Look Who’s Complaining About B1G Scheduling Now ...

[KidSilverhair]

Marc Morehouse of the Cedar Rapids Gazette apparently thinks the B1G should ditch their divisions, and copy the Big XII system of just putting the two best-performing teams in the conference championship at the end of the season.

He also firmly believes the conference needs to get rid of that pesky requirement of 9 conference games ... because, I guess, how can you impress the Playoff Committee by struggling against Rutgers when you could just stomp Indiana State for that easy W instead. Hey, it’s the SEC way!

Frankly, the B1G got itself into this position by expanding to 14. Nobody held a gun to their head, they did it to themselves. Watering down your conference by requiring fewer conference games seems like a dumb idea - and the notion of a 14-team conference without divisions? Can you imagine how they’ll pack the stands in Champaign or Bloomington for that key November battle for 12th place?

Look, you have more than 10 members, I think you gotta have divisions. Sure, the balance of power between divisions might screw over somebody some year, but you still should end up with the best team winning that championship game. And everybody needs more conference games, not fewer - copying the SEC model isn’t a way to impress the committee.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/...-morehouse-mailbag-big-ten-divisions-20190905

 

[mj4cy]

Let's not forget the SEC also schedules a cupcake in November...

 

[ArgentCy]

Let's not forget the SEC also schedules a cupcake in November...

Shhh. No one is supposed to notice.

 

[Sigmapolis]

Let's not forget the SEC also schedules a cupcake in November...

That really is genius. Losing early is so much better than losing late.

 

[JM4CY]

**** Iowa and **** the Big 10

 

[MeowingCows]

No divisions + 14 teams = stupidity

 

[knowlesjam]

He does understand that the current way that the BIG does things is the only way Iowa can even get a sniff at the title game. Otherwise it would be a Ohio State-Michigan rehash...every year.

 

[KidSilverhair]

Let's not forget the SEC also schedules a cupcake in November...

I did mention that in my post. Twice.

And I personally don’t think that’s good for football. Is it a good way to fool the playoff committee/general public/media into thinking you’re the GREATEST CONFERENCE IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE FOOTBAWWWW? It does seem to work - but that doesn’t make it a good idea in my eyes.

But then, I’ve always had the opinion that if you can’t win your conference (or, like Alabama gets a free pass for, even your division), you shouldn’t be considered for the playoff. Once you expand to 8, sure, but if there’s only 4 spots, no conference should be taking more than one.

 

[CyCrazy]

So then Iowa would have zero chance of ever making the Big 10 title game. Good logic Moorhouse.

 

[Gunnerclone]

He does understand that the current way that the BIG does things is the only way Iowa can even get a sniff at the title game. Otherwise it would be a Ohio State-Michigan rehash...every year.

Oh dogg you don’t know many hok fans or hok talking heads do you? They are right there in that top tier. They almost won the conference championship one year. They lost but still had an undefeated season.

 

[Dandy]

There is a 0% chance you can convince me to expand away from 10 teams. It's the perfect number for football and basketball. Round robin in both sports, play everyone once in football and twice in basketball. Football rotates home/away schedule. Basketball you play everyone home and away. Perfect.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Michigan, OSU, Penn St would welcome the idea.

Teams are already rarely playing . Next no divisions? The Big 10 is on its way to the “haves” realizing they don’t need so many have-nots. The beginnings of instability.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Michigan, OSU, Penn St would welcome the idea.

Teams are already rarely playing . Next no divisions? The Big 10 is on its way to the “haves” realizing they don’t need so many have-nots. The beginnings of instability.

I just imagine OSU, MU, PSU, Wisconsin having consulting interviews with the other teams like Office Space.

 

[CTTB78]

Thanks for explaining what's in the article as I'll never give that hok paper any clicks.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

He's not wrong though. The B1G adding a 9th game was somewhat foolish when you consider that ACC and SEC have never been penalized by playing 8. If I had to guess the B1G went to nine games because the networks asked for it since Rutgers and Maryland aren't exactly the home run TV markets they thought they were getting.

 

[jcyclonee]

Oh dogg you don’t know many hok fans or hok talking heads do you? They are right there in that top tier. They almost won the conference championship one year. They lost but still had an undefeated season.

 

[jdoggivjc]

No divisions + 14 teams = stupidity

Frankly, the B1G got itself into this position by expanding to 14. Nobody held a gun to their head, they did it to themselves. Watering down your conference by requiring fewer conference games seems like a dumb idea - and the notion of a 14-team conference without divisions? Can you imagine how they’ll pack the stands in Champaign or Bloomington for that key November battle for 12th

This is just a really dumb idea all the way around. First, the only reason to ever expand your conference to 12+ teams is if you plan on doing divisions. Even expanding to 11 was dumb and threw off the balance as there was no way to ever do a true round robin with 11 teams, but at least they added Penn St in the process. But anything less creates total unbalanced schedules. Yes, the Big 10 East will always be stronger than the Big 10 West, but at least the balance comes from the fact that the best from the West should go to the championship game.

But ditching conferences as well as dropping to 8 games with 14 teams in the conference not only creates significant scheduling imbalance, but it virtually guarantees that, depending on the schedule in any given year, likely only Ohio St, Michigan, Michigan St, Penn St, or Wisconsin ever play for a championship.

Oh, what the hell am I complaining about? If the Big 10 wants to introduce that kind of instability to their conference where only a handful of teams ever have a chance to be champion, by all means.

 

[JM4CY]

Obviously due to poor field conditions

 

[CycloneVet]

No divisions + 14 teams = stupidity

Didn’t someone mention Marc Morehouse so adding stupidity is redundant

 

[Gorm]

Funny thing is, when the Big 12 made the proposal to allow a title game with 10 teams, the Big 10 mandated the "divisions" for any number above 10. They were afraid the ACC was going to put their number 1 vs number 2. If I remember correctly, the ACC was the only conference to vote against this as a result.

Now the Big 10 has done a 180 on that position.