Time for ND to join the B1G

Hawk4Ever!

Senior
Sep 9, 2025
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Then go get one other team and split into four 5-team divisions with the division winners playing in a mini playoff in Indy for the conference championship.
Never happen. AD made that more than clear. With Stanford and USC dumping them, ND is in a world of hurt. Hawks should pick them up. Would do both schools well. ND needs help, and Hawks would finally play a real OOC game.
 

HawksRule73

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Jun 26, 2025
606
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Yep, I mentioned this after the Big went to 18 teams. Dont you think the excitement for teams and fans will extend to later into the season because more teams will be in the race to win the smaller divisions?

Iowa would have been in Indy this year if they were in a division with Minny, Wisky, Nebby, and any of either Illinois, MSU, or jNW.

This year's game with Nebby would even have been for the division title
If we could get to 20 teams, then split into four 5-team divisions, I wouldn't have Nebraska in our division. This is how I'd do it if I were commissioner for a day:

Western Division
Washington
Oregon
USC
UCLA
Nebraska

Central Division
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
ND

Midwest Division
Michigan
OSU
MSU
NW
Purdue

Eastern Division
PSU
Indiana
Maryland
Rutgers
FSU/Miami/North Carolina/Virginia

I'd have all conference teams only play 2 OOC games, then play all 4 teams in your own division plus all 5 teams from one other division (rotated each year so every team plays each other at least once every 4 years). Then, at the end of the season, have the 4 division winners face off in a min-playoff along with pairing the other teams up to play one more game (i.e. if USC and Michigan didn't win their divisions, they'd face off in Indy as a lead-in to the semi-final match up of the division winners). Then the next weekend, the 2 winners of the mini B1G playoff face off for the conference championship.
 

LaQuintaHawk

All-Conference
Jun 29, 2025
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Seriously? This might be the dumbest idea yet. The "Plains" conference looks worse than the BIg10 West.
I clearly said "something like this" ...not exactly.

That 70S Show Lol GIF by IFC
 

LaQuintaHawk

All-Conference
Jun 29, 2025
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Well if you know it's dumb then propose something worth proposing. Otherwise you're just reposting someone else's dumb shat.
Didn't say it was dumb.

I like the concept ...you are allowed to suggest better conference build outs.
 

Jonesy5960

Heisman
Feb 1, 2023
5,981
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Didn't say it was dumb.

I like the concept ...you are allowed to suggest better conference build outs.
The concept of "regional affiliations" aligned in 8 conferences is what makes it dumb. There aren't enough quality programs in the West, Northeast and Midwest vs the Mideast, Southeast, and Southwest. You are only assuring a permanent imbalance in the quality of each conference. The primary consideration would need to be the relative strength of each conference.
 

MAKhawks

All-Conference
Nov 3, 2001
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Here's one you will hate even more...



You lost me with Iowa being attached to the Big XII logo. No thanks. Then it adds Iowa State to Iowa’s division which only legitimizes a school who’s in a far lesser situation.

I hope the B1G and SEC continue their financial strongholds on CFB and crush the remaining schools who are not in one of these conferences (ie: ISU).
 

LaQuintaHawk

All-Conference
Jun 29, 2025
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The concept of "regional affiliations" aligned in 8 conferences is what makes it dumb. There aren't enough quality programs in the West, Northeast and Midwest vs the Mideast, Southeast, and Southwest. You are only assuring a permanent imbalance in the quality of each conference. The primary consideration would need to be the relative strength of each conference.
As long as there is balance in each conference and regional rivalries, I'm good.

Sure, a couple of the conferences are weak compared to others, but who cares...it keeps CFB on a national level instead of just 7-8 power programs like it is now. Again, feel free to move schools around for better balance if you want. It will most likely remove them from their rivals.
 

LaQuintaHawk

All-Conference
Jun 29, 2025
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You lost me with Iowa being attached to the Big XII logo. No thanks. Then it adds Iowa State to Iowa’s division which only legitimizes a school who’s in a far lesser situation.

I hope the B1G and SEC continue their financial strongholds on CFB and crush the remaining schools who are not in one of these conferences (ie: ISU).
Again, I'm not endorsing the conference build outs.

For the record, here are some suggestions for the second one...(as recommended by someone else on X)...

Move...
Texas to B12
Iowa to B10
ND to BE (UConn or Temple out)
Texas St to SWC

There are others I could suggest as well, but that's a good start.
 

oldxbbc

All-American
Sep 19, 2013
1,771
7,267
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ND has had multiple chances to join the BIG as has blown us off, gets to keep all the $$, pick who they play and when etc. I say forget them. The BIG has too many teams the way it is. Wish it was back to the original BIG so that the conference champion went to the playoffs and/or Bowls like the Rose etc really meant something.
 

Rifler

All-American
Jan 26, 2011
5,271
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B1G needs two more teams and then a breakdown into four divisions,.. Notre Dame not involved.
 

uihawk82

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2021
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If we could get to 20 teams, then split into four 5-team divisions, I wouldn't have Nebraska in our division. This is how I'd do it if I were commissioner for a day:

Western Division
Washington
Oregon
USC
UCLA
Nebraska

Central Division
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
ND

Midwest Division
Michigan
OSU
MSU
NW
Purdue

Eastern Division
PSU
Indiana
Maryland
Rutgers
FSU/Miami/North Carolina/Virginia

I'd have all conference teams only play 2 OOC games, then play all 4 teams in your own division plus all 5 teams from one other division (rotated each year so every team plays each other at least once every 4 years). Then, at the end of the season, have the 4 division winners face off in a min-playoff along with pairing the other teams up to play one more game (i.e. if USC and Michigan didn't win their divisions, they'd face off in Indy as a lead-in to the semi-final match up of the division winners). Then the next weekend, the 2 winners of the mini B1G playoff face off for the conference championship.
Yes, I would have Nebby with the four west coast teams. There has been a lot of bitching about the west coast to east coast travel.

And those look good. I would call the Central the Midwest and the Midwest I would call the MidEast.

I am not sure about the reasoning you have for that last 10th conference game after for all the teams that dont play in the semi-finals. I have wanted 10 conf games for awhile with the added teams in the conf so just play the 4 teams in your 5 team division and then 6 other Big Ten teams and all games count toward winning your division, just like the old days
 
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SB_SB

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Dec 17, 2022
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The whole point of my post is that didn’t matter for the weeks leading up to this.
Every game matters, even if a team isn't playing. The order gets moved around based on the current situation, not last weeks situation.
 

SB_SB

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Dec 17, 2022
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If we could get to 20 teams, then split into four 5-team divisions, I wouldn't have Nebraska in our division. This is how I'd do it if I were commissioner for a day:

Western Division
Washington
Oregon
USC
UCLA
Nebraska

Central Division
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
ND

Midwest Division
Michigan
OSU
MSU
NW
Purdue

Eastern Division
PSU
Indiana
Maryland
Rutgers
FSU/Miami/North Carolina/Virginia

I'd have all conference teams only play 2 OOC games, then play all 4 teams in your own division plus all 5 teams from one other division (rotated each year so every team plays each other at least once every 4 years). Then, at the end of the season, have the 4 division winners face off in a min-playoff along with pairing the other teams up to play one more game (i.e. if USC and Michigan didn't win their divisions, they'd face off in Indy as a lead-in to the semi-final match up of the division winners). Then the next weekend, the 2 winners of the mini B1G playoff face off for the conference championship.

That's never going to happen (have divisions). They specifically went away from that because it's not fair depending on the strength of the division.
 
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Jonesy5960

Heisman
Feb 1, 2023
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That's never going to happen (have divisions). They specifically went away from that because it's not fair depending on the strength of the division.
Right. Especially 4 which is 2 too many and creates another Big10 West with that central division.
 
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rchawk

All-American
Oct 27, 2001
74,546
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I skipped many posts here, but I hope most acknowledge that ND will only join a conference full-time when they absolutely have to- not a single year before that. Even then they will be dragged in kicking and screaming all the way.
 

Rifler

All-American
Jan 26, 2011
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I skipped many posts here, but I hope most acknowledge that ND will only join a conference full-time when they absolutely have to- not a single year before that. Even then they will be dragged in kicking and screaming all the way.

Will laugh if they get stiffed in their game of musical chairs...
 

83Hawk

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Jan 1, 2023
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I think the playoffs should be limited schools in a conference. If Notre Dame wants to play for a national championship they need to join a conference.
 
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HawksRule73

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That's never going to happen (have divisions). They specifically went away from that because it's not fair depending on the strength of the division.
It's never going to be "fair". The NFL isn't fair either if a team ends up having a crossover with a stacked division. But in my scenario, the fact that you play every team in your division plus every team in one other division does at least provide a modicum of fairness to the scheduling.
 

HawksRule73

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Right. Especially 4 which is 2 too many and creates another Big10 West with that central division.
Not really. Each division has one bellweather team and one other pretty good team along with 3 somewhat middling teams. For this year, you could definitely argue that the "Eastern" division is easily the worst of the 4.
 

SB_SB

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It's never going to be "fair". The NFL isn't fair either if a team ends up having a crossover with a stacked division. But in my scenario, the fact that you play every team in your division plus every team in one other division does at least provide a modicum of fairness to the scheduling.

They're never going to do that because they already tried divisions and they didn't like the outcome. They don't want a situation where a division could have two one-loss teams, so one team is left out of the tournament.
 

HawksRule73

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They're never going to do that because they already tried divisions and they didn't like the outcome. They don't want a situation where a division could have two one-loss teams, so one team is left out of the tournament.
Well, at least you're calling it what it is.....a tournament and not a playoff. A playoff typically has teams that met agreed-to, objective criteria, whereas a tournament is simply an invitational that is looking more and more like a beauty contest.

Every other league in every other sport uses divisions to determine who gets the right to play in their playoffs. MLB, NFL, NBA, etc, etc. How many years (before the wildcard anyway), did the Yankees or Red Sox get left out of the playoffs even though they were often times better than the Royals/Tigers/Indians in the Central? Or how often have teams in the NFL been left out with better records? It happens. But again, if there are agreed-to, objective criteria, then no one can complain.
 

93hawkeye

Senior
Sep 19, 2004
340
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Agree. The Big 10 doesn’t need them, and I no longer want them in the conference. They can get bent.
If the B10 likes money and attention and ticket sales and TV eyeballs, the B10 likes ND in the conference.
 

WeBeHerkin

All-American
Aug 5, 2016
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I'd let them in, but they get a reduced share for like the next 50 years and they can't have their own little tv deals
 

SB_SB

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Well, at least you're calling it what it is.....a tournament and not a playoff. A playoff typically has teams that met agreed-to, objective criteria, whereas a tournament is simply an invitational that is looking more and more like a beauty contest.

Every other league in every other sport uses divisions to determine who gets the right to play in their playoffs. MLB, NFL, NBA, etc, etc. How many years (before the wildcard anyway), did the Yankees or Red Sox get left out of the playoffs even though they were often times better than the Royals/Tigers/Indians in the Central? Or how often have teams in the NFL been left out with better records? It happens. But again, if there are agreed-to, objective criteria, then no one can complain.

I'm not really saying it's right or wrong to use divisions, I just know the B10 tried it and it seemed to be lopsided in the divisions so they went away from it. Having divisions is like having conferences for the CFP. If you're going to have divisions/conferences then the winner of the division/conference should be in the tournament (like a B10 tournament) or the CFP (for conferences). But what you end up with is exactly what happened for the CFP, people are mad that the winner of two weaker conferences are in the CFP. If you put USC, UCLA, and Oregon into the same division, one of them is going to be pissed if they don't make the B10 tournament and someone from a weaker division does make it.