This is my concern with the Big Ten growth. You've added 4 teams from the west coast, they are isolated by themselves. There is Nebraska, an isolated island in the middle, the original conference members compacted together, then the additions of the east by themselves.
Will the conference try to make sense of the travel with scheduling? Of course not, they want to show off their new play toys. There are now 18 teams and it is impossible to have a schedule that makes sense and a champion that will never play all the teams. They are saying that the top two teams play each other, but how will that be equitable when the top two teams will not play the same schedule? They don't want divisions because of the lack of talent divided among 18 teams and geography will no longer make sense.
How many pods or divisions will there be to have these teams try to play each at least once every 5 years? To make it make sense you need to add another 2 teams, but what two teams will it be? Standford is on the outside looking along with Cal., but that will make 6 teams on the left coast, not the necessary five to make it divisible by 4 for sanity purposes... ND will not make the jump because they do not need a conference. Even if you find two more, the original conference members will be broken up and rarely play each other, which will play havoc on their ritual trophy games. If there is not one more west coast team added, which ugly redheaded stepchild gets thrown into the west coast division? Probably the one with the N on their helmet, not the M.
The baseball teams do not play all the teams now with 14 members, it will only get worse with 18. Did anyone find it oddd that LSU and Florida were facing each other for the first time this year in the CWS, yet they were the highest-ranked teams in the $EC? Does this seem like the $EC diluted their schedules to keep them higher in the rankings? Will this become the norm in the super conferences, let the weak be fed on by the strong so the strong has a higher win percentage? Could be the new deniable norm for the winning teams by the conference schedulers.
How soon will the money dry up and the scheduling becomes a priority for the schools with smaller budgets? Cast out the smaller-budget teams and make it a high-budget semi-pro league disguised as college football. It is already happening with NIL and the portal, it will be all in the light of day now.
How soon will the B1G, $EC, and Big XII start casting out the weak members because it is impossible to play a schedule in any sport that makes sense in crowning a champion? No two teams play the same schedule and the opponents are different. What do you do if the top 4 teams have identical records and only two spots can be filled? Do you punish the team who plays the harder schedule, or look at the team who has the easier schedule and promote them? None of the four had any say-so on their schedule but won the required number of games to earn the spot. If there are four divisions, is there now a 2 step process for the champion? Extra games are a no-no... Two divisions have 9 teams per side and that means zero cross-over games, so in essence, you have two sub conferences in one large conference... HMMMM Who picks those divisions, put 18 teams in a hat and draw out nine teams? Do you do it geographically, no wait, it splits the original teams and the balance of power is off-kilter.
All sanity has been lost, and this is not in the best interest of the student-athlete... The schools are doing it for the reason they teach is the worst to do... GREED
