Thumbs up to Jim Delany

[SelectionSunday]

Watching all of Jim Delany's press conference yesterday at the Big Ten Football Media Luncheon, I was most pleased to hear this:

"I'm not sure divisions would make sense in basketball."

No need for divisions in basketball. DO NOT follow the SEC basketball model. Do something more like the Big East. ... stay at 18 conference games (20 would be better for the players and fans, but I doubt coaches will let it go that far) instead of dropping back to 16. Play seven teams twice, four teams once. One set of standings, no split into divisions. Having an all-inclusive Big Ten Tournament, divisional championships are worthless in basketball.

After Delany made it crystal clear he'd prefer football increase to 9 conference games, am now very confident basketball won't go back to 16 conference games once Nebraska joins. Delany clearly would prefer more conference games, not less, so at worst I think Big Ten hoops will remain at 18. Atta' boy, Jim.

 

[thestl]

I say we should follow the SEC model .

 

[centerofmn]

Uuuuh. I'm going to agree with SS here. The SEC basketball setup is stupid.

 

[Swede]

What would divisions do for basketball? Makes no sense.

 

[2nd Degree Gopher]

The only way it makes sense for basketball is if there is a desire to standardize the teams that are played twice a year. For example, if they decided that they were going back to a 16 game schedule, two divisions would allow everyone in the West to play intradivisional opponents twice and interdivisional opponents once each season. Each team in the division would have the same schedule of opponents with only the venue of the interdivisional games as a variable. While it would be nice to play Wisconsin and Iowa home-and-home each year, I personally wouldn't want to see MSU, IU, etc. at the Barn only every other year. And if they stay at 18 (or go to 20) games, then you would have the same imbalance that we have now. I’d hope they stay at 18 games or go higher and skip the divisional format.