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Big Ten Conference Divisions

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MililaniBuckeye;1750580; said:
If it's always played at the same time (mid-season), then timing isn't an issue...it would become one if they decided to move it (see BB73's post above). The Ohio State - Michigan (aka "The Game" for our new Husker fans) game has been the last regular season conference game for both since 1935 (Michigan played at Hawaii in 1998 the week after The Game, which the only instance I know of off the top of my head that either team has played a regular season game after The Game). It would sacrilegious to move it from being the last regular season game.
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The top of your head overlooked the tOSU-Iowa Pre-Flight game just after Thanksgiving in 1942. :wink2:

TSUN also played Iowa that same day in 1942. They went to Hawaii after The Game in both '86 and '98.
 
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...Why do they always want to do a stupid east-west division? All the talk centers around the worst possible split of having Husker-du and the Badgers in the same division, leaving us with the mongoloids and Penn State.

You almost wish there wasn't a rivalry with the mongoloids to preserve, so they could join the Corny Fields division, and let us keep playing them to forever relegate Michigan to seasons worse than 10-2.

IMO, mix the divisions up. You almost wish that they'd change divisions every year or two just to make sure that you don't have Ohio State playing Nebraska every year for the title.

Why not have 1 protected rivalry game each year, and then mix the rest up into 2 divisions? That way, you always have a different (or near different) matchup of CCGs. If OSU and Nebby are in the same division (which would be awesome!), then you insure that someone else like Wiscy or the turd burglars up north get a shot at someone. Or, go the NFL route and do 4 pods of 3 teams (expandable to 4 teams), and then mix & match who they play. Either way, I think that diversity is the key to high ratings to the new Big Teen.

Under a pod system, I'd go with:

Ohio State
Illinois
Northwestern

Michigan
Wisconsin
Indiana

Penn State
Purdue
Michigan State

Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota


...Have each team play all 3 teams from another pod, their own pod, and a randomly assigned team from the last two pods as well as a protected rivalry game like OSU-Turds. That'd equal 8 conference games.
 
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Mrstickball;1750616; said:
...Why do they always want to do a stupid east-west division? All the talk centers around the worst possible split of having Husker-du and the Badgers in the same division, leaving us with the mongoloids and Penn State.

You almost wish there wasn't a rivalry with the mongoloids to preserve, so they could join the Corny Fields division, and let us keep playing them to forever relegate Michigan to seasons worse than 10-2.

IMO, mix the divisions up. You almost wish that they'd change divisions every year or two just to make sure that you don't have Ohio State playing Nebraska every year for the title.

Why not have 1 protected rivalry game each year, and then mix the rest up into 2 divisions? That way, you always have a different (or near different) matchup of CCGs. If OSU and Nebby are in the same division (which would be awesome!), then you insure that someone else like Wiscy or the turd burglars up north get a shot at someone. Or, go the NFL route and do 4 pods of 3 teams (expandable to 4 teams), and then mix & match who they play. Either way, I think that diversity is the key to high ratings to the new Big Teen.

Under a pod system, I'd go with:

Ohio State
Illinois
Northwestern

Michigan
Wisconsin
Indiana

Penn State
Purdue
Michigan State

Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota


...Have each team play all 3 teams from another pod, their own pod, and a randomly assigned team from the last two pods as well as a protected rivalry game like OSU-Turds. That'd equal 8 conference games.
Click to expand...

I like the concept, but how are the 4 pods used to set up the CCG between just 2 teams each year? I don't think having semi-finals to determine the CCG participants is allowed at this point.
 
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BB73;1750700; said:
I like the concept, but how are the 4 pods used to set up the CCG between just 2 teams each year? I don't think having semi-finals to determine the CCG participants is allowed at this point.
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Having one pod play another would satisfy the round robin requirement between each half of the conference, and the champions of each half would play in the CCG. Then you just keep rotating the pods.

Year 1: Pod A plays Pod B and Pod C plays Pod D. Champions of A and B plays C and D in a CCG.

Year 2 A plays C and B plays D

Year 3 A plays D and B plays C.
 
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It isn't rocket science or re-creating the wheel. Put the East vs. West. This makes it easy for the fans and teams to travel and you eventually are going to have to have a top heavy side. To be honest with Rich Rod screwing things up at TSUN, they might be on the outs for years.
 
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IronBuckI;1750711; said:
Having one pod play another would satisfy the round robin requirement between each half of the conference, and the champions of each half would play in the CCG. Then you just keep rotating the pods.

Year 1: Pod A plays Pod B and Pod C plays Pod D. Champions of A and B plays C and D in a CCG.

Year 2 A plays C and B plays D

Year 3 A plays D and B plays C.
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That's what I thought, but I can't see them doing that. It would be odd for a lot of fans to see the 'divisions' change every year.

And if they want to do future expansion, unless it's done at the end of a 3-year cycle, some would see inequitues in the rotation not being complete.
 
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East - West Divisions

East:
Poly...
eweastpoly.png


Linear...
eweastlinear.png


West:
Poly...
ewwestpoly.png


Linear...
ewwestlinear.png


I can see why Nebraska fans would prefer this one. :)
 
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And a 'competitive' model...

A:
Poly...
competitiveapoly.png


Linear...
competitivealinear.png


B:
Poly...
competitivebpoly.png


Linear...
competitiveblinear.png


I like this model a lot better.

Each division has:
A 'traditional' power that has remained consistent over the decades (Penn State & TSUN).
A traditional power that has trended upward (Ohio State & Nebraska).
A 'rising' power (Iowa & Wisconsin).
A team that was once a power but has fallen off (Minnesota & MSU)
A consistent middle pack team (Purdue & Illinois )
A traditional bottom dweller (Indiana & Northwestern)

Iowa sticks with Nebraska due to contiguous border & fan interest.
Indiana & Purdue go in B so Penn State fans can't bitch that they're getting stuck with only 'western' teams.
 
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I like all of the colors. Can you do one for a North-South split of:

N - TSUN, Penn St, Wiscy, Sparty, Minny, NW'ern

S - tOSU, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana
 
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Huskerrat;1750762; said:
I don't think you will ever see Ohio State and Nebraska in the same side.
Click to expand...

As someone who married into a Husker family, I certainly hope this is right.

I don't know if this has been talked about at all, but if rivalries are a concern why not split the conferences so each "rival" in in the opposite division and plays the final week of the season?

Would look like this (MSU/PSU and UNL/Iowa for the sake of argument)

OSU/TTUN
IU/PU
PSU/MSU
ILL/NU
Minn/Wisc
Iowa/UNL

Seems to be pretty well balanced: each division would have two powers, one team that was good every three years or so, one "you never know", and two lesser teams.

Everyone has to travel across the geographic reaches, the "newer" rivalries get played, and the traditional rivalries get maintained (even some of the smaller ones like the Illibuck).

The only drawback is that you could have The Game and then a rematch in the conference championship... but I don't really give a rats ass about TV ratings.
 
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