I have a crazy idea that most would buy into. The Big Ten becoming a Superconference! If Maryland and Rutgers are added, things could get interesting...
Maryland and Rutgers will join the Big Ten
Virginia Tech will want to become a Big Ten team.
Jim Delaney will laugh at VT and take their rival UVA instead. UVA is a much more prestigious, public academic institution (The Harvard of the South) and would automatically have a rivalry with Michigan to go with their rivalry with Maryland.
It wouldn't make sense to grab any more ACC or Big East teams, Missouri, Iowa State, or anyone else from the Big 12/SEC, so there leaves one option: Notre Dame
Jim Delaney meets with Jack Swarbrick and convinces him that the ACC is going to collapse within the next 5 years and tells him this:
"Come with me to the Big Ten, and together, WE WILL RULE THE WORLD!!! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!"
Swarbrick has previously stated that the ND athletic department is very interested in joining the Big Ten if offered, but Delaney has never offered since '91.
ND joins the B1G and forms the first superconference. Here are the proposed divisions:
East Coast division (the one with non-midwest teams)
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Virginia
Central division (the one with Ohio State and Michigan)
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana
Chicago divison (the one that has Notre Dame)
Notre Dame
Illinois
Purdue
Northwestern
Corn Division (the one that has Nebraska and Iowa)
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
THE BIG TEN SHALL RULE THE WORLD!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA
Share your thougts below!
Comments
I think superconferences are a bad idea. There are 16 teams playing 8 or 9 games to decide who is best. Spliting up the teams so much hurts rivalries that already exist plus would make it hard to start new rivalries because you go through long periods of time without playing certain teams.
You could take that and make two conferences. I say if you can't play everyone in the conferece at least once every other year or so, it's not really a conference anymore. It may be a good idea for the conference to make more money, but that's about it.
...and Michigan still sucks.
I despise the idea of Maryland and Rutgers joining the B1G and I deplore the idea of moving to a 16 team superconference. Nothing against Maryland or Rutgers, but they're not B1G material athetically.
this is the stupidest idea in college football
FUqU, e!spin!!
Ummmmm... I'm a homer and that conference still absolutely SUCKS.
Virginia will not leave without tech, they are a package deal just as Kansas and Kansas State is.
This is in fact false. They have little to no connection, and they existed in separate conferences for years.
The B1G can't beat the SEC while they oversign and just generally cheat. 16 team super conferences are going to happen so I'm glad the B1G is being proactive.
Go bucks
If things somehow fell apart between ND and the ACC, they'd look to the Big12 before they'd consider the B1G. That ship has sailed.
When discussing any future additions to the B1G, recall that the 2010 expansion study focused on two things: expanding the conference's footprint and the population shift to the south.
I think Maryland is a power play for what Delaney actually wants, which is UNC... If we move to 16, I think he'll chase MD/UVA/UNC/(GT or Duke).... the ND ship has sailed. Too much ego and bad blood
Cause I couldn't go for three
Bingo. UNC is the long term play here. Delany is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers again.
Only problem: The ACC TV deals are geared specifically towards UNC and Duke. They will never leave.
/Duff'd It
TV deals are geared towards football and Duke has little relevance. I think I saw something like 85% is football money to 15% basketball.
Never say never.
Money can make the impossible possible.
UNC can always schedule a bball game with Duke out of conference.
If it comes down to it, the B1G can outbid the ACC for UNC's presence by a very large margin.
I like the idea of a 14 team conference better than a 16 team conference.
With 14 teams, you have 7-team divisions. This allows you to play all 6 of the other teams in your division every year, plus one protected crossover from the other division, and a rotating schedule of 2 other teams from the opposing division (assuming a 9-game league schedule). That would assure that you can play every team in the entire conference about once every 3 years (or twice every six years if we continue the home-and-home thing we are doing currently).
On the other hand if we expand to 16 teams, it takes forever to play all the other teams in the conference. 7 divisional games, plus one protected crossover, plus one other game. If we continue the home-and-home pattern, it would take 14 years to play every team in the conference. That doesn't feel like much of a conference any more.
So I say 14 is a good stopping point (if we add any teams at all). There is an argument to be made that adding teams like Rutgers and Maryland just dilute the brand. But I think Rutgers has been on an upward trajectory for at least a decade and can be counted on to continue improving. Not as sure about Maryland, but who knows what they could accomplish with added revenue and national exposure?
So my final verdict is: go for it, Jim Delaney! But once you get to 14, that's the time to stop.
Real fans stay for Carmen.
The 16 team conference would work only with a 9 game schedule. You'd play the 3 teams in your division and 2 teams each from the other 3 divisions. If you give up protected crossovers, then you could play every team in the Big Ten once every 2 years/twice every 4 years. However, what would make me sad is in that case, we wouldn't get to play Wisconsin or State Penn every year.
Speaking of protected crossovers, your division alignment is good that there wouldn't be many. I see OSU/PSU, Purdue/Indiana, and TSUN/Notre Dame as the only 3 potential crossovers. And TSUN/Notre Dame may not even happen considering that that series was abruptly cancelled after 2014.
As interesting as this would be, though, I don't want to see it, but I do feel that they could make it work.
Class of 2010.
I was thinking: 9 game schedule, play another division that rotates every year, and play against teams in other divisions that are protected crossovers. This way, you play every team within 3 years. A 4-team playoff over the last two weeks (extending the playoff selection by another week). It's kind of brilliant. It keeps rivalries such as IU-PU and ND-UM.
/Duff'd It
Stop with the stupidities. This is worse than govermental gerrymandering.
Im sure Indiana would be just thrilled with that proposed division!
That's a lot of teams! Being called the Big 10 with 16 teams would be pretty ridiculous, although I understand why the name will never change. Interesting way to look at it though...makes for an interesting debate.
Go Bucks!!!
The Central Division would be ridiculous in basketball.
I don't think you can have four divisions. It would greatly complicate a championship football game. It would require a plus one model and I am not even sure the NCAA allows that.
It's actually been done before.
/Duff'd It
I have way too many conflicting thoughts on this to comment specifically about number of teams, divisional breakout, etc.
But, the one thing people are missing on the Rutgers add is what it would do for Rutgers, not what it would do for the B1G. Rutgers is a bit of a sleeping giant, in regards to where it is located, and its potential. I'm not saying Rutgers is going to turn into the new Penn State (or maybe I mean the old Penn State?), but the B1G brand name would do wonders for them.
They have been stuck in the Big East with very little national fanfare. There is some pretty good high school football played in Jersey, meaning some pretty good recruits that tend to go elsewhere. They are currently on the rise, albeit slowly as they are hampered by the weak Big East. With PSU's probation issues, I could see Rutgers take a giant leap forward in these next few years, with the aid of the B1G brand.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
B1G = B16
It's like an old Dick joke, Our 10 is so big, it's 16!
-The Aristocrats!
"Old" dick or "Big" dick?
Both?
Most old Dick jokes are Big Dick jokes. If you haven't picked up Drew Carey's "Dirty Jokes and Beer" you should. There's a chapter devoted to Big Dick jokes. It's a great book though, either way, but that chapter will have you rolling.
-The Aristocrats!
B1G WEST
Nebraska
Notre Dame
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Northwestern
Illinois
Purdue
B1G EAST
Michigan State
Michigan
Ohio State
Penn State
Rutgers
Maryland
North Carolina
Indiana
Geographically solved, at least two teams in each market (Great Plains, Great Lakes, Northeast, Atlantic). There we go.
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Also, the B1G EAST was completely unintentional. Please don't downvote :(
"There is a force that makes us all brothers, no one goes his way alone." --Woody Hayes
Wouldn't ttun be in the Corn Division?
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
haha
"Get him a body bag, Yeah!"
I'm still struck dumb as to why Missouri wasn't pursued. Adding Rutgers and Missouri sounds much better to me. Still would have touched the East Coast market and have brought in the St. Louis/KC areas as well.