So uh…this is actually a thing, isn’t it? l m a o
I can not believe that UCLA is going to be playing in the B1G. Life in general has become just as unpredictable, things I never thought would happen are now transpiring nearly every day. There are years when nothing happens and weeks when blah blah blah.
Change his name to Hunter Abdul-Jadickinson
Can’t wait for Big Ten mainstay Bill Walton to be the color commentator. No, seriously, imagine Wisconsin vs Northwestern with Bill Walton, at least something on broadcast would be entertaining.
Also, I wanna see Cal and Stanford in the SEC.
I wish I could like this twice!!
I’ve always said Walton is entertaining when he isn’t calling a game for your team. Now we may get to see him call Michigan games and I imagine those won’t be quite so entertaining. Northwestern-Rutgers will be fantastic coverage though
I’m sure I’ve said this before but I’ll never forget the time I caught the beginning of some game he called. He began after tipoff by counting down from, like, 10 before yelling “Happy New Year!” Then followed that up by singing the first minute or so of the Beatles’ Get Back. Took up the first four possessions or so. It was horrifying and amazing at the same time.
Definitely going to be cool to have UCLA come to Crisler on a (somewhat) regular basis. The game we won in overtime with Eli’s two clutch free throws sending it to OT was a lot of fun.
On that note, I’m super pumped to see Michigan at least once a year in Los Angeles. Need redemption for our last game at Pauley at the very least.
I really wonder if these “franchises” should just become two independent football conferences - the SespnC and the Bfox10. Load them up with 20-25 teams. Treat it like the old ABA and NBA. Or the old AL/NL in baseball.
Then the NCAA and actual universities can be responsible for all non football sports if they want.
I wish I though anyone involved with this had any sort of plan or strategy for the future of the college athletics. This is a pure TV money grab. It is a good one in that regard, but creating super leagues in a sport that plays 9-12 games is illogical. Break off football.
The logistics of it all fail to compute. How will the players be able to attend classes and function like normal students if they’re on across the continental US every other day? Pure, naked money grab. Why not have Oxford start a football team and have them join in.
One benefit of a 16-team BTT would be that everyone could just play four games. No byes would be necessary.
Of course we’re not likely to stop with 16.
No idea what the BTT would look like but I think there would still have to byes in there. The ACC does it and has a full first day with byes that stretch out a few days. I think there has to be some reward for an excellent regular season.
But your last point stands…16 is not the end game.
I realize that with any money grab like this you should only try to plot out the schedule or tournament while thinking of the way that the network and suits get as much money as possible, but let’s pretend for a second that those people actually care about sports other than football or creating a logical, realistic strategy for the sports.
For basketball could you create a pod-based schedule not unlike what most soccer tournaments do? Group the teams into pods of 5, play everyone in your pod twice for the first 8 games, then regroup teams based on that outcome into an upper and lower tier of 10 teams. You play 9 more games so you get everyone in your tier once. After those 17 games, you can have a B10 tournament if you want. Maybe the top 4 teams from the lower tier and the top 8 teams from the upper tier make it. The teams that don’t make it play in a “losers bracket” tournament.
You get to play just about everyone, you reward teams that play well, you don’t eliminate opportunity from the lower tier teams, but you try to have the “best competition”. You add excitement about teams trying to make the top four of the lower tier or stay out of the bottom two of the upper. You keep a tournament.
Teams that had a strong season are rewarded already with a high BTT seed and (most likely) a sure NCAA tourney bid. A bye on top of that is overkill imo. It makes sense now with 14 teams but with 16, it should just be a straight bracket.
That runs against what every other conference is doing. I don’t think the support would be there for a straight bracket.
Well, as we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, the Big Ten doesn’t necessarily care what other leagues are doing.
I just don’t see the point in making the bracket more complicated than it needs to be. With 14 teams you have to have a messy bracket, but not with 16. The last-place team would already be punished with the #16 seed and would have to play the top seed on Thursday. If they can win that, more power to them.
Don’t love this new trend and the way these mega conferences are consolidating with no history, rivalry, or geographic location considerations.
Very modern America in nature.
Consolidation and more for the few. Idk I get money makes the world go round and I want kids in particular to benefit but….
I know this has been going on for decades but it use to kind of make sense still.
Is Rutgers and Maryland staying on? Big ten goes from La to the east coast?
I’m already getting pretty excited about the first football game in Memorial Coliseum. The Greyhound Bus trip from Detroit to Los Angeles trims a really long bicycle ride down to just 60 hours. And cycling for 13 days with my mask on sounds like too much for me.
or the NFC/AFC or Eastern/Western conference
its just going to be a pro league with lower salaries and lower standard of play
I believe Scotland is one country that runs a setup similar to this in the same season.
I think promotion and relegation is a fun concept. But if most soccer leagues started today, they probably wouldn’t have it. Promotion/relegation made a lot more sense when teams weren’t investing millions/billions to compete. Lot of risk financially for owners if teams drop down. It’s why MLS doesn’t have promotion/relegation despite many fans wanting it. They want owners to feel comfortable investing in teams.
The question with your idea would be if the payouts for the losers and winners brackets are the same? Would the best teams be OK making the same as the worst?
But your idea is cool. I like rewarding the best teams on sporting merit.