That elitist, blonde, jock a-hole character that is the antagonist in many movies set on college campuses? I always thought that was an exaggerated stereotype. Then I moved to LA and discovered that it’s real life USC Fan.
Conference Realignment
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Is there a point where travel from the “strong west coast brands” that we brought in becomes so undesirable, that top recruits don’t go there, so they begin to be not as good, and then lose the brand strength we brought them for?
How far Oregon has to travel to play every team in the Big Ten Conference
Gas up the jets, the Oregon Ducks are going to be hitting the road next year.www.yahoo.com
Interesting take from an Oregon fan on travel.
@Indy Illini Fan we fight?!
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Timeless
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One perk of having 4 teams on the West Coast now...
#BigTenAfterDark
#BigTenAfterDark
Captain 14
- The Last Best Place
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
B18 (8 as a small cursive g)
I also find it interesting that our egghead academic leaders and their like who constantly pound the sacred drum of environmental stewardship supports increasing the number of long distance flights by their sports teams for athletic prestige and the almighty dollar.
Oregon reminds me of "Housewives of ..." It's all about the bling.
It was pac 8. They got mocked just a bit for adding the arizona schools that didn't touch the pacific ocean.
I have gotten use to Nebraska in the BIg Ten because they fit the Big Ten mold
Maryland and Rutgers I still haven't gotten use to and still dislike it
These Pac Ten teams coming in? Not a chance
The idea of seeing Oregon vs Rutgers play instead of Oregon vs Arizona does not mean anything to me
It's going to be a sad day when we lose out on our rivals due to having to play these west coast teams
Maryland and Rutgers I still haven't gotten use to and still dislike it
These Pac Ten teams coming in? Not a chance
The idea of seeing Oregon vs Rutgers play instead of Oregon vs Arizona does not mean anything to me
It's going to be a sad day when we lose out on our rivals due to having to play these west coast teams
Better hope not. Or Illinois might well be next.
For, um, ducks.
Mr. Tibbs
- southeast DuPage
Robert has a very insightful blog article discussing this and the likely future of big time college football
I'm also in the camp of they're ruining college athletics. Granted, in 20 years no one may care, but during this transition it's a huge change no fan asked for.
If you look at the Big Ten, there are currently 18 schools. As that number increases do they ever say this whole Big TEN thing is getting more and more stupid and change the name? If that occurs, that would surely tick off a lot of people.
But with 18 teams, we've got to have presumably 2 divisions of 9. If you go with a simple geographical East vs West, then the West Division would be Oregon, Washington, UCLA, USC, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois? Illinois, Wisconsin, and Northwestern would be on the borders. So would they split up Wisconsin and Minnesota or Illinois and Northwestern? I think the Illinois and Northwestern fans would care less than the Badgers and Gophers, but it would seem dumb to split teams from the same state. So let's just assume the 9 I listed are in the West and everyone else is in the East.
So if you look at a football schedule, surely you would play the other 8 teams in your division, meaning you get to play 1 or 2 games against the other division. Since we'd be in with 5 of the newest Big Ten teams it will be completely different for us. Just wait for the complaints when USC has to play Michigan from the other division and UCLA plays Northwestern. Or Michigan gets Oregon and Ohio State gets Nebraska. There will be teams in your conference you only play once every 3 or 4 years.
Then if you look at basketball, we play 20 games. Either you don't play anyone twice or there are teams you won't play at all. What is the point of being a conference if you don't even play each other. And none of this brings into account the travel. Having teams in 4 different time zones can create some major problems. If this is really all about tv money, sorry folks you're not going to get a lot of people sitting around at midnight watching their team play on the west coast.
Someone mentioned, the SEC is remaining a southern conference. To me that means they're doing it right. If I'm the SEC I'm going after Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Clemson, Louisville. That allows me to get quality teams, keep rivalries, and keep a geographically contiguous and concentrated set of teams in 2 time zones which greatly eases scheduling.
I think ultimately, the more teams group into a small number of conferences, the more meaningless a conference is.
Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
I’m a fan of rotating who you play so that you don’t have 3 year or even 2 year gaps when you don’t play. With a big gap are you really in the same conference? On the other hand, if you rotate frequently and say play ~9 one year and ~9 the next you have such unbalanced schedules that the best record might not be the best team but a product of favorable scheduling. Like the basketball schedule on steroids.
Wonder if mountain west can just rebrand as pac12? I’m sure remaining pac teams will still be able to bring teams in, pac more desired name than other conferences. Guessing they still have rights to the name? But idk. Mountain west will probably be dissolved. Grab some from wac/ west coast/ sky. Just rotating chairs.
I think you right in with this, but the problem is the SEC is/was such a better football conference than the BIG. Since the BIG could never get ND to join they had to go outside traditional geographic boundary’s to get more “power” in football. PSU and Nebraska (at least in theory for Nebraska) did this. So the big had:
1) tOSU
2) scUM
3) PSU
4) Nebraska
Still, with the SEC adding Texas and OU they have:
1) Alabama
2) Georgia
3) Florida
4) Tennessee
5) Texas
6) OU
7) A&M
8) Auburn
It was still way better than the BIG. Adding UCLA and USC in particular helped, but we are still behind the SEC (at least in my mind?)
The problem is that most of the “great” college football programs (leaving ND out) are in the South. That is why if I am the BIG I go after Clemson and FSU as hard as I can. There is nothing left in the West and if they could get Clemson and FSU they would have a top 8 that at least in theory would compete with the SEC.
I hate ND, but they really would help the BIG 10
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
It's an unrivalled geographical setting, for sure. My bro lived there for several years. Winters were... challenging. I visited a good friend there in July '96 and then spent the following week in Vancouver and out on the Island with my girlfriend. It was cloudless and 75-80 the entire time. Massive high pressure system just parked over the Pac NW. 25 years later my friend in Seattle told me that her friends and neighbors still talked about those two weeks in July '96!
Anyway, am not harshing on your home, just noting the meteorological reality. Rains less (by volume) than in NYC, from what I understand, and the weather systems often move through swiftly, like in SE England. No escaping November-April, however.
Never mind wishing to kick their feathery behinds (and pride goeth before the fall and so on), this guy doesn't seem to have done much traveling.
Getting to Champaign means flying into O'Hare and getting a rental car because you'll nver be able to get a seat on a football weekend (or so I'd think). Perhaps an easier way to get to champaign via air would be to fly to Indianapolis, rent a car and make the relatively short drive.
Getting to State College for Penn State is a real headache. It's in the middle of nowhere--a pretty nowhere but still nowhere--and flying in will be a challenge. Flying to Harrisburg and driving up? First you have to get to Harrisburg. From Philly it's a sizeable drive, ditto Pittsburgh. I'll betcha most of those seats in Happy Valley are driving from Pennsylvania.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Analysis: I can promise you I will never make the drive to Illinois, and even a flight to watch the Fighting Illini may not be too appealing.
Well, he's correct, because the BB freight train will will kick their a$$es by then.
EDIT: HT to @MustangWally ... yeah, complete rube:
University of Indiana?
University of Purdue?
University of Rutgers?
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