Ok, after seeing the dollar signs, and money, I didn’t like it at first, but the Big Ten will be 16. I didn’t think the scheduling would think and then I was looking at it as 2 divisions of 8. But if you look at 4 divisions of 4. It would work. Granted some scheduling would have to be tweaked but I think this is what is going to happen now.
And with that, I think the schools invited will be Nebraska, Missouri, Rutgers, Syracuse and Maryland. The amount of money that will be brought in by the 5 schools with the Big Ten Network would be somehwere around 60-70 million a year on cable subscriptions. Then add in advertising. That is a lot of money for the Big Ten! Think instead of 22 million a year increased to 35 million a year.
So here’s now how I think it happens and will look. *NOTE – just quick thought of division names*
WESTIowa
Missouri
Minnesota
Nebraska
~the four schools west of the Mississippi
MIDWESTIllinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
~Next four western schools
GREAT LAKESIndiana
Michigan
Ohio State
Syracuse
~The Big Ten won’t make the same mistake the Big XII did, keep UM & OSU together and put in 2 weaker football schools
EASTMaryland
Michigan State
Penn State
Rutgers
~MSU gets thrown in with the 3 most east schools, keeps the 2 land grant schols together. Adds 2 schools East with Penn State.
The divisions are mostly regionalized and keeps some of the schools together. And each team would then be assigned a rival from another division, to preserve rivalries. Rivals would be the following:
Illinois – Missouri
Indiana – Purdue
Iowa – Penn State
Maryland – Ohio State
Michigan – Michigan State
Minnesota – Wisconsin
Nebraska – Northwestern
Rutgers – Syracuse
Now on to the scheduling and figuring out the championship game. You’d still play 8 conf games. 3 games verse your division, 4 verse another division and 1 rival game. (this isnt my idea, I’m borrowing it, just adding it into the way I would set things up. To view my schedule click
here.So in this scenario the West plays the MidWest, Great Lakes plays the East. This would rotate yearly. And if your rival game is in a division you play, it would be sorted out with a different team you don’t play. So the 2 Big Ten Championship game participants would be determined by the 7 like games the 2 divisions play (West/MidWest & GreatLakes/East). The rivalry game would be a tie breaker.
So in this scenario you don’t get Michigan-Ohio State back to back weeks, but you still get THE GAME at the last week of the regular season. Other traditional rivalries are procteted even though there are different divisions. You keep Purdue-Indiana and Minnesota-Wisconsin and Mich State-Michigan. And create some new ones with Illinois-Mizzou and Iowa-Penn State (it’s budding)
I think this is the seismic shif that will shake and shape college athletics. I think an offere will be made to Notre Dame, and they will say “NO”. Then they will be left behind. I think they will have to join what is left of the ACC & Big East or be left out of the 4 team – 16 team leagues. I don’t think in the end 64 teams + Notre Dame will work. There will be too much power weilded by the Big Ten and then SEC.
What happens after the Big Ten goes to 16? The Pac-10 adds Utah, Colordao, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma & OK State. The SEC adds Miami, FSU, Clemson & Louisville. There’s 16. Then I think Notre Dame’s hand is going to be forced to join something or be left out. I think they go with the rest of the Big East and the 8 teams left from the ACC. That would leave 2 spots open. I think Kansas would be targeted and legestative pressure would take KState.
Their’s your 64 team Championship league. Sorry ISU, you don’t fit. The MT West, Conf USA, WAC, MAC, SunBelt and the Big XII left overs would create a mish mash of about 3-4 leagues and be set.
