Starting a new thread. Interesting that the BIG10 is ending their divisions, but protecting rivalry games. Interesting.

posted by iclfan2

Starting a new thread. Interesting that the BIG10 is ending their divisions, but protecting rivalry games. Interesting.

Ending divisions makes all kind of sense. Think that's only a thing for FB and at the moment, the two divisions are hilariously unbalanced with OSU, Michigan and PSU in one division and the other division basically hoping that Wisconsin is good year after year and someone like Minnesota, Northwestern or Purdue can pull off good seasons here and there. And with the conference expanding into SoCal, I'd guess most teams don't want a situation where they have one or two road trips there every year or every other year. No divisions means you'll probably play UCLA and USC once every two years on average with half of those games being at home, which would logically mean a total of two long-ass road trips every four years.

posted by Heretic

Ending divisions makes all kind of sense. Think that's only a thing for FB and at the moment, the two divisions are hilariously unbalanced with OSU, Michigan and PSU in one division and the other division basically hoping that Wisconsin is good year after year and someone like Minnesota, Northwestern or Purdue can pull off good seasons here and there. And with the conference expanding into SoCal, I'd guess most teams don't want a situation where they have one or two road trips there every year or every other year. No divisions means you'll probably play UCLA and USC once every two years on average with half of those games being at home, which would logically mean a total of two long-ass road trips every four years.

You still have the potential problem that a team could finish #2 in the conference because of an easy schedule, since there are many teams that you don't play. Maybe #3 is the better team but had the harder schedule. There is no great way to do these big conferences.

The ACC is doing away with divisions this year and going forward each team will have 3 “rivals” they play every year.