in postseason men's basketball, and you'll need plenty of women's sports to keep you Title IX compliant. Plus, the non-revenue sports make great tax write-offs, which you'll need now that you no longer enjoy the NCAA's tax-exempt status. (Sorry about that, but you'll still come out ahead.)
​

Cont'd ...

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Andy Staples proposes 4 16-team conferences, who would have the ability to leave the NCAA and be called something like the Collegiate Athletic Select Hegemony (CASH).

Here's LJB's thread on realignment from a while back: BP.Conf.Realignment

SI.com

Not crazy about any expansion that both dilutes the CIC (KU, KSU and Nebraska) while not allowing the Big Ten to pick and choose who it wants. The former would run into a faculty veto at at least half the Big Ten schools and the latter is a luxury we have (with the only exceptions of Texas and the domers: the former will need some wooing and [censored] the latter) so why not enjoy it. Also from a television perspective, we get stuck with the dust bowl states while a much weaker, less attractive Pac 10 gets to walk off with the Texas prize. [censored] that. Quite frankly, the writer is rather clueless about internal Big Ten priorities and constituencies that need to be satisfied.

My expansion to 16 would be as follows:
Texas, Missouri definitely and depending on Texas politics three of the following four: A&M, Pitt, Syracuse and Rutgers.

My expansion to 14 would be as follows:
Texas, Missouri/aggy and one of the BE schools above

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Texas A&M is kind of like a girl that isn?t that terrible looking from certain angles, yet she seems a little bit off where you wouldn?t be surprised if she engaged in things like ritual animal sacrifices.

 

[PlanetFrnd]

I'm starting to reverse field on my feelings toward expansion... After all, reliance on tradition over progress is one of the reasons why we dislike Europe, isn't it? Texas and, perhaps, a couple other good schools/teams will make The-Conference-Formerly-Enumerated-10/11 a college football goliath.

My only hang-up is that The Game will somehow mean less to the country, but, after all is said and done, I will still fucking hate scUM, so I'm not sure what difference it all actually makes.

 

[cincibuck]

Texas A&M is kind of like a girl that isn't that terrible looking from certain angles, yet she seems a little bit off to where you wouldn't be surprised if she engaged in things like ritual animal sacrifices.

My knowledge of TAM is pretty limited. I recall hearing a TAM alum boasting that by the end of WWII, Korea and Vietnam more TAM alums had been awarded the CMOH than West Point or Annapolis grads. I believe that the Vet school is ranked one of the best in the nation and that everyone, not just Texas, looks for ways to publicly humiliate them. A couple of years back someone at Rice figured out a way to misdirect the Aggie marching band and had them scattered in confusion all over the field.
1) Doing a routine that featured A&M's mascot, Reveille, chasing a fire hydrant, among other things. The Aggies were unamused;
2) Using whistles to disrupt the A&M band's march commands -- which were whistle-based at the time -- causing the band to collapse into chaos. The Aggies were unamused again.

http://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/files/1973/19731129-thresher.shtml

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

everyone in the Big 12, not just Texas, looks for ways to publicly humiliate them.

Why? It looks like they do an admirable job humiliating themselves.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AOgN-4QnZ4]YouTube - Aggie Nut Squeeze[/ame]