Iowa Post-Spring Position Analysis: Safety

[Grady]

With the mention of USC & UCLA, I wonder where the new BTen Commish will stand on the decision to keep Divisions of some type or move to one 14 member league. For a couple years the word was that the BTen was for sure going to scrap Divisions. Then, just prior to that announcement they seemed to back off, and lately it's been crickets on the topic.
From a conference health perspective, it would be beyond stupid to scrap divisions. With USC & UCLA joining, if you scrap Divisions you're basically telling 9 of the 14 BTen teams they'll never play in the BTen title game. Ever. If you're looking for a way to dampen fan enthusiam across the conference, eliminating Divisions is the single best way to do it.
I'm really surprised the 9 impacted Presidents & ADs haven't been raising holy hell about the idea -- or perhaps they have been, hence the delay.

 

[HuckFinn]

With the mention of USC & UCLA, I wonder where the new BTen Commish will stand on the decision to keep Divisions of some type or move to one 14 member league. For a couple years the word was that the BTen was for sure going to scrap Divisions. Then, just prior to that announcement they seemed to back off, and lately it's been crickets on the topic.
From a conference health perspective, it would be beyond stupid to scrap divisions. With USC & UCLA joining, if you scrap Divisions you're basically telling 9 of the 14 BTen teams they'll never play in the BTen title game. Ever. If you're looking for a way to dampen fan enthusiam across the conference, eliminating Divisions is the single best way to do it.
I'm really surprised the 9 impacted Presidents & ADs haven't been raising holy hell about the idea -- or perhaps they have been, hence the delay.

Smart

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Where exactly is that property you have for sale in Antartica? Would like to take a look…

Just keep walking South. I will tell you when to stop.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

Huck, I am not suggesting that the Big Ten isn't a quality conference with some good, national programs. But, by any measure, the two best teams are in the same division and the gap between those two and the rest of the league is pretty wide. I guess one could argue that the next two best teams are Wisky and PSU. So again, depending upon how you look at it, the top 3 teams or 3 of the top 4 teams are all in the same division.

If OSU were to swap with say Purdue, then yes, there would be balanced divisions.

I agree that PSU has not been as awesome as some hoped, but they have by no means been bad (on the field that is). The real problem with the geographic divisions is that when Nebbie joined it was still somewhat of a blue blood and during its time in the conference it has devolved into a national joke.

In any event, my point, once again, is that Parker benefits from playing in the (clearly) worse side of the divisions, and the division whose teams don't really focus too strenuously on things like quality QB play, scoring and offense.

 

[NorthKCHawk]

With the mention of USC & UCLA, I wonder where the new BTen Commish will stand on the decision to keep Divisions of some type or move to one 14 member league. For a couple years the word was that the BTen was for sure going to scrap Divisions. Then, just prior to that announcement they seemed to back off, and lately it's been crickets on the topic.
From a conference health perspective, it would be beyond stupid to scrap divisions. With USC & UCLA joining, if you scrap Divisions you're basically telling 9 of the 14 BTen teams they'll never play in the BTen title game. Ever. If you're looking for a way to dampen fan enthusiam across the conference, eliminating Divisions is the single best way to do it.
I'm really surprised the 9 impacted Presidents & ADs haven't been raising holy hell about the idea -- or perhaps they have been, hence the delay.

They don't know what they want to do. The easiest solution is 4 pods of 4. You play your 3 other teams, rotate teams from each division every year, and have two more at large games with some protected rivals.

The black and blue division (Iowa, Nebbie, Wisky, and Minny) is a no brainer.

You have three East coast teams. I would send OSU to join them.

I would probably send NW and Illinois out West to play the LA schools. Sorry boys, adding two schools half way across the country was not my idea.

That leaves the two Michigan Schools and two Indiana schools. Why not.

If they keep the divisions, then fold the LA schools into the West and flip Purdue to the East to pair with Indiana. That is certainly more balanced. Trouble is you have 7 division games, so only two crossovers? Boring schedule to say the least. I guess you would see a team from the other division once every 4 years?

Those are your two options. Neither is great. Imagine how crappy it will be when we get to 20 teams......