Big Ten BBall Conference Schedule to start earlier?

[H8IAST8]

Early basketball? It turns out that no one particularly likes starting Big Ten basketball conference play at the same time that Big Ten football teams are in bowls. So after situations like the Ohio State basketball team playing Iowa last season at the same time as the Buckeyes faced Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl, the league talked about solutions in Chicago.

"It would be kind of like trying to launch the football season in the middle of the Final Four," Delany said.

One possibility raised was playing a few conference games in mid-December, during an otherwise often dead period of less-than-exciting nonconference games. Basketball could get some more attention then and push back the continuation of the Big Ten season until bowl season was over. But nothing has been decided.

Big Ten rules out Cleveland as site for championship games: Ohio State Insider | cleveland.com

 

[H8IAST8]

As it stands now, Iowa plays approximately 5-6 BT games (2-3home) when the students are on break. Typically the B1G season starts around Dec. 29th. Iowa was the first to play a bowl game last year on Dec. 28th. So you really only have to start it 2 weeks earlier around Dec. 14th. Then it would pick back up again after the BCS Championship around the 10th of January. Under this scenario, the students would be absent for only 1 home game. I like the idea!

 

[DwayneTwill]

There's also finals week in there where teams don't usually play. That complicates things a bit. Still, an interesting idea.