Should Big Ten football abandon two separate divisions? (Link)

[i'vegotwinners]

The only non $ making reason for divisions is to protect rivalries, because of the # of teams in the league.

If you completely did away with divisions you could easily have 3 protected rivalries for each team....that would leave 6 remaining games to play the other 10 teams.....so you wouldn't go more than one year not playing a specific league team. Easily done.....just have to make sure the protected games are not such to screw up the competitive balance.

"Easily done.....just have to make sure the protected games are not such to screw up the competitive balance".

good luck with that.

not so easily done.

 

[What's the Deal]

I don’t even care if they don’t play a rivalry game every year. As long as they don’t have to play Michigan, Ohio state, Penn state, and Michigan State every year I think that would be an improvement for Indiana. If that means realignment of divisions that would be great. If that means random schedule draw that would also be great. But I do think that the East West alignment has a greater impact than just wins and losses. Would Jeff Brohm have taken that Purdue job If it was in the Eastern division? Would Jeff Brohm still be at Purdue if Purdue was in the Eastern division? There is no doubt in my mind that the divisional format As it stands now is not good for Indiana.

 

[i'vegotwinners]

Delany's an idiot.

the easiest fix to the current playoff issue is not getting rid of divisions, but expanding the playoffs to 8 and including the champ from each of the 5 major conferences.

that said, Delany is a clusterfk machine.

1st off, Delany kept the B10 from having a CCG for years by refusing to get rid of the 12 team 2 division rule that kept the B10 from being eligible to play one, even though he easily could have.

he did so because he wanted to use the rule to force B10 expansion to at least 12, in the false pretext that the B10 needed to do so, so they could play a CCG.

but the CCG was never his real reason for expansion, (and never really needed expansion to play one).

his real reason was he, the SEC and the PAC, wanted to blow up the B12 and ACC as major conferences, since they were competitors for network money.

he then took, and over paid for, UMd in hopes that it would be the 1st domino to fall in the breakup of the ACC, and RU, to keep them from bolstering the ACC in his hostile takeover bids.

thus in his efforts to destroy the B12 and ACC in pursuit of world domination, he did neither, but did help ruin the 100 plus yr old B10 in the process.

now the B10 conference has an unworkable number of schools for fball no matter how you want to arrange the deck chairs, has forced itself into a 9 game conf fball sched, has the bball conf tourney making appearances in DC and NYC, (on the wrong wk), instead of Indy and Chi, and has diminished the governing influence of all the legacy schools, with the biggest sovereignty hits being taken by the non fball powers like IU.

and contrary to what anyone says, he is not responsible for the league revenue gains in the slightest.

that 100% goes to the present dynamics of the pay tv/internet industry landscape.

all that said, Delany isn't solely responsible for this mess.

the brainfarts at all the legacy schools share as well in the blame.

so play with the divisions all you want, or eliminate them altogether, you still can't ever make it really work with 14 schools, and never could.

 

[82hoosier]

... and Fred Glass voted for this.

 

[Tokyo Steve]

I think the Bill Connelly et al. "pod" system proposal a couple years ago with three protected "rivalries" is worthy of serious consideration.
https://www.sbnation.com/college-fo...-ten-schedule-divisions-realignment-rivalries

 

[goody1986]

How could you possibly do that without subjectively choosing the games? Any method of scheduling other than purely geographic or random draw involves subjectivity. The question to ask about that is who gets a harder schedule so that Indiana can have an easier one and why is that fair?
Any notion of "competitive balance" is intended to help the power programs, not the bottom. Having Jim Delany pick the winners and losers would be a disaster for our program because our almost perennial loser status would be cemented in place permanently.
We don't need a gerrymandered schedule. We need a better football team.

Well, you answered your own question with one method - random draw. Remember, this is how the B1G operated prior to divisions, and we would hear schedule grumblings from time to time but the deck was not stacked against the same teams year after year. While I haven’t thought much about other options, it’s also possible that someone smart has a creative option. Either way, even random draw would be better than the permanent and unevenly distributed divisions.

 

[UncleMark]

LOL. So Purdue beats Ohio State and Indiana, and everyone wants to blow up the conference structure. How about Ohio State and Indiana just beat Purdue and leave it at that?

 

[mk23]

"our almost perennial loser status would be cemented in place permanently"

Pretty sure that's already been achieved with the current situation.

 

[Daydreamer]

Well, you answered your own question with one method - random draw. Remember, this is how the B1G operated prior to divisions, and we would hear schedule grumblings from time to time but the deck was not stacked against the same teams year after year. While I haven’t thought much about other options, it’s also possible that someone smart has a creative option. Either way, even random draw would be better than the permanent and unevenly distributed divisions.

A random draw is not subjective. It’s the opposite.

 

[Hoosiers Rising]

One thing that shouldn't be ignored is that playing OSU, UM,PSU and MSU every season is a pretty good recruiting tool. If that goes away, yes the schedule would be easier but we might have less *'s to throw at that easier schedule. I hope it stays as is and we get enough talent to pick off one or two of those and beat the teams we should beat and we will be fine.

 

[goody1986]

A random draw is not subjective. It’s the opposite.

I think we're talking past each other. That's the point - I'm ok with random draw because it is not subjective. Not sure what your point is. You asked how it could be done without subjectively choosing games and then gave an answer that is a perfectly reasonable option.

 

[dragonhawk1855]

put Michigan or MSU in the West and put Purdue in the East. that way they can still claim a geological split.

to me Delany is trying to make it a annual BT Championship game between those 2 every year.

at least it sure sounds like that after the talk about putting the top 2 in the BT Championship game