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MrGopher

MrGopher

The Anti-Sioux
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I'm gonna throw my Big Ten expansion and alignment plan out there. Please Argue. Rip it to shreds, in fact. :)

In this plan, I am the ruler of the universe, and I say Notre Dame is the new team. I dont care about issues with public/private status, TV contracts, school regents, or big ten commissioners and presidents. I just decided.... It will be Notre Dame.

There will be two divisions. North and South. Each team will play the other teams in that division every year, that's five games a piece. The divisions are....

North: Minnesota, wisconsin, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State
South: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State

Now that works fine except for the fact that many of the primary rivalries are split up. To solve this, each school will have two permanent rivals from the other division. They are....

Minnesota: Iowa, Penn St.
wisconsin: Iowa, Illinois
Northwestern: Illinois, Purdue
Notre Dame: Purdue, Indiana
Michigan: Ohio St., Indiana
Michigan St: Ohio St., Penn St.

Iowa: Minnesota, wisconsin
Illinois: wisconsin, Northwestern
Purdue: Northwestern, Notre Dame
Indiana: Notre Dame, Michigan
Ohio St: Michigan, Michigan St.
Penn St. Michigan St., Minnesota

This keeps all trophy games, instate matchups, and major rivalry games intact.... with one exception.... Mich St. vs. Indiana. Sorry, Old Brass Spittoon.

That leaves one game (in an 8 conference game schedule) which rotates year-to-year between the other four teams in the opposite division.

But since I rule the universe, we will play nine conference games, so we go no longer than two years without playing any opponent (just like the system we have today.) If the PAC10 can play nine, so can we.

Then we get a conference championship game. For geography and quality-of-stadium reasons, I suggest Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. But I would accept Lambeau, Soldier, Ford, or Heinz Fields. Possibly even the Cleveland Browns stadium.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the best conference in the nation...there it is!! Your thoughts....
 

Well since you said rip it to shreads...;)

1. ND makes the most sense but how are you going to get them to give up their exclusive TV contract, bowl contract, national rivalries etc.
2. Geographically I think East/West makes a lot more sense.
3. The two constant opponents from the other division creates an unbalanced schedule - ND gets Purdue and Indiana every year? (maybe this is to convince them to give up playing SDSU, Washington State, Service Academies etc. every year)

That's about all I've got except this thought: The title games are a good thing for the conferences except this year it cost the SEC the opportunity to have both teams in the National Championship game.
 

I would go West and East:
West: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame
East: Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St., Ohio St., Indiana, Purdue

Play every team in your division, plus half from the other every year. Put your cross division games in a 4-year rotation. For example, the Gophers rotation would look like:
Year 1: @Michigan, Michigan St, @Penn St.
Year 2: Ohio St., @Indiana, Purdue
Year 3: Michigan, @Michigan St, Penn St.
Year 4: @Ohio St., Indiana, @Purdue
This way you play each team every other year.
 

I would favor East/West as well:
East: PSU, OSU, Michigan, MSU, Purdue, Indiana
West: ND, NW, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, MN

Here's the rub. Don't necessarily play all teams in your division each year, just continue to play the same 2 rivalry games that everyone has. ND's 2 rivals can be Michigan and Purdue.

The championship game rotates every year between Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit and Chicago.
 

The reason I didn't divide it East and West is because the East would be loaded, lets face it. It would be more unbalanced than the big12 is now.

West: Minn, wisc, Iowa, N'Western, Illinois, Purdue
East: Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Mich St., Ohio St., Penn St.

Ouch, I'd hate to be a Hoosier.
 


MrGopher said:
The reason I didn't divide it East and West is because the East would be loaded, lets face it. It would be more unbalanced than the big12 is now.

West: Minn, wisc, Iowa, N'Western, Illinois, Purdue
East: Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Mich St., Ohio St., Penn St.

Ouch, I'd hate to be a Hoosier.
Click to expand...

Swap ND and Purdue and it'd be fine. Wisconsin and Iowa are consistently upper-conference teams now.
 

MrGopher said:
The reason I didn't divide it East and West is because the East would be loaded, lets face it. It would be more unbalanced than the big12 is now.

West: Minn, wisc, Iowa, N'Western, Illinois, Purdue
East: Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Mich St., Ohio St., Penn St.

Ouch, I'd hate to be a Hoosier.
Click to expand...

This year the West averaged 4.2 conference wins per team, the East 3.8. Of course, having Michigan & Indiana in the East didn't help.

BTW, an Iowa-OSU championship on neutral turf would have matched the Big 12 for excitement.
 

Yeah, I do see the points you guys are throwing out there. I'll admit that the East/West divide does seem more natural, but i still think it will work itself into being as unbalanced as the big12 is.

My intentions were to 1.) Keep historical rivalries 2.) Keep Trophy games 3.) Keep all instate matchups 4.) balance in division strength 5.) Maximize the possibility of a Conference Championship between rival teams
 




MrGopher said:
Yeah, I do see the points you guys are throwing out there. I'll admit that the East/West divide does seem more natural, but i still think it will work itself into being as unbalanced as the big12 is.

My intentions were to 1.) Keep historical rivalries 2.) Keep Trophy games 3.) Keep all instate matchups 4.) balance in division strength 5.) Maximize the possibility of a Conference Championship between rival teams
Click to expand...

It's still not as unbalanced as you think. Without including Notre Dame, the five west teams have a combined Big Ten record of 132-148 since 2003. The six teams in the east combined for a 176-160 record in that same time frame. Add Notre Dame, a team that should consistently be a middle of the pack to upper tier Big Ten team, to the west, and it's pretty balanced. It wouldn't be close to the Big 12. The south is 194-144 since 2003 in conference games, while the north is 144-194.
 

GophersInIowa said:
It's still not as unbalanced as you think. Without including Notre Dame, the five west teams have a combined Big Ten record of 132-148 since 2003. The six teams in the east combined for a 176-160 record in that same time frame. Add Notre Dame, a team that should consistently be a middle of the pack to upper tier Big Ten team, to the west, and it's pretty balanced. It wouldn't be close to the Big 12. The south is 194-144 since 2003 in conference games, while the north is 144-194.
Click to expand...

The Big12 started competition in 1996. That was right after Colorado won a national championship in 1990 and Nebraska won in 1994 and 1995. People thought it would be balanced, based on recent history. Wrong. The North has won only 4 of the 14 conference champions and none since 2003, most of those games were not even close.
 

And why does everyone think Notre Dame belongs in the west?? Don't they fit better along with Mich, MSU, PSU and OSU?? Geographically and in terms of historical rivalries, Notre Dame belongs to the eastern part of the conference.

If one of the Indiana schools has to be in the West, Notre Dame is the last one that makes sense.
 

MrGopher said:
I'm gonna throw my Big Ten expansion and alignment plan out there. Please Argue. Rip it to shreds, in fact. :)

In this plan, I am the ruler of the universe, and I say Notre Dame is the new team. I dont care about issues with public/private status, TV contracts, school regents, or big ten commissioners and presidents. I just decided.... It will be Notre Dame.

There will be two divisions. North and South. Each team will play the other teams in that division every year, that's five games a piece. The divisions are....

North: Minnesota, wisconsin, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State
South: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Ohio State, Penn State

Now that works fine except for the fact that many of the primary rivalries are split up. To solve this, each school will have two permanent rivals from the other division. They are....

Minnesota: Iowa, Penn St.
wisconsin: Iowa, Illinois
Northwestern: Illinois, Purdue
Notre Dame: Purdue, Indiana
Michigan: Ohio St., Indiana
Michigan St: Ohio St., Penn St.

Iowa: Minnesota, wisconsin
Illinois: wisconsin, Northwestern
Purdue: Northwestern, Notre Dame
Indiana: Notre Dame, Michigan
Ohio St: Michigan, Michigan St.
Penn St. Michigan St., Minnesota

This keeps all trophy games, instate matchups, and major rivalry games intact.... with one exception.... Mich St. vs. Indiana. Sorry, Old Brass Spittoon.

That leaves one game (in an 8 conference game schedule) which rotates year-to-year between the other four teams in the opposite division.

But since I rule the universe, we will play nine conference games, so we go no longer than two years without playing any opponent (just like the system we have today.) If the PAC10 can play nine, so can we.

Then we get a conference championship game. For geography and quality-of-stadium reasons, I suggest Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. But I would accept Lambeau, Soldier, Ford, or Heinz Fields. Possibly even the Cleveland Browns stadium.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the best conference in the nation...there it is!! Your thoughts....
Click to expand...

Take ND and put them in the South with the other Indiana schools, and take Illinois and put them in the North so they're in the same division as NW.
 



Here's my solution: Kick Penn St. out, and go back to a 10 team league. Every team plays every other team, and the conference champion is actually determined on the field.
 

I'd add Iowa St. They would fit in better and would be more willing. Plus WE could actually beat them 6-8 out of ten years. ND has too much to come to our level.
 

MrGopher said:
And why does everyone think Notre Dame belongs in the west?? Don't they fit better along with Mich, MSU, PSU and OSU?? Geographically and in terms of historical rivalries, Notre Dame belongs to the eastern part of the conference.

If one of the Indiana schools has to be in the West, Notre Dame is the last one that makes sense.
Click to expand...

The dividing line between an East/West Big Ten conference would be the Illinois/Indiana border. Specifically, the Chicago metro area is the geographic center. South Bend is 90 miles from Chicago while West Lafayette is 120 miles from Chicago. That reason, plus the fact that ND would give the west a more of a "heavyweight" feel, is why ND would belong in the West instead of the East.
 

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