Gary Andersen onboard with possibility of 10-game Big Ten schedule

[BleedGopher]

per Andy Baggot:

UW coach Gary Andersen not only senses that the Big Ten Conference will go to a 10-game schedule some day soon, he believes all the other major affiliations in college football will do so eventually.

“I’m good with that,” Andersen said, “as long as we’re strategic and think about what we’re doing in those other games.”

http://host.madison.com/sports/colu...cle_3a0caca7-ce9a-566e-8767-91d99725239a.html

Go Gophers!!

 

[LakerFan]

Can't happen soon enough.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Can't happen soon enough.

Agreed. 10 game conference schedule + no FCS opponents = college football heaven

 

[Dr.Don]

Agreed. 10 game conference schedule + no FCS opponents = college football heaven

Yes, and all for our enjoyment at the expense of our players.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Yes, and all for our enjoyment at the expense of our players.

You're off the mark here, Doc. Players choose big-time schools to play against the best. Willing to bet most players from the major conferences would welcome another conference game. Do you really think they'd dread having one less cupcake on their schedule?

 

[Gopherguy0723]

I'd actually prefer to get rid of non-conference altogether with 14 schools in the Big Ten.

 

[Dr.Don]

I'd actually prefer to get rid of non-conference altogether with 14 schools in the Big Ten.

Now that I can agree with, but we, and every other B1G SCHOOL WILL need more than 85 scholly players to cover all of the injuries that will result. Mark my word on that, sports fans.

Even the Pros use 4 or 5 preseason games to grade their people before they hit the bigtime games.

 

[die hard gopher]

Yes, and all for our enjoyment at the expense of our players.

I'm sure the players would agree with bleedsmaroonandgold. You think they would rather play an FCS team over another crossover game?

 

[station19]

Now that I can agree with, but we, and every other B1G SCHOOL WILL need more than 85 scholly players to cover all of the injuries that will result. Mark my word on that, sports fans.

Even the Pros use 4 or 5 preseason games to grade their people before they hit the bigtime games.

Sorry Doc, they use 4 or 5 preseason games to bring in more money.

What's the report today, each NFL team brings in $187 Million just from national revenue?....................that's not including the preseason games, reg season games and all the psl's and local/in game ads....naming rights...etc.....

 

[corcoran1]

I completely disagree with this. These kids don't need to get pounded by other B1G teams 10 times a year. More specifically if a program gets down to where we or Illinois or Purdue or Indiana has been it is likely the team will go 2-10 or 1-11 for 3 or four years making it all but impossible to get out of that trap.
I'm all for it if you promise me we ever get another dumb athletic director who can't hire a football coach, but I don't think we have that guarantee

 

[corcoran1]

Gary Andersen is very interesting. Maybe he is a great coach, or maybe he was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. I guess we'll find out over the next 5 years or so.

 

[dpodoll68]

I don't like it (eliminating non-conference games) for the simple fact that it would get repetitive and boring. No USC, TCU, Cal, UNLV, Oregon St., etc., etc. ever again. The only opportunity for variety would be bowl games, which would probably be few and far between playing 12 or more Big Ten teams every year.

 

[die hard gopher]

I don't like it (eliminating non-conference games) for the simple fact that it would get repetitive and boring. No USC, TCU, Cal, UNLV, Oregon St., etc., etc. ever again. The only opportunity for variety would be bowl games, which would probably be few and far between playing 12 or more Big Ten teams every year.

Thats what concerns me as well. I wouldn't mind getting rid of FCS teams and a home game against NMSU, UNLV etc. but an away game can be kind of interesting and then why would we want to eliminate the USC, Syracuse, Cal, TCU type games? Even watching David Fales was just as satisfying as any Big Ten team.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

Weren't there 9 conference for each team way back when? Maybe we should go back to that and that would give teams three non-conference opponents. Sounds like a fair compromise.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

I don't like it (eliminating non-conference games) for the simple fact that it would get repetitive and boring. No USC, TCU, Cal, UNLV, Oregon St., etc., etc. ever again. The only opportunity for variety would be bowl games, which would probably be few and far between playing 12 or more Big Ten teams every year.

I'd be onboard with you if our non-conference schedules were shaking out with 3 USC, TCU, Cal, or Oregon State's every year. But I'd rather have more conference games if the alternative is holding my nose through 3 Eastern Illionois, San Jose State, or Middle Tennessee State games. Those games do nothing for me as a fan. One of two things happen: either win a game and the only thing to get excited about is that we didn't wet the bed against a team so bad that I am embarrassed they are even on the schedule, or worse, we lose a game to a team so bad that I am embarrassed they are even on the schedule. I could be miserable after one of those games if we lose, and the most excited I can possibly be is to say "well, at least we didn't totally screw up our season with a horrible loss in week 2."

As for bowl games getting few and far between if we play 12 Big Ten teams, I feel like to be a post-season quality team, it is not unreasonable to need to win half of your games against conference competition. I have trouble getting psyched when we go to a bowl game despite going 25% in conference because we did a good job of finding 4 chumps to play gimme games against in the out of conference. If a 2-6 B1G team is going to the playoffs, then either there are deserving small conference teams being left out or the field is too big.

 

[corcoran1]

I'd be onboard with you if our non-conference schedules were shaking out with 3 USC, TCU, Cal, or Oregon State's every year. But I'd rather have more conference games if the alternative is holding my nose through 3 Eastern Illionois, San Jose State, or Middle Tennessee State games. Those games do nothing for me as a fan. One of two things happen: either win a game and the only thing to get excited about is that we didn't wet the bed against a team so bad that I am embarrassed they are even on the schedule, or worse, we lose a game to a team so bad that I am embarrassed they are even on the schedule. I could be miserable after one of those games if we lose, and the most excited I can possibly be is to say "well, at least we didn't totally screw up our season with a horrible loss in week 2."

As for bowl games getting few and far between if we play 12 Big Ten teams, I feel like to be a post-season quality team, it is not unreasonable to need to win half of your games against conference competition. I have trouble getting psyched when we go to a bowl game despite going 25% in conference because we did a good job of finding 4 chumps to play gimme games against in the out of conference. If a 2-6 B1G team is going to the playoffs, then either there are deserving small conference teams being left out or the field is too big.

The guys who want this will be the first guys to want coaches fired who guy 4-6 in conference, and that could happen to any team in the conference at this point except probably MSU and OSU.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

The guys who want this will be the first guys to want coaches fired who guy 4-6 in conference, and that could happen to any team in the conference at this point except probably MSU and OSU.

4-6 in conference wouldn't have me calling for a coach's head. A loss to Eastern Illinois or Middle Tennessee State absolutely would.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

Horrible idea - we tried that in the Seventies and the result was suicide. With 14 teams (itself a bad idea) even 10 games doesn't cover the board. Bad enough being in a conference with Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. It would mean playing one of those teams more often.

 

[JoeDirt]

I don't like Gary Anderson or his becky's. His 2nd year big ten opinion shouldn't be counted. Oh, and BTW... F him.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

I could see a 10-game conf schedule at some point - just to eliminate the problems that a 9-game schedule creates with scheduling (5 conf home games 1 yr - 4 conf home games the next yr).

I don't think they would ever go to a 12-gm Conf schedule. The Big Boys like OSU, Michigan, etc. would lose their marquee non-conf TV games. It also creates issues for team that are replacing key players, and would lose the non-conf games as a way to evaluate newcomers. If you're breaking in a new QB, I'm not sure you want his 1st start to be a conf game.

I know there are people on this board that feel any B1G game is preferable to a non-conf game - but personally, I would rather see the Gophs play an interesting non-conf team instead of facing one of the B1G's bottom-feeders.
If the B1G goes to a 10-game conf schedule, you will never see the Gophs play a big-time non-conf game - unless the program improves to a point where the TV networks are willing to throw money at them to get them to play in one of the showcase non-conf games.

 

[MNVCGUY]

I could see a 10-game conf schedule at some point - just to eliminate the problems that a 9-game schedule creates with scheduling (5 conf home games 1 yr - 4 conf home games the next yr).

I don't think they would ever go to a 12-gm Conf schedule. The Big Boys like OSU, Michigan, etc. would lose their marquee non-conf TV games. It also creates issues for team that are replacing key players, and would lose the non-conf games as a way to evaluate newcomers. If you're breaking in a new QB, I'm not sure you want his 1st start to be a conf game.

I know there are people on this board that feel any B1G game is preferable to a non-conf game - but personally, I would rather see the Gophs play an interesting non-conf team instead of facing one of the B1G's bottom-feeders.
If the B1G goes to a 10-game conf schedule, you will never see the Gophs play a big-time non-conf game - unless the program improves to a point where the TV networks are willing to throw money at them to get them to play in one of the showcase non-conf games.

With a 10 game conference schedule I would have zero issue with not seeing a top non-conf opponent in either of those other 2 spots. Personally I would love seeing a 2 cupcake/tune-up games followed by 10 league games. People (myself included) want to see at least one non-conf game on par with the Big Ten currently anyway so all you would really be doing is replacing one garbage opponent with a conference game each year. Might make padding the record to insure a bowl bid a little tougher but I would still rather see league games any day over the week as opposed to a game against a weak team that is just there to collect a paycheck.

 

[bemidjigopher]

Horrible idea - we tried that in the Seventies and the result was suicide. With 14 teams (itself a bad idea) even 10 games doesn't cover the board. Bad enough being in a conference with Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan. It would mean playing one of those teams more often.

That's how losers think, I say figure out away to get better. Don't worry about who you're playing figure how to build a program that can beat the teams you're playing. I say play 10 conference games. 2 non con games, abolish conference title games, expand the playoffs to 16 teams, use some of the more prestigious bowl game sites for playoff matches. After the regular season, you can keep a few bowl games for some of the better teams who don't make the playoffs. They do that in D2

 

[mplsbadger]

I was initially opposed to nine until I found out that the extra game home vs. away is consistent a cross the division. From a conference perspective it's not worse than ten games other than you get an every other year advantage/disadvantage in bowl pecking order.

It seems with ten we'd have either two home / away games with power conf teams or two paid games with directionals. Kind of an either / or scenario. I guess the former would be appealing but it would probably mean less bowl trips.

 

[Nate]

I could see a 10-game conf schedule at some point - just to eliminate the problems that a 9-game schedule creates with scheduling (5 conf home games 1 yr - 4 conf home games the next yr).

I don't think they would ever go to a 12-gm Conf schedule. The Big Boys like OSU, Michigan, etc. would lose their marquee non-conf TV games. It also creates issues for team that are replacing key players, and would lose the non-conf games as a way to evaluate newcomers. If you're breaking in a new QB, I'm not sure you want his 1st start to be a conf game.

I know there are people on this board that feel any B1G game is preferable to a non-conf game - but personally, I would rather see the Gophs play an interesting non-conf team instead of facing one of the B1G's bottom-feeders.
If the B1G goes to a 10-game conf schedule, you will never see the Gophs play a big-time non-conf game - unless the program improves to a point where the TV networks are willing to throw money at them to get them to play in one of the showcase non-conf games.

there are teams in the SEC that start off right away against each other.

 

[Nate]

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...says-10-game-conference-schedules-are-coming/

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz believes B1G will eventually go to 10 conference games. “Think it will happen in near future"</p>— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/McMurphyESPN/statuses/494899136467308544">July 31, 2014</a></blockquote>
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