I guess I missed this part: starting in 2024 no more East/West division in the BIG10 Championship
I guess in all the excitement I lost place on that:
So Michigan will play Ohio St 2 weeks in a row many times? Yep kids:
It was always kinda fun to see who would be in from the West. Not no more. It's gone. Gone like a Shawshank fart in the wind!
Wow.
I hope you find place.
This is stupid. Eventually they’ll realize it and go back to divisions.
Exhibit A why no divisions is a bad idea: somehow the Big Ten did this in a way that makes it possible for 3 teams to go undefeated in conference play. And some of the combos are even plausible. The inevitable three-way 8-1 ties will be bad enough, but a three-way 9-0 tie would be a colossal fuck up.
Wouldn't that ever be something.
3+ undefeated conference teams likely never happens, but if it did, the team(s) that miss the B1G Championship game also then miss a chance at a CFP bye.
Although, I suppose some ADs (those that value $$$$ over all else) may prefer that, they'd probably get a CFP 1st round home game.
Kind of hilarious but still unlikely. In 2024 the only truly plausible scenarios are Iowa-Michigan-Penn State and Nebraska-OSU-USC, but those would require USC and Michigan respectively losing to at least 2 of the 3. The 2025 combos look even more remote. So fun if you're simming NCAA Football 2024 and choose Iowa as your dynasty, but probably not going to happen in real life. And if it does it would be exactly what the people in charge of the Big Ten deserve.
Back in the BCS days, we always rooted for chaos. Then LSU had a rematch against Alabama. The people in charge saw that we broke their system and gave us the opposite of what we wanted.
Vasav, someone commented about the 2001 Nebraska - Colorado game yesterday.
In that Big 12 matchup - Nebraska lost 62-24 to Colorado. And - with the tremendous BCS formula, Nebraska still played Miami in the BCS Championship game. To no surprise, Nebraska lost to Miami.
That LSU vs Alabama rematch that you refer to - is one that bothers me quite a bit too. LSU defeated Bama in Tuscaloosa that season. Yet, in their infinite wisdom - the Tide were given a "second bite of the apple" - and matched up against them in the championship game.
Oh yea I forgot about that 2001 season - I was definitely on the Oregon train for that one. It's kinda nice that their consolation was beating the crap out of the Big 12 Champ buffalos. But yea, up until like 2017 I think most CFB fans believed you couldn't be the best in the nation if you didn't win your league.
The CFP definitely changed the thinking here - OSU barely making the 4 team field and then somewhat convincingly winning it all. Then in 2017, Tua happened in a year where there was no dominant team. UGA somehow losing the '21 SEC title, TCU doing the same in '22 for the Big 12 - the league titles matter less when they're decided by a playoff game, and even less when they're a rematch of a regular season matchup. In this new era the 12 team playoff makes more sense. But honestly, the 16+ team leagues are dumb, the conference title games are dumb, the whole system is just inefficient haha. It used to be inefficient but every game was momentous. I wonder how it'll all shake out, I'm sure I'll complain and keep watching and enjoying and arguing.
But if any of the above combinations include any of the following teams:
•Rutger
•IU
•Purdue
•Northwestern
•Staee
•Minnesota
•Maryland
•Nebraska
•Illinois
•UCLA
...or even Iowa or Wisconsin, how many possibilities remain?
Practically none. Because Michigan will play ohio state each regular season, one of these two teams gets knocked out of the ranks of the undefeated. And other than Penn State (who has zero locked-in rivalries) or USC, does anyone really think there's another B1G program even remotely capable of running the 9-game table?
I don't think the 3 undefeated teams will be the likely scenario we need to worry about. Even in the BCS era, that was the major concern, and I can't remember if 3 teams ever ended up undefeated. The bigger issue will be the 8-1 records. Michigan and OSU will always have a loss, and will most likely be two of the best teams each year. Does an 8-1 Iowa or Wisconsin get a crack at Michigan over a close loss OSU team who already had their chance? This was where all the BCS arguments came from.
Yes it's stupid and no they will likely not go back to divisions. Always follow the money.
IMO it's more likely after this 2 year scheduling trial, UM & OSU will agree to move THE GAME into a pre-November time frame to avoid the B2B games which sucks as well.
Completely disagree. If you want to maximize the number of teams that are in the new 12 team playoff this is how you do it. The two best teams play to get the higher seed in the playoff and the bye. They both will more than likely get in and you don't worry about a Purdue from last year screwing everything up.
Me personally I think that you add four more teams and create four pods. Each pod rotates every year who they play and you get all the teams playing each other every 4 years. Get rid of the conference championship game and go back to co-champions if it comes to it.
thanks for sharing!
It'll happen occasionally, USC and others will have good seasons often and either Michigan or OSU will finish 3rd or worse in a lot of seasons going forward, there are too many teams.
I could see it happening 3-5 out of every 10 seasons though.
Over the long haul I could even see it being something like 45-23.
Don't say whorediot
We hate that
I see you didn’t listen to the mgoblog round table this morning.
With conferences this large, it should be the top two teams who have not played each other (#1 versus the team they did not play/beat) in the regular season - ideally as part of the Showcase weekend advocated by Seth and others.
That would give the regular season full impact and optimize the number of quality games and balance the schedule.
In a hypothetical world where Ohio State wins a home game in 2022 vs Michigan, and the next best team that OSU didn't play/beat is Purdue, is it good and fair that Purdue would jump Michigan into the B1GCG? What if it was a close win a la 2016? I think we would all be saying that Michigan is the clear #2 and deserves to be in the CCG.
With USC added and 16 teams, I don't think the rematch will happen so often to worry, and the times it does it will add to the rivalry, not detract from the importance of the Game.
There are issues with a 9 game/16 team conference schedule with a 1v2 championship game, but rematches is pretty low on the list.
Let's hope it happens. The reason I say this is everyone was concerned about this happening when the divisions were Leaders and Legends. Michigan never made it to Indianapolis so this outcome never occurred. I hope Michigan makes it to Indianapolis so much that this happens at some point.
With the expanded playoffs it probably doesn't matter that Michigan plays OSU back to back weeks. I would think that both teams in the B1G championship would be in the playoffs.
Not a fan. The more teams you have, the more important having divisions is.
Pond Time, this was announced months ago. How did your amazing Twitter feed miss this?
2 hours before this post was made:
They haven't announced the plans for a postseason yet but rumor is they're going to just have the top two teams play
https://mgoblog.com/content/big-ten-schedule-released-let%27s-react#read-more
It's just more evidence that Brett McMurphy doesn't give a rip about you. If he cared for you even 1/100th as much as you do for him, he undoubtedly would have notified you of the end of B1G divisional play in 2024.
If Michigan and ohio meet for The Game and they're both undefeated.....that should automatically be considered the B1G Championship game.... then, two weeks later the 3 & 4 teams can play to see who gets the B1G Bronze medal.
Why do they not just add another week of football for everyone, so they make even more money, because that's all the championship game is about anymore anyway.