Joe Christensen: New Big Ten football divisions could bring easier road for Gophers

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per Joe:

The divisions have yet to be named, but they would look like this:

“WEST”
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Indiana or Purdue

“EAST”
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
Indiana or Purdue

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/198968531.html

Go Gophers!!
 

This would be great. Purdue is further west. Get it done and announced about a week after March Madness is done.
 

This would be awesome for the U of M but I will still be shocked to see Michigan and Ohio State end up in the same division even if it makes logistical sense.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Joe:

The divisions have yet to be named, but they would look like this:

“WEST”
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Indiana or Purdue

“EAST”
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
Indiana or Purdue

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/198968531.html

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

My largest concern with schedule would be how many B1G (Hate that term...giving up the BIG TEN Brand Name is kind of a shame...) games would be played? I'd like to see the conference go to at least an 10 game conference schedule IF they split from the current Legends/Leaders alignment. I suppose if they went to a 10 game conference schedule, each team from the WEST could play 4 teams from the EAST and vice versa. In a 12 game season, that would still leave room for 2 ooc games...IF that's your thing. Personally, I'd love to see 12 B1G games during the regular season. I think the 11 or 12 game B1G schedule would be necessary IF the conference adds even more members...

I want to totally make EVERY game meaningful...AND be a conference game. You could count the games against the EAST/WEST as non-conference games IF you wish. With more regions of the country included in the conference who the heck has time for "ooc games?" Play somebody new in a bowl game at the end of the season...IF you think you want to "mix it up a little more. However, if two or four or six more schools are added to the conference some day, it would take quite a while to get to the campus settings for Game Day Saturday for road trips. For instance: IF GA. Tech, Boston College, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Syracuse, KU or some other schools were added, there would be plenty of "new places" to travel to for football trips...

; 0 )
 

Love it. Lets hope it shakes out this way.
 


I'm totally in favor of Purdue in the West simply because it means they would come to TCF every other year instead of once a decade. Also makes most of their road games closer to Minneapolis.
 

I love that split. Then we don't have to pretend PSU, Maryland, and Rutgers are really rivals.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
This would be great. Purdue is further west. Get it done and announced about a week after March Madness is done.
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MinnesotaBoiler99 said:
I'm totally in favor of Purdue in the West simply because it means they would come to TCF every other year instead of once a decade. Also makes most of their road games closer to Minneapolis.
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I prefer Purdue as well. I think much more of them as a football rival than I do IU.
 




Our other trophies have something to do with both teams. The Jug was a made and sold in Minnesota and purchased by Michigan. The pig was a wager between the governors of Iowa and Minnesota. The axe, Paul Bunyan stories are important parts of both Wisconsin and Minnesota culture. The Liberty Bell is a fine symbol for all Americans, but it's especially associated with the state of Pennsylvania.
 

imthewalrus said:
My largest concern with schedule would be how many B1G (Hate that term...giving up the BIG TEN Brand Name is kind of a shame...) games would be played? I'd like to see the conference go to at least an 10 game conference schedule IF they split from the current Legends/Leaders alignment. I suppose if they went to a 10 game conference schedule, each team from the WEST could play 4 teams from the EAST and vice versa. In a 12 game season, that would still leave room for 2 ooc games...IF that's your thing. Personally, I'd love to see 12 B1G games during the regular season. I think the 11 or 12 game B1G schedule would be necessary IF the conference adds even more members...

I want to totally make EVERY game meaningful...AND be a conference game. You could count the games against the EAST/WEST as non-conference games IF you wish. With more regions of the country included in the conference who the heck has time for "ooc games?" Play somebody new in a bowl game at the end of the season...IF you think you want to "mix it up a little more. However, if two or four or six more schools are added to the conference some day, it would take quite a while to get to the campus settings for Game Day Saturday for road trips. For instance: IF GA. Tech, Boston College, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Syracuse, KU or some other schools were added, there would be plenty of "new places" to travel to for football trips...

; 0 )
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From a fan's perspective it would be fun. But it would be a huge disadvantage for the conference as a whole.
1. It would be tougher to get to bowl games. Make fun of the crappy bowl games all you want. It's still better for your program to go to one. It's still better for the conference to get as many teams in a bowl as possible.
2. It would be tougher to get a team in the National Championship, although the four team playoff will help. But the more tough teams you play, the harder it is to go undefeated or have just one loss.

It would be different if other conferences followed suit. But if the BT is playing 10 conference games or even more and everyone else is only playing 8 or 9, I don't think that would be a good thing.
 

RodentRampage said:
Our other trophies have something to do with both teams. The Jug was a made and sold in Minnesota and purchased by Michigan. The pig was a wager between the governors of Iowa and Minnesota. The axe, Paul Bunyan stories are important parts of both Wisconsin and Minnesota culture. The Liberty Bell is a fine symbol for all Americans, but it's especially associated with the state of Pennsylvania.
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More importantly, it reminds us of how Wisconsin stole the slab of bacon.
 




GophersInIowa said:
From a fan's perspective it would be fun. But it would be a huge disadvantage for the conference as a whole.
1. It would be tougher to get to bowl games. Make fun of the crappy bowl games all you want. It's still better for your program to go to one. It's still better for the conference to get as many teams in a bowl as possible.
2. It would be tougher to get a team in the National Championship, although the four team playoff will help. But the more tough teams you play, the harder it is to go undefeated or have just one loss.

It would be different if other conferences followed suit. But if the BT is playing 10 conference games or even more and everyone else is only playing 8 or 9, I don't think that would be a good thing.
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You will NEVER see me make fun of the "crappy bowl games..." I have been to El Paso twice for two bowl games with Oregon, Nashville for games with Arkansas, Alabama and Virginia and to Houston this past year. There is NO such thing as a bad bowl game.

I certainly do believe that IF we see the B1G expanding with two more...four more...or even six more teams that you would see several other major conferences doing the same thing. EVERY super conference is going to want to max-out the television revenues and with the B1G Network, you KNOW that the conference games will be the ones that generate the MOST revenue for the schools in the conference to share. The whole bowl structure will be able to accommodate the fact that all the major conferences are playing MORE Conference games and that the teams are knocking each other off with the brutal schedules. Just look at the way the NCAA Hoops tourney managed to invite SEVEN B1G teams.

The bowl games will do likewise. And the play-off will evolve. There will be plenty of bowl games that want participants from the major super conferences and there will be plenty of agreements signed between the super conferences, the bowl games and the Network Television outlets. ESPN FOX NETWORK, NBC, CBS...will ALL be looking for bowl games to televise, buy from the Conference Brokers and our Gophers, IF they can play competitively in CONFERENCE play will not be forgotten... Things will be different. Stuff always is changing. It will be ok. It is a process and it is evolving...think outside the box...just watch...you will like it when you get used to the BRAVE NEW WORLD of super conference college football!

; 0 )
 


BleedGopher said:
per Joe:

The divisions have yet to be named, but they would look like this:

“WEST”
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Indiana or Purdue

“EAST”
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
Indiana or Purdue

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/198968531.html

Go Gophers!!
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Wonder if the B1G will formally name the East Division as the 'Major' Division...and designate the West as the 'Minor' Division?:confused:
 

I'm all for crappy bowl games, but if the cost of them is that I have to snore through games against the likes of New Hampshire, and run the risk of cardiac arrest when we lose to a team with "Dakota" anywhere in the name, I would much prefer to go to a 12 game conference schedule. I might be willing to change my mind if we got a little gutsier with the out of conference scheduling.
 

Depends on how you look at it. Swapping MSU/Michigan for Illinois/Indiana certainly looks favorable for division play, but the East division teams being historically much stronger make it a tough proposition to win a championship. In addition, unless you're lucky and draw Indiana/Rutgers/Maryland, you're probably still going to play 2 out of MSU/UM/OSU/PSU.
 

dinkything said:
Wonder if the B1G will formally name the East Division as the 'Major' Division...and designate the West as the 'Minor' Division?:confused:
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I was going to say "Important" and "Not Important" divisions. You know the division with Ohio St. and Michigan will be the more important one.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
I'm all for crappy bowl games, but if the cost of them is that I have to snore through games against the likes of New Hampshire, and run the risk of cardiac arrest when we lose to a team with "Dakota" anywhere in the name, I would much prefer to go to a 12 game conference schedule. I might be willing to change my mind if we got a little gutsier with the out of conference scheduling.
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I think once the power conferences are all in place, non-conference games might go away. If there are 16-18 teams in the conference, there is no reason to play out of conference. Eventually 8-12 teams will make the playoff (2-3 teams from each power conference) and the others will be part of bowl format.
 

Lakeville Goldy said:
But what about the coveted Governors' Victory Bell?!?!?!?!?!? ;)
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i have actually enjoyed the minnesota vs. penn state games over the years. don't get why some fans seem to think it doesn't mean anything at all. not saying it is on the level of becky, michigan or iowa. but most of their fans are pretty cool people and coach mason and coach paterno had some great battles over their years together. i think when mason was canned he had the overall series during his tenure at something like tied at 5-5 or 5-6 to penn state......just know it was very close.
 

supadupafly said:
when mason was canned he had the overall series during his tenure at something like tied at 5-5 or 5-6 to penn state
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4-4

He had the good fortune of being the Gopher coach during the worst stretch of Paterno's career.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I think once the power conferences are all in place, non-conference games might go away. If there are 16-18 teams in the conference, there is no reason to play out of conference. Eventually 8-12 teams will make the playoff (2-3 teams from each power conference) and the others will be part of bowl format.
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If this were the case and each power conference had the same amount of teams, I'd love to have one out of conference each year against a predetermined conference. Kinda similar to the BT-ACC challenge in basketball but instead the conference you play changes every few years or so.
 

supadupafly said:
i have actually enjoyed the minnesota vs. penn state games over the years. don't get why some fans seem to think it doesn't mean anything at all. not saying it is on the level of becky, michigan or iowa. but most of their fans are pretty cool people and coach mason and coach paterno had some great battles over their years together. i think when mason was canned he had the overall series during his tenure at something like tied at 5-5 or 5-6 to penn state......just know it was very close.
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I think the issue is that the trophy is forced and has no real ties to Minnesota. There is nothing wrong with having a good match up with no trophy on the line.
 



Maximus said:
​

Still recorded as losses in the annals of Gopher history. Just vacated on the rulebreaker's side.
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Can I get a source on that? It feels like you should be right, but my (admittedly unreliable) source of Wikipedia is showing our all time record in the series as 4-3.

"Minnesota leads the series 4-3, with 5 wins by Penn State vacated due to the NCAA's penalty for that school resulting from the Penn State child sex abuse scandal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor's_Victory_Bell
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Can I get a source on that? It feels like you should be right, but my (admittedly unreliable) source of Wikipedia is showing our all time record in the series as 4-3.

"Minnesota leads the series 4-3, with 5 wins by Penn State vacated due to the NCAA's penalty for that school resulting from the Penn State child sex abuse scandal."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor's_Victory_Bell
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That's just a bad update by someone on that page.

In the case of regular season games, the penalized team's win is removed from its official NCAA record. The losing team, however, retains the loss, and individual statistics resulting from the subject game(s) are not affected other than for players declared specifically ineligible.[
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipe...ll/Vacated_victories#Regular_season_vacancies
 



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