I know the expansion talk has died down a little over the past week, but I still really like the idea of bringing in Oklahoma and another Big 12 team, preferably Texas or Kansas. I had the house to myself most of last week and was bored, so I tried to put together what the B1G and other conferences would look like in terms of separation of divisions and scheduling.
With 16-team conferences, I have always preferred the “pods” model. I think it leaves a lot of room for flexibility in scheduling as you can mix and match the other pods in such a way that you can actually get more games in with non-divisional (pod) teams than the current 14-team 9-IC game model the B1G uses. With the addition of OU and KU, I believe the most practical split for the B1G would be:
The following model matches the two West (and East) pods every other year while alternating between the two East (or West) pods every other year. This makes sense geographically and better fosters rivalries between say Nebraska and Wisconsin. Yearly rivalries that should be kept, such as Iowa/Minnesota, can be scheduled out of conference during the years they aren’t paired up. The addition of two members from the pod you will be matched up with the following season gets you to 9 conf games and creates home/away back-to-back series.
The number of games against each conference member for Nebraska over these 16 seasons would look like:
Oklahoma - 16
Iowa - 16
Kansas - 16
Wisconsin - 12
Minnesota - 12
Northwestern - 12
Illinois - 12
Ohio State - 6
Michigan - 6
Michigan St - 6
Purdue - 6
Penn State - 6
Maryland - 6
Rutgers - 6
Indiana - 6
Even though Nebraska would play teams like Ohio St. and Michigan only 6 times over 16 years, they would still play them at least once over a player’s four years.
The next model is basically the same thing, but is a rotation of all pods instead of West vs West/East vs East every other year. This balances out the conference a little more and creates the most games between all conference members. Again, rivalries like Iowa/Minn can be played as one of their 3 OOC games in years they are not matched-up.
The number of games against each conference member for Nebraska over these 16 seasons would look like:
Oklahoma - 16
Iowa - 16
Kansas - 16
Wisconsin - 9
Minnesota - 9
Northwestern - 8
Illinois - 8
Ohio State - 8
Michigan - 8
Michigan St - 8
Purdue - 8
Penn State - 8
Maryland - 7
Rutgers - 7
Indiana - 8
For college football as a whole, I’d like to see each conference adopt the same rules for recruiting, scheduling (9 IC games), conference championships, etc. Conference championship games are unnecessary IMO and I would like to see them removed in order to expand the playoff, but we all know that isn’t going to happen ($$$). So for the CCG, they could either match the two overall best teams either by some sort of scoring metric or by committee, or match the winner of each (rotating) division like they do now. For the 3 OOC games, I’d like to see a rule like if it is your 5 home-game conference year (should be every other year), you must schedule at least two other Power 4 teams. The other OOC game(s) should only be against teams from the "lower 64".
So, would scheduling like this work? What would you change? If the Big 12 were to break up, where do you see each team landing?
With 16-team conferences, I have always preferred the “pods” model. I think it leaves a lot of room for flexibility in scheduling as you can mix and match the other pods in such a way that you can actually get more games in with non-divisional (pod) teams than the current 14-team 9-IC game model the B1G uses. With the addition of OU and KU, I believe the most practical split for the B1G would be:
The following model matches the two West (and East) pods every other year while alternating between the two East (or West) pods every other year. This makes sense geographically and better fosters rivalries between say Nebraska and Wisconsin. Yearly rivalries that should be kept, such as Iowa/Minnesota, can be scheduled out of conference during the years they aren’t paired up. The addition of two members from the pod you will be matched up with the following season gets you to 9 conf games and creates home/away back-to-back series.
The number of games against each conference member for Nebraska over these 16 seasons would look like:
Oklahoma - 16
Iowa - 16
Kansas - 16
Wisconsin - 12
Minnesota - 12
Northwestern - 12
Illinois - 12
Ohio State - 6
Michigan - 6
Michigan St - 6
Purdue - 6
Penn State - 6
Maryland - 6
Rutgers - 6
Indiana - 6
Even though Nebraska would play teams like Ohio St. and Michigan only 6 times over 16 years, they would still play them at least once over a player’s four years.
The next model is basically the same thing, but is a rotation of all pods instead of West vs West/East vs East every other year. This balances out the conference a little more and creates the most games between all conference members. Again, rivalries like Iowa/Minn can be played as one of their 3 OOC games in years they are not matched-up.
The number of games against each conference member for Nebraska over these 16 seasons would look like:
Oklahoma - 16
Iowa - 16
Kansas - 16
Wisconsin - 9
Minnesota - 9
Northwestern - 8
Illinois - 8
Ohio State - 8
Michigan - 8
Michigan St - 8
Purdue - 8
Penn State - 8
Maryland - 7
Rutgers - 7
Indiana - 8
For college football as a whole, I’d like to see each conference adopt the same rules for recruiting, scheduling (9 IC games), conference championships, etc. Conference championship games are unnecessary IMO and I would like to see them removed in order to expand the playoff, but we all know that isn’t going to happen ($$$). So for the CCG, they could either match the two overall best teams either by some sort of scoring metric or by committee, or match the winner of each (rotating) division like they do now. For the 3 OOC games, I’d like to see a rule like if it is your 5 home-game conference year (should be every other year), you must schedule at least two other Power 4 teams. The other OOC game(s) should only be against teams from the "lower 64".
So, would scheduling like this work? What would you change? If the Big 12 were to break up, where do you see each team landing?
