Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Buckeneye]

Man, that answers ALL my question.... I can sleep easy tonight now.

Thanks Dryden! Your a genius!

 

[HailToMichigan]

Winning will make ND relaveant, being in a conference has nothing to do with being relavant.

2 game winning steak baby!!

So that's how Charlie celebrates a win.

Though judging by the waistline, he's been cheating a bit and celebrating losses, ties, the spring game (he gets to celebrate twice for this one), practices, and voluntary conditioning sessions.

 

[BUCKYLE]

FIFY

We know the south is full of skanks. We just didn't think it gentlemanly to point it out.

 

[JXC]

So that's how Charlie celebrates a win.

Though judging by the waistline, he's been cheating a bit and celebrating losses, ties, the spring game (he gets to celebrate twice for this one), practices, and voluntary conditioning sessions.

Do Charlie Weis fat jokes ever get old?

 

[BUCKYLE]

Do Charlie Weis fat jokes ever get old?

Of course not.

 

[NightmaresDad]

Just saw the "week of June 30th" edition of the Sporting News today.

The cover is a pic of CW.

It's a classic.....the ultimate CW "WTF?" expression.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Do Charlie Weis fat jokes ever get old?

Fat chance...

 

[SEREbuckeye]

I would love to schedule Georgia for a Home-Home series.

SEC-Georgia
PAC10-Oregon...I would love to see their cheerleaders live
BIG12-Nebraska...especially with Bo coaching them
Big East-WVU
ACC-VT

Forget that, I just want to see those "cool" uniforms the Ducks got!

As for ND, I think this might be the last contract between NBC (Nothing But Catholics) and ND if the program continues to drown in the sewer of college ball. Yes, they have a delicious buffet of a schedule - and Charlie knows all about the words "delicious" and "buffet" - but ND will soon enough be relegated to the Big East just like their basketball department.

 

[mross34]

It's that time of year again.

After the Rutgers-Louisville game last night, I was listening to a sports talk radio show that my friend works on at RU, and heard a completely unsubstantiated rumor that Rutgers would be joining th Big 10 in the near future. I brushed it off at first, but my friend texted me and asked me what the caller was talking about.

I sent him some articles including this well written one from mgoblog.com, written in late July of 2007.

The article ends with this:

One Man's Order of Likelihood

This is hard to project. I assume this is what will happen: the Big Ten tells everyone plans are afoot, gets the BTN up and running. Once we know how that's going, the Big Ten waits until ND's NBC contract expires and tries to get the Irish again. Once that doesn't work, it settles down to business. So... we have three years to see if Rutgers is going to hold it together and if UConn is going to step up. If Rutgers remains good and interest holds up...

1. Rutgers
2. Pitt
3. Missouri
4. Boston College
5. UConn

This past summer, Notre Dame renewed it's contract with NBC through 2015, virtually ending any chance of them participating in the Big 10's reported desire to expand in the near future, something the conference had expressed interest in as recently as the release of the Big 10 Network.

Rutgers, after a very shaky start, pulled together a pretty decent season, finishing with 6 straight wins, the last five in decisive fashion.

This past off-season they added 1,000 club and luxury box seats. Next year they will add 12,000 seats to their stadium, bringing capacity to 56,000.

I guess my question is, do you guys think their is any chance of this happening? How do you feel about Rutgers as the team if it did indeed happen? How would you want the Big 10 to handle the transition to 12 teams? CCG? Divisions? Who would you want in each division?

Personally, with Rutgers as my #2 squad, I would like to keep them in a different conference, to minimize rooting conflicts, although it would be a major coup for the program and definitely stir up interest.

My preferred solution would be adding a ninth conference game and leaving the CCG out of it.

If there were a CCG, I suppose my preference would be to not have divisions, and just take the two top teams in the conference. I know this is a different idea from the status quo of current 12-team conferences and could cause problems, but I'd hate to see the CCG cause an 8-4 team to be the Big 10's BCS participant.

If there were divisions, geographically, I found no way to evenly divide the two divisions. After discussion with redbenn, I picked my divisions as follows:
Division 1: tOSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Purdue, Indiana
Division 2: Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Rutgers, Minnesota, Northwestern

This leaves a good number of rivalries within division. Although right now it looks as though Division 1 is better than Division 2, the 3 programs I believe to have the most growth potential fall in Division 2 (Illinois, Rutgers, Minnesota - due to their locales in mid-major to major media markets, and vast improvements to their facilities recently occuring or planning to occur in the immediate future).

 

[ohiostate=life]

Maybe I'm being a stubborn creature of habit, but I don't see this happening. I understand the appeal of trying to spread the BTN broadcasting exponentially by adding a NYC/NJ area football team. But it just doesn't make sense geographically. The Big10 is a Midwestern conference. I just don't see how we can squeeze Rutgers in and have the transition be smooth. Also, the addition of another team makes it damn near impossible to avoid divisions in the conference and a conference title game. This has been discussed a lot on this site but the main problems seem to glaring to ignore. Imagine OSU and Mich being in the same division. No longer will the OSU/Mich game be the last game of the year (Assuming the winner is going to the title game). No longer will that game ALONE decide the conference champ. Now imagine the alternative. If you put them in separate divisions, and one team has a Weis-like year *cough, Mich, cough* the two teams may not play each other at all that year. At this point the universe would implode. You could try to set up a situation where they play cross-division ala LSU/Florida but this still leaves the same problem with the first scenario of not finishing the year with The Game. I don't like it. I think we have all witnessed the B10 leadership make questionable decisions at the top so if this does end up happening, I can't say I'd be shocked. I can say I'd be disappointed.

 

[mross34]

Maybe I'm being a stubborn creature of habit, but I don't see this happening. I understand the appeal of trying to spread the BTN broadcasting exponentially by adding a NYC/NJ area football team. But it just doesn't make sense geographically. The Big10 is a Midwestern conference. I just don't see how we can squeeze Rutgers in and have the transition be smooth. Also, the addition of another team makes it damn near impossible to avoid divisions in the conference and a conference title game. This has been discussed a lot on this site but the main problems seem to glaring to ignore. Imagine OSU and Mich being in the same division. No longer will the OSU/Mich game be the last game of the year (Assuming the winner is going to the title game). No longer will that game ALONE decide the conference champ. Now imagine the alternative. If you put them in separate divisions, and one team has a Weis-like year *cough, Mich, cough* the two teams may not play each other at all that year. At this point the universe would implode. You could try set up a situation where they play cross-division ala LSU/Florida but this still leaves the same problem with the first scenario of not finishing the year with The Game. I don't like it. I think we have all witnessed the B10 leadership make questionable decisions at the top so if this does end up happening, I can't say I'd be shocked. I can say I'd be disappointed.

Delaney publicly stated his desire to add a 12th team that would open up a new media market a year and a half ago. The question is does he still feel that way.

 

[ohiostate=life]

Delaney publicly stated his desire to add a 12th team that would open up a new media market a year and a half ago. The question is does he still feel that way.

Agreed. And like I said, I understand the logic. That doesn't mean that since an idea is logical it makes sense in a given situation.

 

[redbenn]

Delaney publicly stated his desire to add a 12th team that would open up a new media market a year and a half ago. The question is does he still feel that way.

i know mross is all about rutgers, but i still dont see this as 1st choice. from what i remember psu would block pitt's entrance, as OSU would with UC (UC wouldn't qualify anyway), i think mizzou would be the best fit, being that it qualifies, and is in the midwest. i do not think mizzou would leave the big 12, as theyre in the easiest division out of any major conference

i do agree that geographic divisions are not the way to go, they would have to do it like the ACC.

 

[Mac]

I'm partial on this. I think its a good idea, but like ohiostate=life said, it could screw up the greatest rivalry in sports.

 

[TheIronColonel]

Maybe I'm just a pedant, but technically OSU and Michigan don't end their season with The Game (well, this year Michigan did). I mean, there are still bowl games to be played (except, of course, for Michigan) after The Game. Yeah, adding a CCG could take a little off The Game (especially if they played an interdivision rivalry game - they could wind up playing in back-to-back weeks). Then again, that might amp up the rivalry even more at the slight expense of The Game.