Athlon Sports reports Clemson, Florida State, Oregon, and Washington

Stanford and Cal make far more sense than Clemson and Florida State for the Big Ten.

On many levels. Academic, social, political, geographical. But most of all competitive balance.

The idea of just loading up on the best football teams possible (as of 2023) must backfire when at least some of those teams fall off. Somebody has to lose the games.
Agreed. You missed socially and spiritually...;)
 

We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.
 

We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.

I hate to see the traditional B1G change so much, but I could live with that line up.

Considering both basketball and football, which three ACC schools would you pick? I’m thinking Duke, North Carolina and Clemson.
 

I hate to see the traditional B1G change so much, but I could live with that line up.

Considering both basketball and football, which three ACC schools would you pick? I’m thinking Duke, North Carolina and Clemson.
I don't follow basketball all that much, but I think UNC has to be one of the three. The other two I'm not sure. Duke is probably a good option, I've heard arguments for Virginia, Georgia tech...but I definitely think you're right that the ACC additions may make more sense basketball wise than football. The Big 12 may try to get some of those schools though to cement their basketball conference, so it'll all be messy when the ACC goes...
 

I hate to see the traditional B1G change so much, but I could live with that line up.

Considering both basketball and football, which three ACC schools would you pick? I’m thinking Duke, North Carolina and Clemson.
UVa would be one for me. But Duke/UNC is probably a package deal and so are UVA/VT.
 


We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.
Scheduling for this gets tricky. Play all 5 of your division games, and then you have 4 crossover games to figure out, but 3 other divisions. An easy route would be to go down to 8 conference games again and then just slowly rotate through the teams in other divisions, but I doubt we would do that.

Perhaps each year you get "paired" with another division? Could either be West coast vs Central plains, etc where all the teams in a division only play teams from the paired division for their crossovers. Then you rotate divisions slowly each year.

Or maybe each team has a random division chosen to play? So like all of our crossover games are against West coast, but Iowa's could all be East coast.

Certainly a tough cookie to crack.
 

What if they brought back the East and West like this? It would be pretty fair from a competitive balance standpoint. Only problem is Minnesota ends up quasi-joining the Pac 12

East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
MSU
Indiana
Purdue
Maryland
Rutgers
Illinois
Northwestern

West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
 

What if they brought back the East and West like this? It would be pretty fair from a competitive balance standpoint. Only problem is Minnesota ends up quasi-joining the Pac 12

East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
MSU
Indiana
Purdue
Maryland
Rutgers
Illinois
Northwestern

West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
I think with just the 4 additional Pac-12 additions they stick with the flex schedule and more tightly couple the west coast schools. I think we need to be looking at more than 20 schools for them to rethink scheduling again. At 24 schools the big ten championship is likely adds a semi final.
 

We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.
I think you're right, although I do not like Cal joining at all. Those ACC schools will consist of three of these 5: UNC, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, or FSU.
 



If they go to 20, why not make division 1 the original 10 Big 10 members and Division 2 is made up of all the new members...
 

What if they brought back the East and West like this? It would be pretty fair from a competitive balance standpoint. Only problem is Minnesota ends up quasi-joining the Pac 12

East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
MSU
Indiana
Purdue
Maryland
Rutgers
Illinois
Northwestern

West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
I wouldn't mind this. I would miss regular games against Mich but gladly trade regular games against Rutgers, MD and even Indiana for the BigPac teams.
 

We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.
We have 10 teams in the Big 10 and have "one" division, we go to 12 teams, too many teams so we go to 2 divisions. then we go to 16 teams and feel that divisions suck and they should all be in one pile, then we go to 20+ teams and now we need more divisions. I really dont think anyone has a plan. This may push me over the edge and say Bye Bye to D1 college athletics, yuck
 

Cal and Stanford can go Big 12, bring on Clemson and FSU. No one wants to watch Stanford or cal in anything but FSU coming to the Bank, sold out and rocking
 



I like the 24 teams, breaking down into groups of 6. You play 5 games against your "division" opponents and then rotate 3 other B1G games with 2 non-conference foes. Then their is a "playoff week" where division winners play in a semi-final game and other teams are matched up with similarly ranked teams, with the guarantee not to repeat match-ups from the season. Home teams would be based on which division you are in for that week, so tickets can be sold in advance (you just wouldn't know the opponent). TV would love the additional revenue and storylines. Teams on the edge of the playoffs who are not #1 in the division would love playing against another strong opponent they should beat. All ending with a championship game like we have now and getting 4-6 teams into the 12 team playoff on a yearly basis.

Wouldn't surprise me if we add 6 teams this month and then try and get an additional 2 teams after FSU and Clemson show their is a exit strategy that makes financial sense.
 

I like the 24 teams, breaking down into groups of 6. You play 5 games against your "division" opponents and then rotate 3 other B1G games with 2 non-conference foes. Then their is a "playoff week" where division winners play in a semi-final game and other teams are matched up with similarly ranked teams, with the guarantee not to repeat match-ups from the season. Home teams would be based on which division you are in for that week, so tickets can be sold in advance (you just wouldn't know the opponent). TV would love the additional revenue and storylines. Teams on the edge of the playoffs who are not #1 in the division would love playing against another strong opponent they should beat. All ending with a championship game like we have now and getting 4-6 teams into the 12 team playoff on a yearly basis.

Wouldn't surprise me if we add 6 teams this month and then try and get an additional 2 teams after FSU and Clemson show their is a exit strategy that makes financial sense.
If my math is correct, half would only play 11 games.
 

I'm afraid all of this is going to be a mess, and no one is going to be able to come up with a plan to keep everyone happy. Then another break up occurs.
 

I think you're right, although I do not like Cal joining at all. Those ACC schools will consist of three of these 5: UNC, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, or FSU.
You're all forgetting Miami
 

I love the people thinking were too good for Cal and Stanford. They are both far superior academically to us and Cal beat us at home in 2009 and 2006 on the road. I'm sure UCLA and USC fans are already groaning about having to play MN, IND, ILL, Purdue, Neb, MD, Rutgers, NW. PLease dont act like Cornhusker fans.
 

I love the people thinking were too good for Cal and Stanford. They are both far superior academically to us and Cal beat us at home in 2009 and 2006 on the road. I'm sure UCLA and USC fans are already groaning about having to play MN, IND, ILL, Purdue, Neb, MD, Rutgers, NW. PLease dont act like Cornhusker fans.
In the last 10 years Stanford has been:
There's a fantastic argument to be made for Stanford being superior to all current Big Ten schools. The conference should add them immediately if they have any interest in joining.
 


Cal being in the same conference as BYU and Baylor would be pretty entertaining.

Baylor and Cal are both the Bears and are the two other schools I've seen go Full Banana besides Minnesota. They can play the in the Behr Banana Bowl every year.
 

In the last 10 years Stanford has been:
There's a fantastic argument to be made for Stanford being superior to all current Big Ten schools. The conference should add them immediately if they have any interest in joining.
No one paying millions/billions of dollars to broadcast football games cares about directors cups and how well Stanford's crew team did that year.
 



No one paying millions/billions of dollars to broadcast football games cares about directors cups and how well Stanford's crew team did that year.
Can we just skip ahead a couple steps then and rename the conference Football on FOX?

If we're at a point where Stanford isn't enough of a brand for the Big Ten then we should be deeply concerned about our own future in the conference.
 

Can we just skip ahead a couple steps then and rename the conference Football on FOX?

If we're at a point where Stanford isn't enough of a brand for the Big Ten then we should be deeply concerned about our own future in the conference.
Stanford would cement the B1G as THE Volleyball Conference.
 


in order to add ACC teams, those teams need to find a legal and financial way to separate themselves from the ACC. No idea how long that might take.

I suspect that the B1G was honestly willing to wait and see how things played out - but the accelerated collapse of the Pac-12 made things happen a lot sooner than the B1G had expected.

so now the B1G finds itself in a situation where it sees the Pac-12 falling apart with Oregon and Washington becoming available, and the B1G has to make a decision sooner than it planned.

I am not wild about Sanford and Cal, but they are very strong AAU research institutions that would be a good fit with the overall mission of the B1G. And, it would give the B1G 6 schools on the West Coast for scheduling purposes.
 

What if they brought back the East and West like this? It would be pretty fair from a competitive balance standpoint. Only problem is Minnesota ends up quasi-joining the Pac 12

East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
MSU
Indiana
Purdue
Maryland
Rutgers
Illinois
Northwestern

West
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Oregon
Washington
Stanford
Cal
The problem with this is:
1) Either you play your entire division (9 games) and no non-divisional games
2) You don't play your entire division in order to play non-divisional games. Would be weird to be a division champion if you dodge Michigan or Ohio State.
 

We'll end at 24 teams when the Pac-12 and ACC crumble. Take 4 more from the PAC-12, finally convince ND, and take 3 from the ACC. Then you have 4 divisions of 6 teams.

West coast division
1. Washington
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Stanford
5. USC
6. UCLA

Central (Plains) Division
1. Minnesota
2. Wisconsin
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Northwestern

Great Lakes Division
1. OSU
2. Michigan
3. MSU
4. Notre Dame
5. Purdue
6. Indiana

East Coast Division
1. Penn State
2. Maryland
3. Rutgers
4. ACC team 1
5. ACC team 2
6. ACC team 3

Maybe ND stays independent and we grab another ACC team, but I honestly think this is where we'll be when all the dust settles.
This would be a sweet setup. Probably have to cheat the borders a bit and swap Notre Dame and Illinois to balance out the strength of the divisions.

Imagine a quick 4 team playoff to get the automatic bid and bye in the CFP? Would make for a great December/January!
 




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