Big Ten and other Conference Expansion

[Buckeye513]

12, 16, 24, whatever. The most important thing here is preventing the Big Ten from coming up with more dumb division names.

 

[Muck]

Virginia Tech - If this were 2003 folks would be arguing for Kansas St for the same reasons (an ahistorical level of football success under a single coach). Virginia is much stronger academically, is a research monster, has an overall stronger athletic department and has a ceiling far beyond what VPI will ever achieve.

Boston College? Seriously WTF is wrong with you people?!

this system would work perfect here:
East: UNC, UVA, Duke, MD/GT
Mid-East: PSU, tOSU, IU, PU
Midwest: UM, MSU, UI, NW
West: UW, Minn, Iowa, Neb

2/3 of the time you are going to have unbalanced divisions:

Year 1:
a: Ohio State, Penn St, Indiana, Purdue, TSUN, Sparty, Indiana, Northwestern
b: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia, Duke, MD/GT

Year 2:
a: Ohio State, Penn St, Indiana, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska
b: TSUN, Sparty, Indiana, Northwestern, North Carolina, Virginia, Duke, MD/GT

Year 3:
a: Ohio State, Penn St, Indiana, Purdue, North Carolina, Virginia, Duke, MD/GT
b: TSUN, Sparty, Indiana, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska

Penn St. would have be swapped with one of the new members.

There is also the issue of whether pods will be too confusing for fans (the WAC is the only actual real world example we have so far...and it was a dismal failure).

 

[rampageripster]

2/3 of the time you are going to have unbalanced divisions:


There is also the issue of whether pods will be too confusing for fans (the WAC is the only actual real world example we have so far...and it was a dismal failure).

I don't think you need to create divisions out of the "pods". Each is there own division and you just take the top two out of the four.

The key is getting creative and understanding the limitations of a 16 team conference.

 

[ScriptOhio]

I don't think you need to create divisions out of the "pods". Each is there own division and you just take the top two out of the four.

The key is getting creative and understanding the limitations of a 16 team conference.

I like the term "subdivision" better.

 

[rampageripster]

I like the term "subdivision" better.

So do I... unfortunately basically everyone refers to them as pods... it's really a 4 division model

 

[Muck]

I don't think you need to create divisions out of the "pods". Each is there own division and you just take the top two out of the four.

The way the rules are currently worded if you have at least twelve teams you have the option of having a conference championship game IF the teams are split into TWO divisions and play a full round robin schedule within their division (this also effectively sets an upper limit on how large conference can grow).

If the system could work as you are suggesting your mini-divisions would work out to be even more unbalanced.

You are locking together:

Ohio State & Penn St
TSUN & Sparty
Nebraska & Wisky

Then #4 is UNC & Maryland?

Based on the past 10, 25, 50, 100 years one of those foursomes is going to provide a much easier path more often than not.

So do I... unfortunately basically everyone refers to them as pods... it's really a 4 division model

It's still a two division model. The reason for pods is that by rotating half of each division annually you are able to play every team in your conference in a much shorter period of time than would be possible in a straight 8x8 split.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

I like the term "subdivision" better.

Me too.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9Ycq64Gy4"]Subdivisions - Rush - YouTube[/ame]

 

[OSU_D/]

Boston College? Seriously WTF is wrong with you people?!

ORD gets a boner thinking about adding BC to the new Big 10 hockey conference.

I kid. I kid.

 

[MaxBuck]

ORD gets a boner

too much information

 

[Nicknam4]

Not enough information

FTFY

 

[Mike80]

FTFY

Now now the gay marriage thread is in the Political forum....

 

[broken24]

There is also the issue of whether pods will be too confusing for fans (the WAC is the only actual real world example we have so far...and it was a dismal failure).

The creation of the pods system was not the main factor for the demise of the 16 team WAC. Most of it was culture and money.

Wikipedia

Increasingly, this arrangement was not satisfactory to most of the older, pre-1990 members. Five members in particular (Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, Utah, and Wyoming) felt that WAC expansion had compromised the athletic and academic excellence of the membership.[citation needed] Additional concerns centered around finances, as the new league stretched from Hawaiʻi to Oklahoma and travel costs became a concern. In 1999, those five schools, along with old line WAC schools New Mexico and San Diego State, as well as newcomer UNLV, split off and formed the new Mountain West Conference.
A USA Today article sums up why the league brokeup. "With Hawaii and the Texas schools separated by about 3,900 miles and four time zones, travel costs were a tremendous burden for WAC teams. The costs, coupled with lagging revenue and a proposed realignment that would have separated rivals such as Colorado State and Air Force, created unrest among the eight defecting schools."[16] [17]

I don't think you need to create divisions out of the "pods". Each is there own division and you just take the top two out of the four.

This is the same as not having divisions at all, just having conference standings and using the pod system for scheduling.

I like the term "subdivision" better.

The WAC used Quadrant not pod, division nor subdivision. The WAC also didn't have a total rotation of the pods (Quadrants). 2 pods switched between the 2 divisions every year.

 

[Muck]

ORD gets a boner thinking about adding BC to the new Big 10 hockey conference.

I kid. I kid.

Hey at least that is a legitimate point.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

ORD gets a boner

Hey at least that is a legitimate point.

Dude, what you are ORD are into is your own damned business, but can't you take it to PMs?

:p

 

[Muck]

The creation of the pods system was not the main factor for the demise of the 16 team WAC. Most of it was culture and money.

From everything I've seen the real killer it was set up so that '2' (UNLV, AF, CSU, Wyoming) was always in the opposite division from ''3' (BYU, Utah, New Mexico, UTEP).

Those were the founding members of the conference and being split up really stuck in their craw. It's not a coincidence that of the 8 founding members of the MWC 7 of them came from those two groups.

The WAC used Quadrant not pod, division nor subdivision. The WAC also didn't have a total rotation of the pods (Quadrants). 2 pods switched between the 2 divisions every year.

While that is entirely accurate I believe people are just referring to the WAC as the birthplace of the 'pod' idea (which it was) not the specific term.