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Pods Moving Forward

saluno22

Defensive Coordinator
Mar 1, 2006
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I like the idea of all teams playing each other, but obviously it leads to different quantities of games against each other.

On the flip side, the typical Big Ten schedule has at least one team playing out of conference each week (due to an odd number of teams) and you play 8 of the other 12 teams.

If the conference schedule were to be accomplished over 8 weeks, this would mean 4 "pod" weeks (four games, two against each of two opponents) and 4 normal 3-game series for each team, for a total of 28 games rather than 24 games. It would also eat into the number of non-conference games a team could schedule, and would hurt RPI as a result.

I haven't looked at the actual scheduling, just a musing.

I think they go back to the old scheduling and we play just 8 of 12 teams. Looking at last year's schedule (before the season was cancelled), we were scheduled to play everyone except Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan State... so we would not have played the three geographically closest teams in the regular season (Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois).
 
When midweek games are back the 4 game pods would be a much bigger detriment to pitching staffs. Personally I like the random out of conference weekend later in the year.
 
When midweek games are back the 4 game pods would be a much bigger detriment to pitching staffs. Personally I like the random out of conference weekend later in the year.
I love the random non-conference series as well because it permits a warm weather team to make a return trip later in the year. But they do feel weird, like, "This is a big series, but we're in the throes of a conference race and it doesn't matter for that" weird.

Now go get some golfing in! Winking
 
And the way Ohio State is managing their pitching staff to preserve arms for two more games against Indiana, I am firmly against pods moving forward.

That musing didn't last long.
 
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I would like this:

1. Break the conference into 2 divisions.
2. Play 3-game weekend series against all the teams in your division.
3. Play 3-game weekend series against half the teams in the other division, with the teams rotating home-and-away over a 4-year period.
4. The conference tournament is the top 4 teams in each division. Each side of the bracket is seeds 1 and 3 from one division and seeds 2 and 4 from the other.

Unfortunately, this is almost impossible with an odd number of teams and is most practical with 12.
 
I would like this:

1. Break the conference into 2 divisions.
2. Play 3-game weekend series against all the teams in your division.
3. Play 3-game weekend series against half the teams in the other division, with the teams rotating home-and-away over a 4-year period.
4. The conference tournament is the top 4 teams in each division. Each side of the bracket is seeds 1 and 3 from one division and seeds 2 and 4 from the other.

Unfortunately, this is almost impossible with an odd number of teams and is most practical with 12.
I'm pretty sure that's what the Big Ten used to do in the 80s.
 
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I'm pretty sure that's what the Big Ten used to do in the 80s.
There were indeed two divisions back then and from 1981-1987 the top two from each division made the tourney. But four-team tournaments are stupid when there are at least eight teams in the conference. And six-team tournaments are stupider.
 
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