by Joe Paterno bucks the stereotype that all octogenarians are conservative and crotchety. Well, ok maybe he can be a little difficult at times, but he’s one of the most progressive coaches associated with college football. In 2002 he became the spokesman for instant replay in the Big Ten, a system I couldn’t imagine games being played without. It was so successful that all the other BCS conferences adopted it.
Now JoePa is encouraging the Big Ten, an eleven team conference, to expand to twelve so they can play a conference championship game. Selfishly Paterno wants the championship game to broaden the Big Ten’s exposure down the stretch of the season.
“We go into hiding for six weeks,” Paterno said, referring to the hiatus between the end of the Big Ten regular season and the BCS bowls. The other major FBS conferences play into the first weekend of December.
“Everybody else is playing playoffs on television,” Paterno said. “You never see a Big Ten team mentioned. So I think that’s a handicap.
I have to disagree with him there because it works both ways. A championship game can either leap frog a team into the BCS Championship or knock ‘em out. Â However, I will concede it is a benefit for teams on the outside to have an extra game to make their case. But in any event I hope JoePa continues to push the Big Ten on this issue.
In my opinion the Big Ten conference champion is determined in the least “fair” manner among the BCS conferences. Sure they don’t pick their champion with eeny, meeny, miny, moe, but they don’t have a championship game and don’t play a round robin schedule. The other 5 BCS conferences do one or the other. If the Big Ten did too we would be able to say the BCS conferences, both large and small, have a uniform way of determining their conference champions.
Why do I think that is important? Because it will bring us that much closer to a playoff. One of the major obstacles in instituting a playoff  is changing the different conferences from doing it their way, to everyone’s way.  This is one small step in the right direction. Homogeneous harmony people!
Who would be a good fit for the Big Ten?
| School | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Notre Dame: | Already plays a mini Big Ten schedule • Proximity • Long tradition with Big Ten schools | Will never, ever give up their television contract and join a conference by choice. |
| Pittsburgh: | Renew their rivalry with Penn State Proximity |
Will force the Big East to expand |
| Cincinnati: | Proximity • Become a destination and not pit stop for coaches • They want a piece of tOSU | Will force the Big East to expand • May not be a perennial contender |
| Syracuse: | They’re a body | Basketball school and charter member of the Big East. It’s not happening • Will force the Big East to expand |
| Mizzou: | Perennial contender • Long standing hate fest with Illinois means much more • Expand recruiting and television efforts into Big 12 territory | Rivalries with Kansas and Nebraska become less intense • Will force the Big 12 to expand (which could turn into a pro if they could replace Missouri with TCU and realign their divisions) |
’)7 Responses to “A Big Ten Championship Game Brings Us That Much Closer to a Playoff”
Trackbacks / Pingbacks:
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CollegeGameBalls: College Football at its Finest | The Pennsylvania Classic Needs to be Resuscitated
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Around the Interwebs | CollegeGameBalls: College Football at its Finest
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Big Ten Expansion Discussion | CollegeGameBalls: College Football at its Finest
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Around the Interwebs | CollegeGameBalls: College Football at its Finest
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1Brian on May 1, 2009 at 7:59 pm:
cbg – nice article. I read this interesting tidbit on Wikipedia today about the Big Ten conference and possible expansion:
“Due to a requirement of the Big Ten bylaws, any expansion must be within, or next to, current Big Ten territory (although, like all bylaws, this could be amended by conference vote”
All your schools fit this criteria, just thought it was interesting that this is part of the conference by laws.
I would add the following to your list for completeness / sake of argument:
- Rutgers – Pros: matches profile of most Big Ten schools (large state school), Cons: Big East expansion, perennial contender?, too wide geographic footprint?
- West Virginia – Pros: another big state school, proximity to Ohio State, Penn State and others, annual contender, Cons: Big East expansion, could break up tOSU dominance if they can right the Stewart ship
- Iowa State – Pros: natural rivalry with Iowa, Cons: Big XII expansion, sucks
- Directional Michigans / other MAC patsy / Marshall – why? why not? the conference already has Indiana and Northwestern as football doormats
- Western Kentucky – a reach but who knows … they’re independent for now so would be the least disruptive to the overall CFB landscape
2cgb on May 4, 2009 at 7:00 am:
@Brian – Thank you for giving the post that level of BC Interruption completeness we all love. Out of your suggestions I think West Virginia would be the best pick. I pick them because they have the best football and basketball combination and also for the reasons you mentioned. But is it a lateral move for them? I think it could be, since they are the top football program in the Big East and as it stands now have the easiest road to the BCS each year. I don’t know what they would gain by joining the Big Ten.
3Brendan on May 4, 2009 at 12:22 pm:
If I were a Big Ten fan, and I am since I root for Michigan also, my #1 choice outside of Notre Dame would be Nebraska. Pros: excellent football tradition, large alumni base, new TV footprint, re-emphasis on Midwestern nature of the conference (this is important to a lot of old-school Big Ten fans.) Cons: no rivalries in the Big Ten, absolutely worthless for basketball purposes.
BUT. More important is this. It’s something that everybody nationwide, from ESPN to bloggers to forum yahoos all the way down to the lowest level of Internet presence, the YouTube commenter, forgets about. Every Big Ten member is also a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU.) That’s not by accident, it’s by design, as AAU membership is a condition of Big Ten membership. The Big Ten is the only such conference, but there are 49 other AAU schools and AAU membership requires 3/4ths approval. In other words, the Big Ten is not going to be able to force in a school like WVU just for this purpose.
So the answer to why not the directional Michigans? AAU. Yes, the Big Ten is a little bit snobby academically. No West Virginia, no Cincy, no Louisville, no directionals, and no WKU – they just won’t be considered. Besides, the Big Ten wants to expand the footprint of the BTN and West Virginia is just the worst place in the world for that. That’s why Iowa State isn’t ever seriously mentioned. That leaves Pitt (sorta), Cuse, Rutgers, Nebraska, and maybe Texas, though I’d barf at the geographical idiocy of that.