Should the B1G go to four divisions if they get to 20 teams?

Donate To GopherHole
Otis

Otis

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2014
Messages
5,797
Reaction score
2,951
Points
113
Let’s say they get USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington and California.
Norte Dame finally concedes and follows suit.

East
Md
Rutgers
Penn State
OSU
Indiana

LAKES
Michigan
MSU
NW
NOtre Dame
Purdue

Plains
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
GOPHERS

PACIFIC
USC
UCLA
OREGON
CAL
Washington

Division winners play semifinals and consolation games after reg season.

Then the Championship Game.
Regular season you play the four teams in your division and four games cross-over.

That’s two high $$$$ games for the conference.
 

If they did that they would just have a 9 game schedule
4 against your division.
5 against another division

In 6 years you see every team home and home.
You essentially have different divisions every year
 

Honestly, when the Big ten and SEC hit 20, I bet there are talks about them splitting off and doing their own CFP with the Big Ten and SEC champion. NFL like post season, 4 divisions in each conference. that model expands to 6 and 7 team divisions quite easily while keeping the number of games at or under what the current CFP is.

At 15 games you could devote 11 or 12 to the regular season and with only 5 or 6 divison games you have a lot of flexibility around cross division/OOC play.
 

swelna said:
Honestly, when the Big ten and SEC hit 20, I bet there are talks about them splitting off and doing their own CFP with the Big Ten and SEC champion. NFL like post season, 4 divisions in each conference. that model expands to 6 and 7 team divisions quite easily while keeping the number of games at or under what the current CFP is.

At 15 games you could devote 11 or 12 to the regular season and with only 5 or 6 divison games you have a lot of flexibility around cross division/OOC play.
Click to expand...
I just hope if they do that there is objective criteria for playoff and not a group of 12 people doing whatever espn wants
 

Seems like it is heading to something similar. It would be a good division for the Gophers.
Notre Dame is an important piece, I think. I think I'd like to see Stanford in the West division.
I like UCLA and USC to the Big Ten.
 


Some guy said:
If they did that they would just have a 9 game schedule
4 against your division.
5 against another division

In 6 years you see every team home and home.
You essentially have different divisions every year
Click to expand...
You’d still have 11 games.

2 non-conference
4 division
4 cross-over
1 consolation/semifinal

Two teams go to the championship.

Consolation games would be against teams you have not played during season with similar records.
 

The first step is dropping non conference games. Get rid of the filler and then figure out the structure.

I say 2 divisions, a 4 team playoff, and a title game vs the sec champion.

But nobody is gonna agree to a shorter season for the 16 teams that don’t make the playoffs. And I can’t see losers bracket tournaments catching on.
 
Last edited:

60's Guy said:
Seems like it is heading to something similar. It would be a good division for the Gophers.
Notre Dame is an important piece, I think. I think I'd like to see Stanford in the West division.
I like UCLA and USC to the Big Ten.
Click to expand...
I like the divisions proposed in the OP. They make a lot of sense. I do think that in any further expansion to 20 the conference would find a way to get Stanford in.
 

Otis said:
Let’s say they get USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington and California.
Norte Dame finally concedes and follows suit.

East
Md
Rutgers
Penn State
OSU
Indiana

LAKES
Michigan
MSU
NW
NOtre Dame
Purdue

Plains
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
GOPHERS

PACIFIC
USC
UCLA
OREGON
CAL
Washington

Division winners play semifinals and consolation games after reg season.

Then the Championship Game.
Regular season you play the four teams in your division and four games cross-over.

That’s two high $$$$ games for the conference.
Click to expand...
If Notre Dame came onboard, they would demand Stanford.

That means one of Cal, Washington, or Oregon would be an odd man out, in your scenario.

Oregon is the lowest academic/research school of that group, but also has a very nationally prominent brand in CFB. Tough choice for school presidents.
 



Gophers_4life said:
If Notre Dame came onboard, they would demand Stanford.

That means one of Cal, Washington, or Oregon would be an odd man out, in your scenario.

Oregon is the lowest academic/research school of that group, but also has a very nationally prominent brand in CFB. Tough choice for school presidents.
Click to expand...
Oregon is a ‘brand’ only because of Phil Knight money. He is 84 now, and I wonder what happens when he is no longer alive or in control of his assets. Will Nike continue the Oregon gravy train, or will funding fall and they revert back to an average sports college.
 

Whatever happens I'm afraid we will only see a Little Brown Jug game about every 6 years.
College athletics continues to punch me in the gut. It's been a rough year.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
Whatever happens I'm afraid we will only see a Little Brown Jug game about every 6 years.
College athletics continues to punch me in the gut. It's been a rough year.
Click to expand...
I hope they don't feel compelled to set up some fake rivalry trophies with the existing B1G teams.
 




If you're going to have a Lakes division, Minnesota has better claim to that than NW, Purdue or Notre Dame.
 


If expansion is really the thing (and sounds like it is), then I don’t see any reason 20 would be the stopping point.
 

cncmin said:
If expansion is really the thing (and sounds like it is), then I don’t see any reason 20 would be the stopping point.
Click to expand...
I think beyond 20, you're having to look at ACC schools that are locked into a GOR contract until 2036. Obviously that hasn't been legally tested, but still could be a deterrent.
 

Gophers_4life said:
I think beyond 20, you're having to look at ACC schools that are locked into a GOR contract until 2036. Obviously that hasn't been legally tested, but still could be a deterrent.
Click to expand...
right. there are still legal obstacles that will, at least, affect timing of all of this in some pretty dramatic ways.
 

I think going two divisions, East/West with no crossover would be interesting. Could do that with 18 teams too.
 

They must have Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin together regardless of how they decide on the alignment.

If Notre Dame demands Stanford, Oregon may be the odd man out.

Otherwise, we'd have to wait for a twenty-four-team expansion. When will it end?
 

if they go to 20 teams - 2 divisions
Big Ten division - IA, IL, IN, MN, MSU, MI, OSU, PU, NW, WI
Other Ten Division - NE, PSU, MD, RU, USC, USCL, the other 4

20 teams is not a conference, its a mess. I thought 14 teams was way to many. this is ridiculous. Why stop at 20, I say we get to 30 and then negotiate the winner of the Super Big Ten gets an automatic spot in the national title game , only seems fair to me
 

Brick House said:
if they go to 20 teams - 2 divisions
Big Ten division - IA, IL, IN, MN, MSU, MI, OSU, PU, NW, WI
Other Ten Division - NE, PSU, MD, RU, USC, USCL, the other 4

20 teams is not a conference, its a mess. I thought 14 teams was way to many. this is ridiculous. Why stop at 20, I say we get to 30 and then negotiate the winner of the Super Big Ten gets an automatic spot in the national title game , only seems fair to me
Click to expand...

Two divisions doesn't work. You'd have nine games just against those teams...leaving very little room for crossovers.
 

Best Idea and I think the most likely place we go is that we have 4 division of 6:

6 conference games and two or three cross over - 1 of which would be a locked in "rival(s)" game. Number of conference games would be based on if you did a 8 team playoff or 4 team playoff for B1G title.

West: USC, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Cal

Midwest: Neb, WI, MN, IA, Illinois, NW

East: NC, Duke, Virginia, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers

Lakes: OSU, MI, MI State, Indiana, Purdue, ND

It would create must watch TV and would be an amazing nation wide conference.
 

I’ve been all over some ACC school sites today and saw something interesting, can’t even remember now which ACC site I was looking at. Some poster claims to have a friend who is a big Penn State donor. This donor seems to indicate that eventually we are probably going to see the Big10 end up at 28-30 teams once the ACC breaks up. You would have three separate Big10 conferences (East, Midwest and West) which would compete and operate somewhat independently during the regular seasons but would negotiate for tv rights and such as a single entity. It would allow traditional regional rivalries to continue to exist and make travel for fans and institutions easier.

That’s probably BS and a long shot, but the premise is interesting.
 

gophernut1 said:
Best Idea and I think the most likely place we go is that we have 4 division of 6:

6 conference games and two or three cross over - 1 of which would be a locked in "rival(s)" game. Number of conference games would be based on if you did a 8 team playoff or 4 team playoff for B1G title.

West: USC, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Cal

Midwest: Neb, WI, MN, IA, Illinois, NW

East: NC, Duke, Virginia, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers

Lakes: OSU, MI, MI State, Indiana, Purdue, ND

It would create must watch TV and would be an amazing nation wide conference.
Click to expand...
Poor Indiana and Purdue
 

U2Gopher said:
I’ve been all over some ACC school sites today and saw something interesting, can’t even remember now which ACC site I was looking at. Some poster claims to have a friend who is a big Penn State donor. This donor seems to indicate that eventually we are probably going to see the Big10 end up at 28-30 teams once the ACC breaks up. You would have three separate Big10 conferences (East, Midwest and West) which would compete and operate somewhat independently during the regular seasons but would negotiate for tv rights and such as a single entity. It would allow traditional regional rivalries to continue to exist and make travel for fans and institutions easier.

That’s probably BS and a long shot, but the premise is interesting.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's actually a point where you get big enough that you actually see tighter regional play/rivalries but with the benefit of TV rights negotiation (and for the Big Ten research alliance, more grant money).

I think at some point we see the original Big Ten return as one or two divisions in the larger conference. Add onto that some cross divisional play (maybe drop non-conference) a 4-8 team playoff and then the winner plays the winner of the SEC which mirrors the same pattern.
 

cncmin said:
If expansion is really the thing (and sounds like it is), then I don’t see any reason 20 would be the stopping point.
Click to expand...
Same. I don’t think they’re blowing it up to 16-20

I now expect 26-32 range
 

So every other conference is ditching Divisions all together but the Big 10 would consider doubling down and go to 4?

Ummm...ok. I don't think FOX wants that though, but maybe I'm wrong. I would welcome it.
 

Ope3 said:
So every other conference is ditching Divisions all together but the Big 10 would consider doubling down and go to 4?

Ummm...ok. I don't think FOX wants that though, but maybe I'm wrong. I would welcome it.
Click to expand...
I think we'll ditch it until it makes sense again it terms of determining the champion.

Like now, as it stands, you miss 4 opponents with our 9 conference game schedule. There's usually enough overlap of teams that you can make comparisons to each other even if you haven't played ala shared opponents.

You get big enough though, and you start to play less than half the conference and determining the top 2 or top 4 teams in the conference starts to get hard, as the likelyhood more than one team at the top have not played each other nor any shared opponents goes up. If that becomes enough we collapse back onto divisions or pods, to determine a top 2 or top 4 that get the chance to play for the conference championship.
 

Ope3 said:
So every other conference is ditching Divisions all together but the Big 10 would consider doubling down and go to 4?

Ummm...ok. I don't think FOX wants that though, but maybe I'm wrong. I would welcome it.
Click to expand...
The SEC is going to have divisions too. The only conferences that got rid of them, or will be, are on the verge of collapse.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom