Conference Realignment

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#351      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
The Galloping Ghost said:
"Unless ND jumps (which I don't think they will), I feel pretty certain this is it." - ChiefGritty (7.26.22)

Not sure I feel great about the circumstances, but continued expansion always felt inevitable. You're not Nostradamus, but I do appreciate everything you've contributed to this thread, Gritty.
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Yup, I absolutely said that. And I'm sure I expressed even more certainty than that down the line.

The situation is what it is, the individual Big Ten members are losing money, losing visibility, making travel worse, and committing a strategic blunder in our longer term cold war against the SEC with this move.

I was certain that stuff would win the day for the actual decision makers. Many posters here said that hazy vibes could overwhelm those cold calculations, and I was my usual sarcastic self making fun of them. They were 100% right and I was 100% wrong, hand up.
 
#352      

Homecoming 2019

Homecoming 2019
Chicago
Homecoming 2019
ChiefGritty said:
Yup, I absolutely said that. And I'm sure I expressed even more certainty than that down the line.

The situation is what it is, the individual Big Ten members are losing money, losing visibility, making travel worse, and committing a strategic blunder in our longer term cold war against the SEC with this move.

I was certain that stuff would win the day for the actual decision makers. Many posters here said that hazy vibes could overwhelm those cold calculations, and I was my usual sarcastic self making fun of them. They were 100% right and I was 100% wrong, hand up.
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You're again speaking with a lot of certainty on things here you can't possibly be certain of.
 
#353      

TheGMan

TheGMan
TheGMan
ChiefGritty said:
longer term cold war against the SEC
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This is probably the best descriptor of what's going on.

In my opinion, if we are gonna be in this Cold War, let's at least win. Go get Florida State and Clemson. The Big "Ten" won't be satisfied until only Notre Dame remains. And then I want the Big "Ten" to laugh at Notre Dame when it finally tries to join and we slam the door in its face.

Mike Myers Evil Laugh GIF
 
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#356      

NoRival

NoRival
NoRival
I don't like it. With 18 teams, you really need divisions for football (even basketball). They should put all the Newbies together.

Charter Division
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Ohio State
Purdue
Michigan
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern (if they survive)

Newbie Division
Michigan State
Penn State
Nebraska
Rutgers
Maryland
UCLA
USC
Washington
Oregon

You then play all your division opponents once and get 2 cross over games (one home and 1 away) in football. This preserves the traditional match ups. Heck, you can have Michigan and Michigan State as a protected rivalry. Michigan State can join the traditional Big 10 teams once NW gives up D1 sports (like UChicago). This will give ND a spot in the Newbies division.
 
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#358      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
NoRival said:
I don't like it. With 18 teams, you really need divisions for football (even basketball). They should put all the Newbies together.

Charter Division
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Ohio State
Purdue
Michigan
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern (if they survive)

Newbie Division
Michigan State
Penn State
Nebraska
Rutgers
Maryland
UCLA
USC
Washington
Oregon

You then play all your division opponents once and get 2 cross over games (one home and 1 away) in football. This preserves the traditional match ups. Heck, you can Michigan and Michigan State a protected rivalry. Michigan State can join the traditional Big 10 teams once NW gives up D1 sports (like UChicago). This give ND a spot in the Newbies division.
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Top-tier posting putting MSU with the newbies (y)

Let's not forget, there are five schools who have been continuous Big Ten members though its whole history: Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.
 
#359      

Coffee Mug

C
Coffee Mug
I have no clue how the football divisions will work out, but a 17-game round robin basketball schedule sounds pretty fun, and an improvement over the unbalanced schedules we've had recently.
 
#362      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Zorak said:
The thing I can't figure out in all this is why no one wants Stanford.
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Who says Stanford is burning down the phone lines trying to find a life raft?

Research and sports having nothing to do with each other goes in both directions.
 
#363      

AutoPoster 3000

AutoPoster 3000
AutoPoster 3000
redwingillini11 said:
10 conference games must be coming. You can easily amend the 2024-25 schedule by making the west coast schools play each other extra to ease travel. I imagine USC may put up a big stink about playing these teams if they didn't want them in the conference, but I will just assume this gets done to ease travel. Maybe the northern and southern teams aren't permanent rivals, but just for the first set of schedules so everyone can get used to this.
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Someone needs to tell Rutgers and Maryland that they have to play all those west coast road games. It’s time they start earning their keep.

1691171919660.gif
 
#366      

illiniCA

illiniCA
DC Area
illiniCA
ChiefGritty said:
Who says Stanford is burning down the phone lines trying to find a life raft?

Research and sports having nothing to do with each other goes in both directions.
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Isnt standford the top athletic school across all sports and don’t they have enough private funding in those sports to basically be independent if they want
 
#368      

Qwiksilvur

Q
Qwiksilvur
So…the SEC has no moves to make here right? I mean, the ACC doesn’t appear to be able to be broken up atm. So there aren’t any takes anywhere else?
 
#370      

sbillini

sbillini
st petersburg, fl
sbillini
ChiefGritty said:
The situation is what it is, the individual Big Ten members are losing money, losing visibility, making travel worse, and committing a strategic blunder in our longer term cold war against the SEC with this move.
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In the corporate world (which this very much is), this type of consolidation usually happens when the companies know that growth is going to slow. Automotive manufacturers in the mid-1900s come to mind as an easy example, but there's a ton of them out there. When the tide stops raising all boats, you're left with the boats scrambling to get as big as possible by swallowing others. Just get as big as possible so you can get as big of the smaller growing pie as you can (vs other conferences, but also vs distributors, suppliers, etc.).

After decades of unadultered growth, i'm expecting things to flatten out over the next few years.
 
#371      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Qwiksilvur said:
So…the SEC has no moves to make here right? I mean, the ACC doesn’t appear to be able to be broken up atm. So there aren’t any takes anywhere else?
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No ACC school can go anywhere without the blessing of ESPN. ESPN is all-in on the SEC as the winner of the cold war and the future of college sports TV programming. It ain't rocket science where this is going.
 
#373      

TentakilRex

TentakilRex
Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
TentakilRex
For whenever someone accuses the B1G killing the PAC,
post this secret admission of guilt

PacKilledThePac.png
 
#374      

WeWillWhen

WeWillWhen
WeWillWhen
This is ultimately going to be the BIG22 or BIG24, isn't it?

Power 2, indeed.
 
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