Cross Over Games

AreWeThereYet

AreWeThereYet

Well-Known Member
The Big Ten's only official designated cross over games are Purdue - Indiana, but the rest effectively rest also have crossover team.
Nebraska - Ohio State
Wisconsin - Michigan
Iowa - Penn State
Northwestern - Michigan State
Purdue - Indiana
Minnesota - Maryland
Illinois - Rutgers

I don't mind the weighted schedules, but I would rather have a little more balance. I would try get the top four teams from each division playing each other about half the time, 3 out of 4 against any opposing team at most. Purdue and Indiana can have their yearly crossover if it works out.
 
Thats a good idea.

I believe an ideal cross-over schedule for Iowa would be to play OSU, PSU, MSU and Mich 50% of the time and they have to play 2 of those 4 every year.

Then they would play Rut, MD, and Indy 33% of the time and then play 1 of them every year.

You could set up similar rotations for the other "top 4" teams in each division. The only question is who is #4 in the west?
 
I totally agree.
I mean face it, there is disparity within the conference as well as the divisions.
I mean we pay little schools to come play us and face it, the excitement and general viewership is on the low side. The only people that give a crap are the fans of said schools.
However, if you want to call it what it is and say it's a business, well then run it like one.
In the end it is good for the conference as the upper level of teams from both divisions push each other and make each other better. As do the lower levels.
This is what I was saying about 74's comment in another thread.
It's also why we love playing Wisconsin and they love playing us. Granted we need to step it up a little.
I mean come on, the stories about David and Goliath are great and all, but they are few and usually read about in the news the next day.
 
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guffus said:
Thats a good idea.

I believe an ideal cross-over schedule for Iowa would be to play OSU, PSU, MSU and Mich 50% of the time and they have to play 2 of those 4 every year.

Then they would play Rut, MD, and Indy 33% of the time and then play 1 of them every year.

You could set up similar rotations for the other "top 4" teams in each division. The only question is who is #4 in the west?
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Ideally, you would want to approximate something like this. I recognize it isn't going to work out exactly even.

Somebody ends up seeing a little more of the bottom three on a given year.

Since Ohio State and Wisconsin are the dominant teams in their divisions that match-up is a little less attractive, given they will frequently be seeing each other in the conference championship game.
 
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There will be 3 types of crossover schedules

Big 4 schedule
Middle 2 schedule
Indy-Purdue schedule

The indy-purdue schedule would work like this.
Indy-Purdue play each other every year.
Play the middle 2 teams 50% of the time
Play the Big 4 teams 25% of the time.

The middle 2 schedule would work like this.
Play the other middle 2 teams 50% of the time.
Play indy/Purdue 50% of the time.
Play the Big 4 teams 37.5% of the time.

The big 4 schedules would work this way
Play each of the Big 4 teams 50% of time
Play the 2 middle teams 37.5% of the time
Play Indy/Purdue 25% of the time
 
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I would like to see a one game rotating cross over. I like it when teams like Maryland and Rutgers come to town. Those are teams we don't see very often.
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
I like them for a change. OSU, MIchigan and MSU may draw better, but we see them all the time.
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There's a lot of other schools I'd rather 'settle' on playing instead of Rutgers... I guess that's my take on it. It just sucks Rutgers is in the BIG to me. Other than being sorta close to NYC what do they bring?
 
Hawkfnntn said:
There's a lot of other schools I'd rather 'settle' on playing instead of Rutgers... I guess that's my take on it. It just sucks Rutgers is in the BIG to me. Other than being sorta close to NYC what do they bring?
Click to expand...

The way I figure it is someone has to be the doormat of the Eastern Division. Syracuse is a smaller school than Rutgers. Virginia isn't going anywhere without Virginia Tech. Your best choice if Rutgers dropped out, would be to pick a team for the west and roll Purdue over into the east. That's a different topic.
 
AreWeThereYet said:
The way I figure it is someone has to be the doormat of the Eastern Division. Syracuse is a smaller school than Rutgers. Virginia isn't going anywhere without Virginia Tech. Your best choice if Rutgers dropped out, would be to pick a team for the west and roll Purdue over into the east. That's a different topic.
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Right there with ya I'd agree with that and wish they'd do it. I thought Missouri woulda made sense back at the time when they were still in Big 12. As far as going west goes I'm not sure adding anyone other than say Colorado or CSU makes sense. Then there's always the ND factor. Seems like as many times as that answer is no on both sides the possibility is just always there.
 
I think Colorado would be an excellent choice for the west. People who want Texas or Oklahoma should be careful what they wish for.

I'd keep Purdue in the west and give Illinois to the east. o_O
 
Notre Dame is too arrogant to realize the Big Ten west would be perfect for them. They would instantly compete for the West title and if they won the conference championship game they would be in the playoff.

Flip Illinois to the east and you would have in the west:
Wisconsin
Notre Dame
Purdue
Northwestern
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota

Notre Dame would play at least two each year from Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State.

It would be great for Notre Dame but not so great for Iowa.
 
Some schools don't place as big of value on sports.
Nothing wrong with that. I would guess the top art schools don't do much in sports, but we all still like and need art.
That causes the disparity. Which causes "easy and hard" schedules. Which is why I said it would be better for the entire conference. It would be better off doing something different with crossover games.
It puts more eyes on TV's and butts in seats which is more $ for the entire conference and each school.
Spend it however.
It's a business.
Plus if the competition was balanced maybe Ohio State does not get embarrassed in the playoffs and Iowa doesn't get embarrassed at the Rose Bowl???
You want to start having the B10 winning national championships?
Just saying.
But wtf do I know, nobody is paying me for my opinions.
 
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