Why expand the Big Ten? Why play a championship game?

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Why is it so important for the Big Ten to have a conference championship game?

I don't get it. I'm completely confpuzzled by the move to expand the conference and I always have been.
 


A championship game adds about $15 million in revenue for the conference to divide amongst teams. Not a bad way to improve the budget.

Adding a team that adds new markets for the BTN could potentially bring in much more money than the championship game. They need to find the right school that fits the conference academically & athletically and also brings a relevant tv market to the BTN. Now that we are in the tv business I suspect that is the real motivation for the consideration of expansion.
 

not to mention it also keeps the big ten relevant amongst the college football world for another month, as well as allow two teams to play into December and eliminate a 7 week layoff before bowl games.
 

Besides the added revenue of a championship game and the exposure past Thanksgiving I believe a 12 team Big Ten makes the league more competitive from top to bottom. Look at the Big 12 for example. NO WAY is a Kansas or Missouri relevant in any Big 12 conference without the 2 division format.

I truely believe that a 2 division format in the Big Ten could be the best thing that has ever happened to the Minnesota Gophers. People think the U leveled the playing field with the new stadium....to some extent yes. However, I believe going to 2 divisions and having the opportunity of winning a 6 team division vs. an 11 team conference will do so much more for this program in terms of perception and getting this team over the hump.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the 2014 Big Ten West Division Champions!
 


Straight cash is right. I used to be a Big ten snob and figured we should keep protect the original Big Ten members and not allow sports to be the reason for expansion...then I did some research. The only reason the Big Ten was formed was to regulate athletics. It's Jim Delaney's legacy and history says he has a 50/50 chance of dying in office before retiring.
 

GoGophers2005 said:
Besides the added revenue of a championship game and the exposure past Thanksgiving I believe a 12 team Big Ten makes the league more competitive from top to bottom. Look at the Big 12 for example. NO WAY is a Kansas or Missouri relevant in any Big 12 conference without the 2 division format.

I truely believe that a 2 division format in the Big Ten could be the best thing that has ever happened to the Minnesota Gophers. People think the U leveled the playing field with the new stadium....to some extent yes. However, I believe going to 2 divisions and having the opportunity of winning a 6 team division vs. an 11 team conference will do so much more for this program in terms of perception and getting this team over the hump.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the 2014 Big Ten West Division Champions!
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+1. In addition to those excellent points I would add that if the Big Ten adds Texas all of a sudden the SEC can kiss their (slight, popularly hyperbolized) recruiting advantage goodbye. Can you imagine how much easier it will be to recruit the perennial #1 recruiting state when Big Ten Network is included in every cable package in Texas?!

Plus, if this goes down ESPN is gonna be so mad. I would pay to see the look on Mark May's face when he hears the news. It probably won't happen but if Texas weighs its options honestly they should give the matter serious consideration.
 


GoGophers2005 said:
Besides the added revenue of a championship game and the exposure past Thanksgiving I believe a 12 team Big Ten makes the league more competitive from top to bottom. Look at the Big 12 for example. NO WAY is a Kansas or Missouri relevant in any Big 12 conference without the 2 division format.

I truely believe that a 2 division format in the Big Ten could be the best thing that has ever happened to the Minnesota Gophers. People think the U leveled the playing field with the new stadium....to some extent yes. However, I believe going to 2 divisions and having the opportunity of winning a 6 team division vs. an 11 team conference will do so much more for this program in terms of perception and getting this team over the hump.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, the 2014 Big Ten West Division Champions!
Click to expand...

I beg to differ. Right now, Minnesota holds the ultimate trump card. Chances are, if the Gophers are to ever go to the Rose Bowl, it's going to be some year when they go 6-2 or 7-1 and there's a 3 or 4-way tie for first. Usually those end up with no valid head-to-head tie breakers and fall to the 'team with most recent BCS appearance is eliminated.'

If we go to a Championship game format, chances are that trump card goes away and BCS standings are used for all tiebreakers. And even if we still come out on top in said scenerio, all that means is that in the season the Gophers finally break through instead of going straight to the Rose Bowl, they'll be rewarded with having to play an extra game agains OSU or PSU that they'll probably lose.
 



howeda7 said:
I beg to differ. Right now, Minnesota holds the ultimate trump card. Chances are, if the Gophers are to ever go to the Rose Bowl, it's going to be some year when they go 6-2 or 7-1 and there's a 3 or 4-way tie for first. Usually those end up with no valid head-to-head tie breakers and fall to the 'team with most recent BCS appearance is eliminated.'

If we go to a Championship game format, chances are that trump card goes away and BCS standings are used for all tiebreakers. And even if we still come out on top in said scenerio, all that means is that in the season the Gophers finally break through instead of going straight to the Rose Bowl, they'll be rewarded with having to play an extra game agains OSU or PSU that they'll probably lose.
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nice attitude.
 

I think they've changed the tiebreaker rules, so that the criteria favoring the team that has been the longest out of the Rose Bowl is pretty far down the list. But another thing to consider is that if we do tie for first, that's still a Big Ten championsip, even if we don't get the Rose Bowl invitation. There are plusses and minuses to both, but I think it is a matter or if, not when we have a championship game. Allowing more than one Big Ten team to go to the bowl game changed the Big Ten from being the "Big Two, Little Eight". It's possible that being able to win division championships could have a similar transformation.

If we do have a championship game, will the division championship be decided by record just within the division, or on the Big Ten record?
 

JoeDirt said:
nice attitude.
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What's wrong with wanting to keep a tie-breaker we've had for about 20 years until we actually get to use it? Sure, I hope when we go to the Rose Bowl it's because went 8-0, but if not, I'd rather not have more hurdles thrown down in front of us.
 

RodentRampage said:
I think they've changed the tiebreaker rules, so that the criteria favoring the team that has been the longest out of the Rose Bowl is pretty far down the list. But another thing to consider is that if we do tie for first, that's still a Big Ten championsip, even if we don't get the Rose Bowl invitation. There are plusses and minuses to both, but I think it is a matter or if, not when we have a championship game. Allowing more than one Big Ten team to go to the bowl game changed the Big Ten from being the "Big Two, Little Eight". It's possible that being able to win division championships could have a similar transformation.

If we do have a championship game, will the division championship be decided by record just within the division, or on the Big Ten record?
Click to expand...

It is down the list, but not that far. It goes something like Big 10 record, head-to-head if applicable, overall record, overall record verse 1-A teams, and then team with most recent BCS bid removed. I remember checking last year when we were 7-1. Had we won out, that tie-breaker likely would have sent us to the Rose Bowl.

In most other conferences it's conference record, then head-to-head then divionsal record.
 



The thing is though who cares if we have to play PSU or OSU in the Big Ten Championship game and lose....just getting to that game is going to go along ways (exactly my point in bringing up Missouri and Kansas earlier).

Someone also brought up that the Gophers can only win the current Big Ten with a 7-1 or 6-2 record and I'll take it a step further saying they could win their division in a Big 10 with 12 teams with a 5-3 record.

I'll also say the day the Gophers win the Big Ten and are supposed to go to the Rose Bowl will be the year the Rose Bowl hosts the National Championship and we end up at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix (the same city as the Insight). That's just our luck.
 

If the Big Ten expands by adding a super team (Texas, Nebraska) we lose. Check how many of our Big Ten titles have been "shared." Lot's of them. With only one champ each year and teams like Penn St., Michigan, Nebraska (Texas) and Ohio State, we're not likely to make it through, even if we win the "west" division. This is another big money move and like some of the others, not in our favor. I'd gladly exchange Penn St. now for Missouri or Iowa State and keep it at 11. Given geography and longtime rivals, it's hard to see either Texas or Nebraska moving out of the Big 12, but Missouri might.
 

no downside to a championship game

brings more legitimacy. Its ridiculous to say it makes it harder to go to the rose bowl. What makes it tough is poor fan support, bitching at every move the athletic department makes, ignorant fans, poor coaching, no talent, playing in dome off campus for 27 years, suites with no booze to grease the donation train, bad tailgating, wimps who complain about 30 degree temps. It goes on and on here. When we want to make a run, we need to correct the above.
 

GoGophers2005 said:
I'll also say the day the Gophers win the Big Ten and are supposed to go to the Rose Bowl will be the year the Rose Bowl hosts the National Championship and we end up at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix (the same city as the Insight). That's just our luck.
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That's not the case anymore, the Rose Bowl and NC games were both played at the Rose bowl this year. They even re sodded the field for Texas and Alabama.
 

howeda7 said:
It is down the list, but not that far. It goes something like Big 10 record, head-to-head if applicable, overall record, overall record verse 1-A teams, and then team with most recent BCS bid removed. I remember checking last year when we were 7-1. Had we won out, that tie-breaker likely would have sent us to the Rose Bowl.

In most other conferences it's conference record, then head-to-head then divionsal record.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that got changed this last offseason. It is now trumped by BCS standings.
 

What's wrong with wanting to keep a tie-breaker we've had for about 20 years until we actually get to use it? Sure, I hope when we go to the Rose Bowl it's because went 8-0, but if not, I'd rather not have more hurdles thrown down in front of us.
Click to expand...

Minnesota is much more likely to have 5-3 BT seasons than a 7-1 season. With only 5 other teams to compete with, 3 conference losses is not at all out of the range of possibilities of winning one of the divisions. It has happened in the ACC and the Big 12 recently, just off the top of my head.

Instead of a 5-3 record an a meaningless bowl game because of poor fan support, we would be given the OPPORTUNITY to play an OSU or PSU to go to the BCS.

Even without looking at it from an increased revenue perspective, it - seems like something I would easily want to support.
 

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