It's that time of year when I begin planning my college football coverage. This year I'm taking a new stance, due to the latest Big Ten news. My conference is turning itself into something that is NOT my old conference. Starting in 2024, they will add two teams that have historically been bitter enemies-- UCLA and USC. Apparently the conference is open to adding more Pac-12 teams. The conference chairman wants to expand to 20 teams. The motivation is purely and solely greed, wanting more teams to pay dues and share winnings with the conference. Because, let's face it, a 20-team conference is completely impractical in a sporting sense.
Let's put aside the football season, although that is a primary motivation for the expansion. Let's look at basketball, which is actually the more popular sport in the midwest, where most of the conference is located. A typical NCAA basketball season is 32 games. Part of those games are conference matchips. In most conferences, teams play each other conference team twice. That usually encompasses close to half of their games. However, what happens when you get a 20-team conference? That is 19 conference opponents. Clearly, you cannot play each team twice. With two ten-team divisions, It's unlikely that you would play each division opponent twice and the other conference opponents once, as that totals 28 games, leaving only four non-conference games. That's not much exposure to other teams in preparation for the NCAA tournament.
Furthermore, consider the complications of a 20-team conference championship. Unless you have a 10-day tournament, it basically guarantees that only a fraction of the teams can participate in the conference tournament.
Considering the football schedule, two ten-team divisions would mean that teams might only play their division opponents each year, so it is likely that they will not play all of their divisional opponents, so that they can occassionally play other conference opponents.
Of course, a 20-team conference might divide into four 5-team divisions. Then, football teams could play all four of their divisional opponents, one team from each of the other three divisions, and play five other games, some of which would be other conference opponents. In basketball, two games against division opponents total eight games, Then they can play the other 15 conference teams once, leaving room for nine non-conference games. A better schedule, but still awkward.
Now that the Big Ten has stated the intent to become a superconference, you know that the SEC will follow suit. The Power Five may turn into two power conferences and some also-rans. Thus, starting this year, I will shift my focus to the conferences mostly ignored -- the Gang of Five. I will still follow the Big Ten, and include some memories and insights into the those ten teams that constituted the Big Ten conference that I grew up with: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Purdue. My picks will focus on the Mid-American Conference, as the Big Ten conference was my focus in the past. I will still produce my Top 25.My preview column next week will examine the Big Ten, MAC, Conference USA, American Athletic, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
No comments:
Post a Comment