Recommended B1G 10 Conference Realignment

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

The East is just a ridiculous guantlet.

Is it any tougher than the original Big East football conference?

Miami
WVU
Pitt
VTech
Syracuse
BC
Rutgers
Temple ** assumed 8th team, Big Ten East has 7

Miami then was as good as OSU is now.. maybe better
Michigan and Penn State are probably a bit better than the next two Big East teams... but back then.. we had depth (while ESPN claimed we were "top heavy".. and that was proven after Miami left).

 

[8th Man]

When you have 14 teams, 2 divisions are better.

If you suck, it doesn't matter if you are in a tough division or a B12 style mosh pit. You will still be a bottom feeder.

Wisconsin, Iowa and Minny make up a solid base in the West. The bottom of the West is arguably tougher than the bottom of the East. This is a "solution" in search of a problem.

 

[BigEastPhil]

The possibility of conference realignment is quite strong. At the conference media day, basically every coach said the current divisional format and 9 game conference schedule have to be analyzed and evaluated. Plus now with a new commissioner who I’m sure will want to implant his fingerprints on the future will create some changes. Time will tell

 

[pawildcat_rivals209725]

I understand your point: Michigan v. Ohio State is the most important B1G game, and so it needs to be played the last day of the conference schedule. And, you say, the game would lose importance if Michigan and Ohio State were then to meet for the championship the following week.

I am not sure that I agree. First, it is quite likely that the Michigan-Ohio State game would determine who gets into the championship game (suppose Michigan needs a win to get past Penn State) , or who would have the home field advantage in the conference final. Second, there are all kinds of traditional rivalries that used to be on the last Saturday of the season that have since been moved without harm. For instance, it used to be that the last Saturday of the season in what was the Pac-10 would have Washington v. Washington State, Oregon v. Oregon State, Cal v. Stanford (the "Big Game"), USC v. UCLA, and Arizona v. Arizona State. Those games are no longer on the last Saturday, and yet they remain important rivalries. Third, at present the B1G championship game is a joke, with Michigan or Ohio State playing a far inferior team from the other division. Maybe it's worth sacrificing tradition so that the championship game can become a real focal point of the season, rather than another blowout.

One of those inferior Western teams beat the crap out of Michigan this year. Right now, the only league team that has any shot against Ohio State is Penn State, and I don't think they have the o-line to handle the Buckeyes.

 

[pawildcat_rivals209725]

East- Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue, Indiana
West- Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois.

If you're going to align it that way, you'd have to drop the East-West designations. Wisconsin in the East and Ohio State in the West makes zero sense.

 

[KevH]

Yeah and his hypothetical does not persevere the Michigan-Ohio state rivalry as the league wants to . Man some people are just clueless

You don't know me. You don't know what clues I have or don't have. So, spare me the message board drama. I don't play that.

I asked you a question, and your answer suggests to me that you still don't understand the premise of the OP's post. His post is not about what the league wants. I read it as purely hypothetical, a conversation starter, as none of us here is in a position to make any of this happen. It's his take on how he'd do things if he called the shots.

 

[graystork]

If you're going to align it that way, you'd have to drop the East-West designations. Wisconsin in the East and Ohio State in the West makes zero sense.

Agreed. Please not Leaders and Legends though.

 

[ScarletDave]

Thank you. Hopefully these people in this thread will read this and acknowledge they were wrong

You have to acknowledge too though since you said that every alignment by the B1G was to keep them from playing in the conf championship but in fact the previous division alignment allowed just that

 

[KevH]

Yeah and his hypothetical does not persevere the Michigan-Ohio state rivalry as the league wants to . Man some people are just clueless

Thank you. Hopefully these people in this thread will read this and acknowledge they were wrong

Some points:

1. I was not aware of the finer points of league scheduling that wouldn't be addressed by the OP's proposal. If you took my original question as a slap at you, it wasn't. To someone unaware of the points you made in your follow up post, it would definitely look as if you failed to understand the OP's premise.

2. I still view this whole excercise as a fantasy league sort of hypothetical, where this is what the OP would do to address league imbalance if he had the clout to make it happen.

3. Instead of leading with what I put in bold type above, we all could have saved a lot of time, and been enlightened a lot sooner, had you made your point with information, as you did in your subsequent post. I appreciated the knowledge, even if it did come in a roundabout, condescending sort of way.

 

[Tango Two]

Not sure they will change