What Law states that a conference has to have divisions?

[WhitUp]

If UT/Oky/A&M or whatever happens and we have 14 team superconference, what law states that we have to have divisions???? Why can't we just have one conference? Everyone keeps there closest rivals on an annual basis and the top two teams go to the conference championship. This way you can keep your rivals and you wouldn't go six to eight years in between playing your cross divisions. So if everyone in big ten right now keeps their 2 rivals and Texas/Oky/A&M become each others rivals(which they are). It would work out where you'd play half the teams the first two years stint and the other half the next(plus one extra team).

IMO I never got why people felt that you have to have a conference championship game only if you have two divisions. I'm sure some people will say it's not fair for the 2nd place team to get another shot at the first place team a second time, but wouldn't we want the two best teams playing anyways? In 2003 a 4-4 Colorado team could of pulled the upset in the Big 12 Championship and they are conference champions? Does that make Sense? I went back and look at the history of the Big 12 and 13 out of the 14 years(only 98), where you could at least argue that the two best teams did not play for the championship(at first it tended to be the North had two best teams and then lately the South).



96 Neb (8-0) 11-2
Col (7-1) 10-2
Texas (6-2) 8-5

97 Neb 8-0 12-0
K-state (7-1) 10-1
A&M (6-2) 9-3

99 Neb (7-1) 12-1
K-state (7-1) 11-1
Texas (6-2) 9-5

2000 Oky (8-0) 13-0
Texas(7-1) 9-3
K-state (6-2) 11-3

2001 Colorado (7-1) 10-3
Nebby (7-1)11-2
Texas (7-1) 11-2

2002
Oky (6-2) 12-2
Texas(6-2) 11-2
Col (7-1) 9-5

2003 Oky (8-0) 12-2
Tex (7-1) 10-3
K-state (6-2) 11-4

2004
Colorado (4-4) 8-5
Oky (8-0) 12-1
Tex (7-1) 11-1

2005
Colorado (5-3) 7-6
Texas (8-0) 13-0
Tex Tech (6-2) 9-3

2006
Neb (6-2) 9-5
Oky(7-1) 11-3
Tex(6-2) 10-3

2007
Kansas (7-1) 12-1
Missouri (7-1) 12-2
Oky (6-3) 11-3

2008
Miss (5-3) 10-4
Oky (7-1) 12-2
Texas (7-1)12-1

2009
Neb (6-2) 10-4
Tex (8-0) 13-1
Oky st.(6-2) 9-4

 

[tmurph2643]

So what are you going to do when teams 2 and 3 have identical records and did not play each other that year?

Divisions sets it up so that you have head to head with everybody in your division

 

[UP6936]

The law of mega-lucrative conference championship games and the added exposure for the conference is what says we have divisons.

With 12 teams we could (or would) never have a round robin in conference play. 14 teams would certainly make it impossible. Non-conference home games are big mney makers and add lot of flavor to the season.

If the Big 10 expands, it WILL play in divisions.

 

[WhitUp]

So what are you going to do when teams 2 and 3 have identical records and did not play each other that year?

Divisions sets it up so that you have head to head with everybody in your division

The same thing you do when 3 teams tie and they all beat each other, another tiebreaker

 

[WhitUp]

The law of mega-lucrative conference championship games and the added exposure for the conference is what says we have divisons.

With 12 teams we could (or would) never have a round robin in conference play. 14 teams would certainly make it impossible. Non-conference home games are big mney makers and add lot of flavor to the season.

If the Big 10 expands, it WILL play in divisions.

I'm not saying we don't have a conf championship game, I'm saying we just have the 1-2 teams play each other for the championship. Just cause Oklahoma beats Texas and Texas beats everyone else, they don't deserve shot at championship and Nebreska does cause they play weaker division??? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Caven]

One way to do it is instead of 2 seven team divisions you end up with a lot of little divisions to help ease the rotation and keep you from not playing someone for 8 years.

Division 1:
Michigan State
Michigan
Ohio State

Division 2:
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minny
Penn State

Division 3:
Nebraska
Texas
tAMU

Division 4:
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern


Each 2 year period you play your own division, 1 other division and some teams from a third division. The next 2 year period you play your own division, the division that wasn't touched and the other teams from the division that you only got a part of. In this way you play every school 2 out of every 4 years with keeping your closest rivalries intact. It would just be a slight variation on the standard 12 team setup that the conferences use now.

You then just combine a 4 team division and a 3 team division to form your 7 team master division based on which divisions are currently matched up against each other and the winners of each 7 team master division play for the title.

I gave very little thought to full balance in throwing these together and it could probably be tweaked a little bit. The way it is set up you would always have Texas/Nebby/tAMU in an opposite division from OSU, Michigan and MSU. Given current football power the PSU/Iowa/Wisky/Minny division is way better than the Illinois/Indiana division that would always be on separate sides but that could easily change from year to year.

I put Penn State with the 3 of us because they needed to go someplace and putting them in either of the other 3 team divisions seemed like it would overpower those divisions as far as big names. That and Iowa/Penn State seems to have developed into a pretty good rivalry in the past decade.

 

[Caven]

As an example.

Year one:
Division 1 and Division 4 are Master Division A
Division 2 and Division 3 are Master Division B

Division 2 (ours) would then play all of Division 2 and Division 3 and two teams from Division 4. The following 2 years we would end up in a master division with Division 1 playing all of our own division, all of Division 1 and the two teams from Division 4 that we didn't play.

Because Division 1 and 3 have one less member they end up with a permanent partner that never leaves their schedule out of the other 3 team division. This would allow a Texas/Ohio State, Michigan/Nebby and tAMU/MSU annual rivalry to develop giving the old Big 12 members a true rival in the new teams. Nebraska fans HATE Michigan so setting them up to play every year would immediately become a rivalry to replace Colorado in the division. And based on the Texas message boards Texas fans are drooling over the possibility of playing OSU every year for a real marquee game.