Rumor flying about here in Huskerland

[CP87]

Could go to a system like the NFL with more than 2 divisions. Could do 4 divisions of 5 pretty easy with 20 teams. The only thing would be that there isn't as much parity as the NFL (the best and worst NFL teams are ridiculously close in talent) so you'd have to be pretty careful how you divided it up.

Don't you have to just go geographical and live with the imbalance?

Aside from the blue bloods, the other programs wax and wane (the blue bloods can struggle too, just to a lesser extent and for shorter periods of time). What ever plan you have to achieve parity could look like an abject failure in 2 years. So do you just plan to keep shuffling every few years, or do you embrace the map and traditional rivals? I think those regional rivalries matter a lot in college FB, and if you lose those, you lose a huge part of what people love.

 

[CP87]

Trivia: of the current B1G teams, going all the way back to the start of divisional play (2011), what is the only team to have never registered a losing season (overall record)?

 

[NorthKCHawk]

As long as they keep regional rivalries alive, I can live with the changes. It sucked when we did not play Wisky for a couple seasons. Losing Minny and Nebbie would not be good.

I like 20 teams with 4 pods of 5. If you rotate pods you get to see a team not in your pod every 3 years. You play your pod every year. Like the NFL. I guess that is about the best you can do with that big of a "conference."

 

[Fryowa]

Don't you have to just go geographical and live with the imbalance?

Aside from the blue bloods, the other programs wax and wane (the blue bloods can struggle too, just to a lesser extent and for shorter periods of time). What ever plan you have to achieve parity could look like an abject failure in 2 years. So do you just plan to keep shuffling every few years, or do you embrace the map and traditional rivals? I think those regional rivalries matter a lot in college FB, and if you lose those, you lose a huge part of what people love.

I don't think geography is as pertinent as people portray it to be. These teams all travel by private air charter, LAX to Penn State is a 5 hour flight, LAX to Nebraska is a 3 hour flight. Not a big deal.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Trivia: of the current B1G teams, going all the way back to the start of divisional play (2011), what is the only team to have never registered a losing season (overall record)?

Probably Ohio St I would guess.

 

[MelroseHawkins]

I don't think geography is as pertinent as people portray it to be. These teams all travel by private air charter, LAX to Penn State is a 5 hour flight, LAX to Nebraska is a 3 hour flight. Not a big deal.

Yea, that's not a big deal for them to do 5 times a season. This ain't the 1960's where they're loading up on Thomas school buses and driving to Minneapolis. Hell, they can do those flight quicker than busing anyway. Plus, prob better mentally than a long road trip anyway.

 

[Fryowa]

Probably Ohio St I would guess.

Nope. Wisconsin.

I had to check.

OSU went 6-7 in 2011

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Nope. Wisconsin.

I had to check.

OSU went 6-7 in 2011

No chit.

 

[CP87]

I don't think geography is as pertinent as people portray it to be. These teams all travel by private air charter, LAX to Penn State is a 5 hour flight, LAX to Nebraska is a 3 hour flight. Not a big deal.

I don't mean logistically, I mean from the rivalry standpoint. I am with @NorthKCHawk , playing Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska matters to me. Think about how meaningful it was for Nebraska to beat us last year at the end of an otherwise ass season. That would not have meant much to them had it been Washington.

 

[CP87]

Nope. Wisconsin.

I had to check.

OSU went 6-7 in 2011

In that span, here are the # of losing seasons from the best of the conference:

Wisconsin (none)
Iowa (2012)
OSU (2011)
PSU (2020; not sure if that season should count, as weird as it was)
Michigan (2014, 2020)

NW (including only because they have 2 divisional titles in this stretch; 2011, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2021, 2022)

Nebby (including for Schadenfreude of pointing out losing seasons in 7 of the last 8; 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

 

[NCHawker]

SHORT TERM

There is not a lot of incentive for B1G schools to add another team or teams because it would be financially dillutive.

It may not make sense for Oregon to give its self a harder road to the playoff.

It will be expensive for ACC Schools

LONGER TERM

Big ten can grab a big chunk of college football. And on the next round of media negotiations have a lot of leverage and potentially more money per institution. At this point its not really a conference anymore but a league or consortium.

Such a series of additions to B1G fundamentally changes CFB and will require a new College Playoff Arrangement.


There is rationale all over the place on every scenario and it depends what the institutions are thinking.

 

[#1DieHardHawk]

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer the old days where conferences for the most part were geographically based. It's been naïve for a long time to think that it can stay that way. The landscape now is all about money and market share. It is what it is unfortunately.

The NFL set-up division alignments may very well be the way to go, but there would be major domino impacts on the NCAA as a whole. It's a game of musical chairs that no one wants to lose.

Getting back to the travel question, yes, it is much easier nowadays but some scenarios could still be an issue. A Rutgers-UCLA matchup, for instance, would be a real pain for everyone involved. The travel time itself is bad enough, but adjusting to time zones three hours apart repeatedly is pretty demanding.

 

[Fryowa]

The travel time itself is bad enough, but adjusting to time zones three hours apart repeatedly is pretty demanding.

NFL players do it all year long. These guys are really no different if we’re being honest. College and pro football players are by and large the most physically elite people on the planet. If anyone can handle those demands it’s them. USC could leave LA at 7AM and make it to New Jersey in time for lunch. The only thing you’d have to do different is send the equipment semi a day earlier than normal.

To be honest, these programs are swimming in hundreds of millions of dollars every year, what I’d do as an AD of an east or west coast team is buy two complete load outs of gear. Store one semi trailer in the Midwest, say the Chicago area, and have one set of gear that stays on the east coast for road trips out there. Fly your driver out to wherever it is (on an $300 plane ticket) and they can drive it a 10th of the distance.

 

[99topdawg]

Could go to a system like the NFL with more than 2 divisions. Could do 4 divisions of 5 pretty easy with 20 teams. The only thing would be that there isn't as much parity as the NFL (the best and worst NFL teams are ridiculously close in talent) so you'd have to be pretty careful how you divided it up.

I thought about this as well as well. It would make the most sense. Play 11 games (non-con included), have a semi-finals and finals. The problem with that is that you have to play 2 tough games just to get to the playoffs where a team is hoping to play 2 more games. Not sure how else to do it unless they pair up divisions and play crossovers to decide which team of the two divisions goes to the CCG. Then rotate the pairings every year.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

I would think scheduling games for 2 or 3 monster conferences would be a shit show. Attempting to maintain rivals and parity would be damn near impossible.

There isn't parity now, so I'm not too concerned about that. Getting to the B1G Championship game is about 1. beating Ohio State (East teams) or 2. Getting a weak draw of East teams (West). The same can be said of SEC scheduling, where teams also play one less conference game, as well as most teams scheduling a late game against a total shitter Go5/FCS program for a second bye week. Hell, even out of the other current P5 conferences, for the ACC, Clemson just wins, and for the Little 12(10? 8?), it's just Oklahoma speed running the conference year after year. The Pac-12 has the most parity, and that is purely because all the teams suck.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

Nope. Wisconsin.

I had to check.

OSU went 6-7 in 2011

That is one goofy factoid. I would have gone with Ohio State, too.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

SHORT TERM
It may not make sense for Oregon to give its self a harder road to the playoff.

Beats the hell out of the eventuality where they don't have a path to the playoff, think Go5 teams today.

 

[Fryowa]

That is one goofy factoid. I would have gone with Ohio State, too.

Same here. I thought maybe Penn State.

 

[CP87]

Same here. I thought maybe Penn State.

You could make an argument that PSU has also achieved that if you throw out the goofy 2020 season. That said, they had four 7-win seasons, so they haven't been a juggernaut for the last 12 years (very close to Iowa, but with a higher ceiling).

 

[BigD]

Get rid of ISU

Dumbest game in college football.

I agree. I am tired of charity games. This never benefits the U of I.