B1G with relegation?

[zanycat]

Futbol euro-snobbery relegation for B1G1 & B1G2 divisions? Protected rivalries but with relegation and promotion zones? Up/down high drama divisional playoff games? Parachute and promo payments from the mega-media deal? I kinda like it. Saw this today in a Cleveland.com article:

“How about two eight-team divisions, but not divided by geography? Equality is a facade, even among regional conference partners. So split into an upper tier and a lower tier based either on some formula of results from the past 5-10 years or the size of the athletic budgets.
But — and it’s a big one — teams can move up and down. Now imagine Iowa and Nebraska or Minnesota and Wisconsin playing Thanksgiving week not for a trip to Indianapolis but to avoid relegation to the lower tier.”
B1G get weird - Cleveland.com

 

[FeralFelidae]

The super-conference is going to try to find a way to dump Northwestern if they possibly can.

We're grandfathered in as a founding member of the Big 10, but if the Big 10 ceases to be with mergers into a super-conference, I wonder...

 

[WestCoastWildcat]

I’m worried about the future of college athletics and destruction and re-shuffling of conferences driven by greed. There is a difference that is becoming more stark between revenue-generating sports (football in particular) and the rest of collegiate sports. I’m also torn about salaries for college athletes and the huge sums coaches are receiving. As we know the salaries for college football and basketball coaches at state colleges are right at the top of the salaries for state employees and assume that is true of private institutions as well. College players had been receiving nothing beyond scholarships unless the boosters gave card and money under the table.

I also don’t know how all of this is going to shake out but I don’t find UCLA and U$C joining the BigTen a good thing because the move decimates the PAC12. My nephew who is an alum of U of O is concerned about where the Ducks will land. Evidently it will not be in the Big Ten for now.

 

[docrugby1]

I can see a 24 team league with 3 divisions. 2 would be the equivalent of the Premiere League and the 3rd the relegation division. Each year 4 teams get promoted and 2 from each premiere division get relegated. There would be 25% turnover in the premiere groups and 50% turnover in the "relegation'" division.

The movement would insure that all games are important-take a week off and down you go but with a realistic chance of promotion the next year

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

I can see a 24 team league with 3 divisions. 2 would be the equivalent of the Premiere League and the 3rd the relegation division. Each year 4 teams get promoted and 2 from each premiere division get relegated. There would be 25% turnover in the premiere groups and 50% turnover in the "relegation'" division.

The movement would insure that all games are important-take a week off and down you go but with a realistic chance of promotion the next year

Yiu can see that scenario? I sure don’t. This isn’t an episode of Ted Lasso.

 

[docrugby1]

Yiu can see that scenario? I sure don’t. This isn’t an episode of Ted Lasso.

The alternative is goodbye NU

 

[zanycat]

I think this model could work with a B1G and $EC “power two” of 24 teams each with 1st and 2nd divs of 12 teams each. Maybe even up to higher numbers. Hoops and Olympic sports would have to be organized differently.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

The alternative is goodbye NU

NU isn’t going anywhere. The worse case scenario would be Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and USC leaving to be part of some sort of super conference. I don’t see that happening any time soon.

 

[zanycat]

Yiu can see that scenario? I sure don’t. This isn’t an episode of Ted Lasso.

But people like that show because of the emotion and drama. Imagine that bonus payouts to players are based on finish / promotion rather that the dumpster fire that is NIL right now. Games take on a greater meaning, even against a minnow. The networks / TV like the drama. Parity won’t sell as well.

 

[zanycat]

Didn’t OSU already threaten to leave in 2020 because Covid might have cancelled the season? Teams leaving for a mega conference of 30 teams leaves NU high and dry.

 

[jimmyNU]

Futbol euro-snobbery relegation for B1G1 & B1G2 divisions? Protected rivalries but with relegation and promotion zones? Up/down high drama divisional playoff games? Parachute and promo payments from the mega-media deal? I kinda like it. Saw this today in a Cleveland.com article:

“How about two eight-team divisions, but not divided by geography? Equality is a facade, even among regional conference partners. So split into an upper tier and a lower tier based either on some formula of results from the past 5-10 years or the size of the athletic budgets.
But — and it’s a big one — teams can move up and down. Now imagine Iowa and Nebraska or Minnesota and Wisconsin playing Thanksgiving week not for a trip to Indianapolis but to avoid relegation to the lower tier.”
B1G get weird - Cleveland.com

A few years ago I speculated that college football would have 64 teams in the upper league and 64 in the lower league with a certain number of teams getting relegated each year. That's slightly different than what you're saying, but it would be interesting.

 

[Katatonic]

Don't see relegation really working on the collegiate level as rosters can change drastically year to year.

With relegation in place, wouldn't have seen the Cats go from worst to 1st.

As pointed out in another thread, think it would be a good idea for schools that miss out on the playoffs to have a 2nd tier tournament which would basically replace lesser bowl games which are basically rip offs for schools/conferences.

 

[zeek55]

Big Ten won't do relegation because no American sports do.

Those types of ideas don't make sense.

Ohio State wants to win 11 or 12 games a year. They don't want to just play top 15 schools in their whole schedule. They need some more likely wins.

There's a place for NU, Vandy, Rutgers, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Illinois, etc. in these superconferences.

NU is not going anywhere. Also, we're going to invest (wait for the new stadium announcement), it's not like we're going the Chicago route and de-emphasizing.

As long as the smaller schools are investing, they'll have a place.

 

[phatcat]

Certain cynics would say we've already been playing in the lower division (B1G West)

 

[pawildcat]

Didn’t OSU already threaten to leave in 2020 because Covid might have cancelled the season? Teams leaving for a mega conference of 30 teams leaves NU high and dry.

All it means is that NU wouldn't being playing in their 30-team mega conference. NU would still be one of the top academic universities in the country and would be playing football somewhere. I'd just as soon they stay in the Big 10, but am not going to spend a lot of time worrying about it. The Big 10 I followed as a kid is already long gone.

 

[PZAZ]

The super-conference is going to try to find a way to dump Northwestern if they possibly can.

We're grandfathered in as a founding member of the Big 10, but if the Big 10 ceases to be with mergers into a super-conference, I wonder...

No way. We bring Chicago market and winning teams

 

[Alan Smithee]

I think experimenting with a relegation system for posters on the message boards would be fun.

 

[zanycat]

If NU isn’t getting a small crack at playing with the B1G big boys occasionally and traditional rivals on a regular basis, it would strongly lower my interest in following or donating even the small amounts I regularly contribute. I’d rather we go on as the cardiac cats with mid-table finishes and the occasional title run, than dominate against lower competition, if we’re even capable of that.

Getting left totally out of ever having the slimmest chance of a high ranked finish would be quite a bummer and massively affect recruiting in a negative way. I don’t buy that recruiting takes a hit with relegation. Relegation would really just be more of a scheduling tool and determine any path to a playoff of consolidation system of bowls and whatever bonus payouts to players that could be tied to the 1st and 2nd tier divisions.

 

[TheC]

Relegation would make recruiting impossible. I think it would be very hard for a program like ours to recover from that.

 

[zanycat]

Relegation would make recruiting impossible. I think it would be very hard for a program like ours to recover from that.

And not being in a 30 team super league is going to improve recruiting? Bottom half of a regional super conference at least would keep us partly relevant. No league affiliation vs a B1G2 with protected rivalries and chance of promotion? An NU education with a chance to play more often and still be on a draft radar? Playing time is still a limiting factor at any of the top 30. I think you could still sell an NU package to current level recruits as long as it includes keeping us in a second division of a conference of our traditional and regional rivals.

 

[zeek55]

The only thing you're going to see is that they may schedule in such a way that the "national brands" are lined up more with each other.

But news flash, they've literally done that since the 2011 expansion.
Nebraska and Wisconsin were paired up with Ohio State (purposefully) a lot more when scheduling was set up to try to arrange more crossover games with national implications.

Relegation is not going to happen because a lot of these teams have gone through slumps and nobody wants to be relegated if they go through lean years.

We'll be okay. We're fortunate to be in a conference with pretty much just giant enrollment universities with very little dead weight as far as academics/size/scope.

As long as we continue to invest, we'll be fine. Once we reveal the stadium plans, we'll effectively have spent around $800-900 million on facilities in a 10-15 year span.

That's basically #1 in the country.

 

[StreamCat]

Corbi assured me something like this would never happen.