Caven
Well-Known Member
Just to clear up what seems to be confusion with the 4x4 divisional scenario and how it feeds into a championship game:
Per NCAA rules in order to have a championship game in football you must have a minimum of 12 teams split into 2 divisions. Within each division all teams must play a round robin schedule.
What this means for 4x4:
The 4 team pods are combined each two year period (to allow home/away balance) in order to form two 8 team divisions. By rotating the pods every two years combined with playing 2 cross divisional games (yes it requires a 9 game conference schedule) you end up playing every team in your pod every year and every other team in the Big 10 home and away every four years.
Now do I know for sure that this is how the Big 10 would set up a 4x4 pod system if they went that route? No. They could very well do something stupid (in my opinion) with it that would indeed cause the teams to not play every other team home and away in a four year time period. The only thing that is guaranteed is that you end up with two 8 team divisions on a yearly basis by combining the pods in order to meet the NCAA requirements for a conference title game.
I guess I am an optimist and believe that we have smart people at the conference level who would be making these decisions and who understand that in order to keep the unified conference feel that the Big 10 now has that you must play the other teams in the conference on a regular basis.
To me, even though two 8 team divisions is easier and cleaner it just isn't worth it if it causes our next home and away series with Penn State or Michigan to be in 6 years. (Northwestern on the other hand can go in another division and never come play us again!)
Per NCAA rules in order to have a championship game in football you must have a minimum of 12 teams split into 2 divisions. Within each division all teams must play a round robin schedule.
What this means for 4x4:
The 4 team pods are combined each two year period (to allow home/away balance) in order to form two 8 team divisions. By rotating the pods every two years combined with playing 2 cross divisional games (yes it requires a 9 game conference schedule) you end up playing every team in your pod every year and every other team in the Big 10 home and away every four years.
Now do I know for sure that this is how the Big 10 would set up a 4x4 pod system if they went that route? No. They could very well do something stupid (in my opinion) with it that would indeed cause the teams to not play every other team home and away in a four year time period. The only thing that is guaranteed is that you end up with two 8 team divisions on a yearly basis by combining the pods in order to meet the NCAA requirements for a conference title game.
I guess I am an optimist and believe that we have smart people at the conference level who would be making these decisions and who understand that in order to keep the unified conference feel that the Big 10 now has that you must play the other teams in the conference on a regular basis.
To me, even though two 8 team divisions is easier and cleaner it just isn't worth it if it causes our next home and away series with Penn State or Michigan to be in 6 years. (Northwestern on the other hand can go in another division and never come play us again!)
