A suggestion for the B1G to minimize the mess they’ve made

[eastbaycat99]

In their haste to maximize future broadcast revenue by adding four West Coast teams, the conference has wreaked chaos on all the sports the member universities play that are not named football. Non-revenue and lower revenue teams face an uncertain future of airplane rides, hotel stays during the school week and jet lag.

To me, it makes sense to view football as a primarily full continent league, and all the other sports as regional.

The straightforward way to do this would be to add 3 West Coast teams and structure divisions as follows:
For football, have 3 national divisions that get reshuffled periodically (every four years or so) for parity. The top 3 teams over the prior 4 years would be placed in different divisions, next 3 the same down the line so each division is basically balanced. Within division, play the six other teams and structure the remaining conference games to preserve rivalries as needed.

For all other sports make 3 regional divisions, reducing travel time and costs.

I would suggest adding Stanford Cal and SDSU, which would have the added benefit of reaching 2 of the largest media markets, satisfying the network revenue requirements.

The stress expansion is going to put on non-football sports is considerable. I hope the conference is up to the challenge.

 

[NUCat320]

This is correct. Football is easy to schedule around. Teams are going to be looking at a week away from campus if they go West. And actual cross-country flights will be frequent.

It’s truly terrible.

 

[CatFanEd]

This is correct. Football is easy to schedule around. Teams are going to be looking at a week away from campus if they go West. And actual cross-country flights will be frequent.

It’s truly terrible.

Yes, there will be a lot of traveling but we now have remote learning which changes everything. You no longer have to worry about attending classes or having someone else take notes for you. Heck, if you want face to face you can have a friend video a class and send you the video on your phone. Different world out there due to technology.

 

[Sheffielder]

Yes, there will be a lot of traveling but we now have remote learning which changes everything. You no longer have to worry about attending classes or having someone else take notes for you. Heck, if you want face to face you can have a friend video a class and send you the video on your phone. Different world out there due to technology.

I can tell you with certainty that many faculty are firmly against this and won't accommodate it (and they have the support of their deans), and the general loss in quality of lectures that are taught in person to live students with a camera doing a half-assed filming job in the back of the classroom makes it barely tolerable to watch.

The Big Ten's best option is to go back to divisions - 5 x 4 schools, and then having each division avoid the west about half the time. It solves the travel issue, ensures multiple banners can be hung at multiple schools at the end of each season, and they can still engineer whatever version of a championship game they want.

But honestly...I see the talk of separating football from all other sports getting louder and louder...and it makes sense.

The P5 schools could have also worked out scheduling agreements that would have been attractive to their tv partners...akin to the Big Ten-ACC basketball challenge - could have specifically created marquee matchups during holes in the weekly tv schedules to guarantee big games and many eyeballs. But...whatever.