Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin has been making noises about expanding the Big Ten's conference schedule for a few years now but an actual move has always seemed impossible as long as the Big Ten stuck with 11 conference members, as it's mathematically impossible for 11 teams to play 9 games each (think about it) and many teams would reject a full round-robin for financial and crappy-bowl-related reasons. But the noise increases and it sounds like we may see an unbalanced schedule. Comissioner
Jim Delaney:
"I think there's some sentiment, a minority, to go to 10 and some sentiment, a minority, to stay at eight," Delany said. "I think there is a majority to go to nine, but the problem is that with 11 members playing nine games, it doesn't work mathematically."
The proposed solution is to have one team play eight games, which seems like a controversy magnet. What happens if Michigan, 6-1 in conference, beats an 8-0 Ohio State (humor me for a second, Buckeye fans, and pretend Michigan will beat OSU ever again)? OSU's 8-1 conference record is a half-game better than Michigan's 7-1 conference record, but Michigan will have a head-to-head win. Any time the unbalanced schedule has an impact on the conference championship there's going to be all-caps OUTRAGE! If they could set it up such that really bad teams always get the extra non-conference game, everything would be fine -- that team would probably prefer Northeastern A&M Tech than a real opponent -- but that would require schedules to be remade on the relative fly. Maybe give each team a bye based on the previous season's standings?
- Top two teams miss the bottom team and vice versa.
- Third team misses #10
- Fourth team misses #9
- Fifth team misses #8
- Six and seven miss each other.
That would place a slight extra schedule burden on the better teams in the conference, but probably not an enormous one given the turnover on college teams. And the worst team in the conference would end up scrambling for a sacrificial I-AA opponent every year, but they're pretty much doing that now.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
How's this for an idea. The Big10 schedules that extra game with an opponent instead of telling a different Big10 team to do it each year. That way long-term contracts can be acquired and perhaps they'd get someone better than a I-AA opponent. Then as the conference season looks to come to a close, the worst team in the conference will play that contracted opponent instead of their 9th conference game. I have a feeling a MAC team looking for bowl eligibility would love the chance to get a win against a big-name opponent, even if it's the Big Ten's worst team.
As for the other matchups:
1) Last year's worst team is placed in the Big10's contracted game. If that team is not the worst going into the 9th weekend of conference play, then they would take the spot of whichever team is in last place.
2) Michigan-Ohio State will be played on the final weekend of the season - PERIOD. Neither of them will ever come in dead last but if one does put them in the game with the out-of-conference school and those two won't play each other that year. It'll never happen so just put it in the rules because you have to.
3) The remaining 8 teams are scheduled based on who didn't play each other and who deserves a home game. Remember if one of these 8 teams finishes in last place they swap their spot with the team who finished last the year prior.
"Top two teams miss the bottom team and vice versa.
"
That could have some anti-competitive repercussions. I can see certain coaches (cough..bielema...ahem) sand-bagging a whole season if it looked like it was going bad, playing a bunch of backups, and attempting to finish last in order to guarantee his team misses that year's two best in the following season.
I imagine it would be difficult to work scheduling like that, especially considering that they generally have the conference schedule put together years in advance. Also, imagine teams have a miraculous turn-around and whoop up on their 8-team schedule (think: Penn State, 2005).
I got it. Eleven teams equals 10 games played, cause you don't play yourself. Stop playing those div II and 3a high school teams at the begining of the year and start playing quality out-a - conference teams. Wow, what a concept.