Recap: texas A&M has left the big 12 along with Missouri for the SEC. Oklahoma decided to leave for the pac 12 bringing texas, texas tech, and oklahoma state with them to form the Pac 16. the SEC has moved up to 16 to create the 2nd superconference.
disclaimer: even though the big ten will probably reach super-conference status before the ACC, i doubt the big ten will grab any ACC schools. At most, the big ten will grab a school or two from the big east cutting down the ACCs options for expansion.
before i preview the possibilities of the big ten, i gotta tip my hat to jim delaney for organizing the league such that all the top tier programs are not in the same division. With super-conferences, a team could only play 2 non divisional conference opponents at best. if one or two of these games is committed to their rival(s) then that leaves maybe 1 game in the other division. when i explore the logistics of a super-conference next week i will go more in detail.
The big ten currently consists of:
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Minnesota
Iowa
Penn State
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Ohio State
Wisconsin
I couldn't tell you which division is a leader or legend (and still feel those are awful names) but all 12 of the big ten are there. So let's take a look at Big 10 expansion possibilities.
Revenue: The Big 10 wants to pick up markets which will help strengthen their profile. Picking up NYC in the form of Syracuse or Rutgers would be the ideal situation for the Big 10. In the West, I feel the Big 10 will be picking up the pieces of the Big 12 North. Kansas might get a bid as they add a new state's worth of market and the school fits the academic profile. I can't even try and split up divisions in the revenue based option as there are too many options.
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Minnesota
Iowa
Penn State
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Rutgers or Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Kansas
1 of the following schools: Kansas State, Iowa State, the Rutgers/Syracuse not already picked, Louisville, Cincinatti,
Rivalries: Ideally the Big 10 could adopt a travel pair format similar to the Pac 12 (and my proposed SEC and ACC) by creating the following divisions:
Great Lakes:
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern
Indiana
Purdue
Great Plains:
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Nebraska
Minnesota
The great lakes division initially looks stacked, but it would be the only way to preserve the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry as well as the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry. The great plains division has some top tier programs as well in Nebraska and Penn State, plus Iowa and Pittsburgh are usually competitive.
Alright this post concludes the series on Automatic qualifying conferences. The next two posts will look at the Non-AQ Conferences and those left in the dark. Afterwards, some general posts regarding logistics and potentials with this landscape will help us all explore the possibilities in this foreign and durastically altered setting.
disclaimer: even though the big ten will probably reach super-conference status before the ACC, i doubt the big ten will grab any ACC schools. At most, the big ten will grab a school or two from the big east cutting down the ACCs options for expansion.
before i preview the possibilities of the big ten, i gotta tip my hat to jim delaney for organizing the league such that all the top tier programs are not in the same division. With super-conferences, a team could only play 2 non divisional conference opponents at best. if one or two of these games is committed to their rival(s) then that leaves maybe 1 game in the other division. when i explore the logistics of a super-conference next week i will go more in detail.
The big ten currently consists of:
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Minnesota
Iowa
Penn State
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Ohio State
Wisconsin
I couldn't tell you which division is a leader or legend (and still feel those are awful names) but all 12 of the big ten are there. So let's take a look at Big 10 expansion possibilities.
Revenue: The Big 10 wants to pick up markets which will help strengthen their profile. Picking up NYC in the form of Syracuse or Rutgers would be the ideal situation for the Big 10. In the West, I feel the Big 10 will be picking up the pieces of the Big 12 North. Kansas might get a bid as they add a new state's worth of market and the school fits the academic profile. I can't even try and split up divisions in the revenue based option as there are too many options.
Michigan
Michigan State
Nebraska
Northwestern
Minnesota
Iowa
Penn State
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Rutgers or Syracuse
Pittsburgh
Kansas
1 of the following schools: Kansas State, Iowa State, the Rutgers/Syracuse not already picked, Louisville, Cincinatti,
Rivalries: Ideally the Big 10 could adopt a travel pair format similar to the Pac 12 (and my proposed SEC and ACC) by creating the following divisions:
Great Lakes:
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Northwestern
Indiana
Purdue
Great Plains:
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Nebraska
Minnesota
The great lakes division initially looks stacked, but it would be the only way to preserve the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry as well as the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry. The great plains division has some top tier programs as well in Nebraska and Penn State, plus Iowa and Pittsburgh are usually competitive.
Alright this post concludes the series on Automatic qualifying conferences. The next two posts will look at the Non-AQ Conferences and those left in the dark. Afterwards, some general posts regarding logistics and potentials with this landscape will help us all explore the possibilities in this foreign and durastically altered setting.
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