USC and UCLA

[k9_r]

Have we talked about what happens when those two join the conference? Nothing makes sense, How can we have a 15 member conference playing an eight week schedule? There would be 14 possible opponents and every team would miss six of them every year.

We can't do that. The conference champion would default every year to he who drew the easiest schedule. Our tournament seeding would be a joke, no one would believe the seeding. No one would believe the champion. Seriously, we can't do it the usual way. Have we heard any ideas how this is supposed to be worked out?

 

[RobsterMobster]

It may be time to introduce divisions, but my assumption is the Big Ten will figure it out 2 weeks before the season starts like everything else. I somewhat kid.

Maybe they’ll try the pod system like they did during Covid. 3 teams in one 4 game weekend. Could be a good idea in March to have those teams meet in Cali. Maybe even 4 teams meet up and every team plays each other once.

I do agree some parity has to be figured out and the only way is maybe look away from the traditional 3 game series each weekend or going the route of divisions.

 

[coolonetoo]

WEST DIVISION
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Indiana

EAST DIVISION
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers

DROPPED PROGRAMS
Northwestern

Nine conference series in nine weeks. Six series against division foes and three against the other division on a rotating basis with one permanent crossover. The top six teams in each division make the conference tournament. I’m fine with it either being single-elimination or a single/double hybrid like the SEC.

I would rather Wisconsin revive baseball than Northwestern drop it but I need at least 1% of reality in this fantasy.

 

[k9_r]

WEST DIVISION
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Indiana

EAST DIVISION
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers

DROPPED PROGRAMS
Northwestern

Nine conference series in nine weeks. Six series against division foes and three against the other division on a rotating basis with one permanent crossover. The top six teams in each division make the conference tournament. I’m fine with it either being single-elimination or a single/double hybrid like the SEC.

I would rather Wisconsin revive baseball than Northwestern drop it but I need at least 1% of reality in this fantasy.

Well I never considered the SEC model and, yes, that's certainly an option. If done right, that would be a strong move towards schedule parity but it's absolutely essential that we move to an even number of teams.

My far out idea is to send letters to Penn St, Purdue and Northwestern informing them they are no longer sanctioned to play baseball in the Big Ten. Thank them for their service and offer to send a letter of recommendation to the Ohio Valley Conference. The OVC has only nine members and these three would round them up nicely to 12. Offer a bribe.

If we can get to 12 we can eliminate the bye week and play a nine week schedule. Every team would only miss two opponents a year which is fine. Can also keep the tourney at eight which is good b/c, even with USC and UCLA, this league barely has eight competitive programs.

Of course my idea has zero chance of happening. Too sensible.

BTW, do we know for sure that USC and UCLA baseball is coming over? Could they opt to move baseball to the B 12? Or maybe keep them in the PAC? I haven't heard.

 

[k9_r]

Well I never considered the SEC model and, yes, that's certainly an option. If done right, that would be a strong move towards schedule parity but it's absolutely essential that we move to an even number of teams.

My far out idea is to send letters to Penn St, Purdue and Northwestern informing them they are no longer sanctioned to play baseball in the Big Ten. Thank them for their service and offer to send a letter of recommendation to the Ohio Valley Conference. The OVC has only nine members and these three would round them up nicely to 12. Offer a bribe.

If we can get to 12 we can eliminate the bye week and play a nine week schedule. Every team would only miss two opponents a year which is fine. Can also keep the tourney at eight which is good b/c, even with USC and UCLA, this league barely has eight competitive programs.

Of course my idea has zero chance of happening. Too sensible.

BTW, do we know for sure that USC and UCLA baseball is coming over? Could they opt to move baseball to the B 12? Or maybe keep them in the PAC? I haven't heard.

Oh yeah, and tell the remaining teams to UP THEIR TV GAME!

 

[RobsterMobster]

BTW, do we know for sure that USC and UCLA baseball is coming over? Could they opt to move baseball to the B 12? Or maybe keep them in the PAC? I haven't heard.

I’m assuming the Big Ten wouldn’t allow that unless it isn’t a conference sanctioned sport. Otherwise I’m sure Nebraska would have stayed in the Big 12. Or at least I assume we would have because if we optionally chose to go to the Big Ten and had that option that would be pretty upsetting. Haha

 

[k9_r]

I’m assuming the Big Ten wouldn’t allow that unless it isn’t a conference sanctioned sport. Otherwise I’m sure Nebraska would have stayed in the Big 12. Or at least I assume we would have because if we optionally chose to go to the Big Ten and had that option that would be pretty upsetting. Haha

Good point. So it's pretty much certain we'll have a 15 team mess and no word how that's going to be sorted out. Welcome to the Big Ten USC and UCLA.

 

[Wyldcard]

Have we talked about what happens when those two join the conference? Nothing makes sense, How can we have a 15 member conference playing an eight week schedule? There would be 14 possible opponents and every team would miss six of them every year.

We can't do that. The conference champion would default every year to he who drew the easiest schedule. Our tournament seeding would be a joke, no one would believe the seeding. No one would believe the champion. Seriously, we can't do it the usual way. Have we heard any ideas how this is supposed to be worked out?

There will be 16 with the addition of UCLA and USC

 

[BrighteRed24]

There will be 16 with the addition of UCLA and USC

Wisconsin doesn’t have baseball, hence 15 Big Ten members in the sport

 

[saluno22]

There will be 16 with the addition of UCLA and USC

Wisconsin doesn't field a varsity baseball team.

 

[saluno22]

Good point. So it's pretty much certain we'll have a 15 team mess and no word how that's going to be sorted out. Welcome to the Big Ten USC and UCLA.

Three groups of five for scheduling. You could either have eight series with 4-2-2 or nine series with 4-2-2+protected.

I think they could do something like the pods someone else mentioned from the Covid year. You have three geographic groups against which you play a regular three-game weekend series. Then you have inter-group pods where three teams play four games each at one site; these weekends would feature one team from each "group". Play three "pod" weekends, every team hosts one pod. This is seven weekends: four 3-game weekends, three 4-game weekends, 24 games total.

How the groups are established (and even changed from year to year) can be a different discussion, but here's an example agnostic of names/geography...

Group A: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5
Group B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5
Group C: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5

From the perspective of A1...
Home 3-gm Series: A2, A3
Away 3-gm Series: A4, A5
Pod 1 (Host: A): B1, C1
Pod 2 (Host: B): B2, C3
Pod 3 (Host: C): B3, C4

I threw this out without looking comprehensively, but you would avoid putting the same team in a pod twice. I really want to look at this more comprehensively, but don't have the time for probably months.

Nonetheless, Team A1 wouldn't play B4, B5, C2, or C5 in this "throw against the wall" example. But there's still another weekend vacated with only seven weekends occupied from above. So, either look for another non-conference series or fill it with some type of five-team event. The question is do we want more conference games and internal cannibalization with guaranteed losses? Or do we want opportunities to build conference RPI strength with non-conference games?

If the former, this is where you could have a coordinated "warm weather" event over a week or long weekend where teams not assigned to the same group or common pod would get a few more games in to play as many conference opponents as possible. Or just do another "pod" weekend to knock out another two conference foes.

 

[Wyldcard]

Wisconsin doesn't field a varsity baseball team.

Got ya, I thought we were talking FB

 

[saluno22]

Got ya, I thought we were talking FB

For a while, the conference tournament program included a Wisconsin logo, and it warmed my heart the year I noticed it omitted.

 

[Wyldcard]

Personally I wanna see UCLA and USC in our bracket as in BB this one would be the most dominant which is what I wanna see as well as better competition than the rest of the teams in the conference as this bracket would show the rest of the conferece just how not so good they are in baseball.

 

[Wyldcard]

One thing I'm worried about is that the B1G is gonna try and stack the the East by putting UCLA and USC on their side and stickin the trash on our side just like the Big XII did to us by putting all of the power teams in the South division and all of the weak sisters in the North Division.

 

[k9_r]

Three groups of five for scheduling. You could either have eight series with 4-2-2 or nine series with 4-2-2+protected.

I think they could do something like the pods someone else mentioned from the Covid year. You have three geographic groups against which you play a regular three-game weekend series. Then you have inter-group pods where three teams play four games each at one site; these weekends would feature one team from each "group". Play three "pod" weekends, every team hosts one pod. This is seven weekends: four 3-game weekends, three 4-game weekends, 24 games total.

How the groups are established (and even changed from year to year) can be a different discussion, but here's an example agnostic of names/geography...

Group A: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5
Group B: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5
Group C: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5

From the perspective of A1...
Home 3-gm Series: A2, A3
Away 3-gm Series: A4, A5
Pod 1 (Host: A): B1, C1
Pod 2 (Host: B): B2, C3
Pod 3 (Host: C): B3, C4

I threw this out without looking comprehensively, but you would avoid putting the same team in a pod twice. I really want to look at this more comprehensively, but don't have the time for probably months.

Nonetheless, Team A1 wouldn't play B4, B5, C2, or C5 in this "throw against the wall" example. But there's still another weekend vacated with only seven weekends occupied from above. So, either look for another non-conference series or fill it with some type of five-team event. The question is do we want more conference games and internal cannibalization with guaranteed losses? Or do we want opportunities to build conference RPI strength with non-conference games?

If the former, this is where you could have a coordinated "warm weather" event over a week or long weekend where teams not assigned to the same group or common pod would get a few more games in to play as many conference opponents as possible. Or just do another "pod" weekend to knock out another two conference foes.

Gotta say, the head spins . Gonna take me awhile to sort through this idea.

Three groups of five for scheduling. You could either have eight series with 4-2-2 or nine series with 4-2-2+protected.

The only way to do nine series is to eliminate the bye week. Can't do that though b/c of an odd number of teams. Match teams up for a series and there will be team 15 with no one to play, hence a bye week.

 

[RobsterMobster]

Gotta say, the head spins . Gonna take me awhile to sort through this idea.


The only way to do nine series is to eliminate the bye week. Can't do that though b/c of an odd number of teams. Match teams up for a series and there will be team 15 with no one to play, hence a bye week.

I say just give the RPI killing Northwestern the bye week every year. If they somehow win the league on winning percentage then so be it.

 

[saluno22]

Okay, I did an exercise the last couple hours to sort out a schedule where everyone plays everyone else at least once: 3-game series against 5 teams, 2 games in a 4-game/3-team pod against 3 teams, and four games over five days against the balance of the teams (six games each day). For that last event, go to LA early in the season or over a coordinated spring break, then play three games at each UCLA and USC each of these days.

Every team gets three home weekends (two 3-game series and a pod) and four road weekends (two 3-game series and two pods).

A1

A2

A3

A4

A5

B1

B2

B3

B4

B5

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

Wk1

A2(h)

A1(a)

A4(h)

A3(a)

B5/C5(h)

B2(h)

B1(a)

B4(h)

B3(a)

A5/C5(a)

C2(h)

C1(a)

C4(h)

C3(a)

A5/B5(a)

Wk2

A3(a)

A5(h)

A1(h)

B4/C4(h)

A2(a)

B3(a)

B5(h)

B1(h)

A4/C4(a)

B2(a)

C3(a)

C5(h)

C1(h)

A4/B4(a)

C2(a)

Wk3

A5(a)

A4(a)

B3/C3(h)

A2(h)

A1(h)

B5(a)

B4(a)

A3/C3(a)

B2(h)

B1(h)

C5(a)

C4(a)

A3/B3(a)

C2(h)

C1(h)

Wk4

A4(h)

B2/C2(h)

A5(a)

A1(a)

A3(h)

B4(h)

A2/C2(a)

B5(a)

B1(a)

B3(h)

C4(h)

A2/B2(a)

C5(a)

C1(a)

C3(h)

Wk5

B1/C1(h)

A3(h)

A2(a)

A5(h)

A4(a)

A1/C1(a)

B3(h)

B2(a)

B5(h)

B4(a)

A1/B1(a)

C3(h)

C2(a)

C5(h)

C4(a)

Wk6

B2/C3(a)

B3/C4(a)

B1/C5(a)

B5/C1(a)

B4/C2(a)

A3/C5(h)

A1/C3(h)

A2/C4(h)

A5/C2(h)

A4/C1(h)

A4/B5(a)

A5/B4(a)

A1/B2(a)

A2/B3(a)

A3/B1(a)

Wk7

B4/C5(a)

B5/C3(a)

B2/C4(a)

B1/C2(a)

B3/C1(a)

A4/C2(a)

A3/C4(a)

A5/C1(a)

A1/C5(a)

A2/C3(a)

A5/B3(h)

A4/B1(h)

A2/B5(h)

A3/B2(h)

A1/B4(h)

D1

B3

B1

C2

C5

B2

A2

A5

A1

< Off >

C4

< Off >

A3

< Off >

B5

A4

D2

C2

< Off >

B5

B2

C3

C4

A4

< Off >

C1

A3

B4

A1

A5

B1

< Off >

D3

< Off >

C1

B4

C3

B1

A5

< Off >

C5

A3

C2

A2

B5

A4

< Off >

B3

D4

C4

B4

C1

B3

< Off >

C3

C5

A4

A2

< Off >

A3

< Off >

B1

A1

B2

D5

B5

C5

< Off >

< Off >

C4

< Off >

C1

C2

C3

A1

B2

B3

B4

A5

A2

The weeks can be changed around to make sure there aren't three consecutive home or away weekends. I didn't have time to sort that out, I was just worried about getting everyone to three home, four away, and games against everyone.

 

[scarletred]

WEST DIVISION
Nebraska
USC
UCLA
Iowa
Minnesota
Illinois
Indiana

EAST DIVISION
Purdue
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers

DROPPED PROGRAMS
Northwestern

Nine conference series in nine weeks. Six series against division foes and three against the other division on a rotating basis with one permanent crossover. The top six teams in each division make the conference tournament. I’m fine with it either being single-elimination or a single/double hybrid like the SEC.

I would rather Wisconsin revive baseball than Northwestern drop it but I need at least 1% of reality in this fantasy.

Who ever makes up divisions I just wish they would stop putting Indiana and Purdue separate divisions in any sport..It’s why we have these stupid cross division rivalry in football because of the Hoosiers and Boilers..