B1G/SEC Challenge proposal (FB)
So Bielema laid this idea out there, replacing the SEC's annual FCS weekend with a 14 on 14 challenge, same as the B1G/ACC or Big 12/SEC challenges in basketball. This is obviously pure theory and has no decision makers involved yet, but still curious to hear people's opinions. I for one would love to see this, especially if they make it alternate home games like in basketball. Helps every team, gives fans something interesting and new on the schedule, and ensures an extra quality game every year.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14163970/bret-bielema-ar…
November 18th, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 6:08 PM ^
Would be awesome for fans, strength of schedule, and as an example to other conferences to do likewise. I assume you'd try and pair strength against strength, and that you would do a home and home in successive years, or something like that. Maybe do an eight-year deal where you might get your home and home in non-consecutive years.
November 18th, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^
Ohio State vs Alabama
Iowa vs Florida
Michigan State vs LSU
Michigan vs Mississippi
Northwestern vs Georgia
Wisconsin vs Arkansas
Penn State vs Mississippi State
Nebraska vs Texas A&M
Illinois vs Tennessee
Indiana vs Auburn
Minnesota vs Missouri
Rutgers vs Kentucky
Purdue vs Vanderbilt
Maryland vs South Carolina
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November 18th, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^
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November 18th, 2015 at 8:00 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 8:10 PM ^
Ohio State vs Alabama - lean to SEC
Iowa vs Florida - coin flip
Michigan State vs LSU - coin flip
Michigan vs Mississippi - lean to BigTen
Northwestern vs Georgia - coin flip
Wisconsin vs Arkansas - coin flip
Penn State vs Mississippi State - lean to SEC
Nebraska vs Texas A&M - SEC
Illinois vs Tennessee - SEC
Indiana vs Auburn - lean to BigTen
Minnesota vs Missouri - SEC
Rutgers vs Kentucky - SEC
Purdue vs Vanderbilt - SEC
Maryland vs South Carolina - SEC
Then again I would have said the same thing last bowl season where the Big Ten fared pretty well.
November 19th, 2015 at 1:07 AM ^
It's to hard in football to not have your non-conference games scheduled out in advance. To much money on the table from a home game. You'd pretty much have to guarantee each team got a home game every other year. I really doubt you could wait until January/Feruary to figure out the match ups for that fall. You'd need to schedule these games well in advance.
There's no way Florida would wanto have to go to Florida St as well as a Big Ten school in the same year. Ditto for South Carolina (Clemson) and Georgia (Georgia Tech).
November 18th, 2015 at 6:18 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 6:25 PM ^
at a disadvantage against the Big 12, ACC and Pac12 who have no such arrangements.
November 18th, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^
If so, not interested.
Also, If all the games are going to be in September that a non starter as well. If they want to spread out some in the early nonconference and then some in the weird end of season FCS weekend that the SEC has, then fine.
November 18th, 2015 at 7:57 PM ^
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November 19th, 2015 at 1:16 PM ^
A million times over.
November 18th, 2015 at 6:54 PM ^
Arkansas is on the schedule in the near future. I'm excited for the Washington, UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma games on the dockett
November 18th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^
Doesn't bowl season (at least during the BCS era) become like some sort of a B1G 10 SEC challenge. There are usually 3 to 4 games between the top B1G 10 and SEC teams, which might be better because no one cares how 6-6 Illinois would do against 6-6 Kentucky or something for example.
November 18th, 2015 at 7:15 PM ^
There are games already scheduled, what, like 10 years out with Texas and/or Oklahoma. There would also be a need to figure out Home and Home, so that was split. Or do they re-shuffle the rankings every other year?
November 18th, 2015 at 10:16 PM ^
Just can't see this ever happening since a few Big Ten teams are going to end up playing more road games against quality teams than they have total home games.
November 19th, 2015 at 1:09 AM ^
Pretty sure OSU has a solid non-conference opponent lined up for the next 5-10 yrs. Even if the idea gained traction it probably wouldn't be able to be implemented until the mid 20's.
November 18th, 2015 at 8:05 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 8:08 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 10:22 PM ^
much of the 2020s. Add this and we're only getting six home games every other year. That's assuming the timing can be worked out. I'd rather we schedule opponents on our own. We can do that pretty well.
November 18th, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^
It would be a great idea. Harbaugh/Meyer vs. Saban/Les would be awesome.
November 19th, 2015 at 7:56 AM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 9:20 PM ^
I don't know that I want my conference to dignify those corrupt goons from the SEC by playing them in an organized challenge. The PAC 12 is closer to the B1G in terms of institutional integrity and academic prowess, so they would be a better fit.
November 19th, 2015 at 7:55 AM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 9:35 PM ^
Could you ever imagine the likes of Ole Miss coming up to Ann Arbor? Or Auburn? Or Florida? When was the last time their teams left the south for anything?
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November 18th, 2015 at 10:10 PM ^
November 18th, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^
It'll never happen, but it's fun to draw up the theoretical match-ups.
"Geographic" pairings: Nebraska vs. Texas A&M, Illinois vs. Missouri, Indiana vs. Kentucky
"Private school" pairing: Northwestern vs. Vanderbilt.
"The only 2 schools who ever left the ACC" pairing: Maryland vs. South Carolina
"One HC is related to both schools, and damn these match-ups look pretty darn fun even regardless of that" pairings: Michigan vs. LSU, MSU vs. Alabama, Ohio State vs. Florida, Wisconsin vs. Arkansas
"Good schools but not at their 20-year-ago level" pairing: Penn State vs. Tennessee
"Other pretty good looking match-ups" pairings: Iowa vs. Georgia, Minnesota vs. Auburn
"Shoot, there still are some schools left over, they must play each other" pairings: Rutgers vs. Mississippi State, Purdue vs. Ole Miss.
November 18th, 2015 at 11:14 PM ^
Just looking at the whole of the matchups you listed made me realize that we would get tanked by the SEC. They would win at least 75% of these games.
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November 19th, 2015 at 12:01 AM ^
November 19th, 2015 at 1:48 AM ^
Would be fun to see this conference match up played in the first week in October. That would give an absolute clarity of which conference is better, make a shit ton of money, dominate the headlines andthe SEC schools can still have their FCS schools to beat on in September
November 19th, 2015 at 5:49 AM ^
Way back in 2007 when a Tennessee fan urged me to do so.
He said he'd heard of similar proposals before and saw how it would be a good idea. However, he also said it would likely be impossible to implement for various reasons. And if the B1G and Pac-## couldn't do it after agreeing to the concept, how would one expect to convince all these SEC teams that won't travel to get on board?
Great that Bielema is saying it, but don't get your hopes up.
November 19th, 2015 at 7:52 AM ^
Teams like Bama will do a home and home like they did with Penn State but looking at those schools they are far more likely to play a team with the neutral field payout.
November 19th, 2015 at 9:52 AM ^
I think part of the reason fans would want this is for the sake of the Home and Home. The Tennessee fan that suggested it to me wanted to visit Big Ten Stadiums, not FedEx field or whatever.
Plus getting that many NFL stadiums lined up would only add to the logistical problems.
I think the three main challenges are:
1) Schools schedule their own games out of conference, and there's not much a conference can do to force them to schedule particular teams
2) So many games are scheduled so far in advance. The second one can be managed with a bit of patience of course.
3) The most compelling way to make this happen would be via TV $$$$$$$. And that gets very complicated given that it's the home team that sets up the rights. You'd think that ESPN/CBS/SECN/BTN would want to make it happen as well, but the devil would be in the details on how they choose which games go on which network.
All of this is surmountable, but it would take a lot of work and arm-twisting to make it happen. Beilema's not going to be the one to do it.
November 19th, 2015 at 6:05 PM ^
November 19th, 2015 at 8:16 AM ^
I'd love to see it, but yeah, mid november, lets do it.
November 19th, 2015 at 8:25 AM ^
November 19th, 2015 at 11:11 AM ^
I have been proposing something similar only inter-conference if the mega conferences ever happen (if they haven't already). For example, if the B1G ever grew to two 9 or 10 team divisions, the top two teams would face each other in the conference championship game and then the next top two teams would face off, then the two #3 ranked teams and so on. Have the games played Friday and Saturday of CCG weekend. It may only make sense to do the top three or four teams.
The biggest problem playing between conferences is that it could not rely on preseason rankings to get fair matchups. Right now the SEC bias in polls and such put teams like Georgia and Auburn in the top 10 right off the bat. If Bielema's idea of having some week, maybe later in the season as the week for such games, I think it would have to be based on conference or poll ranking rather than an early AP ranking.
His idea is great though and I wonder if some of it is Jeff Long speaking through him, or at least planting the seed. ADs and fans know you have a lot more to lose than gain by playing cupcakes. The Big 12 was punished for it last year. The closest thing to it on the schedule 20, 30, or 40 years ago was something like Navy or Tulane. The OoC was all SWC, Pac 10, ACC, and big independents. The same was true then as it is today: The last poll is the only one that matters. If you lose an early OoC game then you are probably still ok as long as you win the rest of your games. If you don't, then you aren't a good team anyway and don't deserve a shiny record.
November 19th, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^
November 19th, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^