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How Big Is Too B1G?

Cornhuskers7

Cornhuskers7

Trapped in SEC Country
2 Year Member
Conference realignment seems to be poised for some even crazier moves. This begs the question to me- How big is too big? How many schools can these conferences realistically have?

With the addition of UCLA and USC, the Big Ten will be up to 16 teams. The SEC will be in the same boat with 16 when OU and Texas arrive.

If you are one of these conferences, what would be your cap? Football scheduling is really tough because of the limited number of games. Would the cap be 20, where you have two 10 team divisions that play intradivision, with a title game? Is 16 already pushing the limit? Will we see two mega conferences emerge in the SEC and B1G that essentially have all the Power 5 schools in them? Will we see some of the less competitive schools get booted from any of these conferences to make room for powerhouse programs?
 
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I think the B1G and SEC might go to 24, and then an “everybody else” conference of a similar number, and they will have their own governing body for football. If the two stop at 18 or 20, then I could see four conferences remaining. If more than 16, I don’t see how you can abandon divisions for football. Otherwise you need polls to rank the teams because schedules would be so different.
 



A conference isn't a conference when you do not play each other ... we are already there ... getting to 16, 18, 20 or 24 is just another level.

I do not understand how you can grow larger and NOT have divisions. There is no way IMO to (a) have equitable scheduling - and (b) accurately determine a conference champion when you do not play each other.

I would suspect if you get to 18, 20 or 24 you then have to have separate divisions with the champion emerging from the winners of each division. If you want to have two 10 team divisions with 9 divisional games plus maybe one cross over. Or if you want to have 4 five team pods with 4 pod games and then a matchup with another pod for 9 total games then OK.

One of the unresolved issues with conference realignment is scheduling ... how is that going to be solved?
 
"Too big" won't stop them from going there. If it ends up being a gunfight for TV money and playoff spots the B1G and SEC will own all the marque brands and it'll be a ridiculous scheduling mess.

Don't sweat it though. We're less than 10 years away from being full blown minor league pro ball anyway imho.
 
The WAC has had something like 16-20 members at any given time throughout its tumultuous history.

Their problem wasn't conference size, however, it was the fact that the WAC was a stepping stone conference, and members like Arizona, ASU, BYU, Fresno State, etc., all eventually got bumped up to conferences like the Pac-12 or Mountain West.

For a while, the 16-team WAC used a system that had two divisions, but four quadrants.

Quadrant 1Quadrant 2Quadrant 3Quadrant 4
HawaiiUNLVBYUTulsa
Fresno StateAir ForceUtahTCU
San Diego StateColorado StateNew MexicoSMU
San Jose StateWyomingUTEPRice

Quadrant 1 (CA+HI) was always in Pacific Division.
Quadrant 4 (TX+OK) was always in the Mountain Division.
Quadrants 2 and 3 flip-flopped between the divisions on a two year on, two year off, model.


So if you were Hawaii:
  • Annual: Fresno State, SDSU, and SJSU
  • Year 1 and 2: UNLV, AFA, CSU, and WYO in home-and-homes
  • Year 3 and 4: BYU, Utah, NM, and UTEP in home-and-homes
  • That's only seven conference games a year, so add 1-2 more teams from Quadrant 4.

This model wouldn't work for the expanded B1G - otherwise you'd have Huskers and Hawkeyes with USC and UCLA - but it highlights that there ARE other models out there for scheduling. I think you could safely get to 20 teams and still be able to rotate through teams, but going to 24 or 30 means you're essentially two mini-conferences within a bigger conference. There's nothing wrong with that, per se, but the powers that be would need to ensure the right teams are playing the right rivals with the right consistency.

Want a really crazy idea? The new B1G/SEC reaches a partnership with the NFL as a development league. In the future, the NFC can only draft B1G players and the AFC can only draft SEC players. Once they hit the NFL, players can be traded anywhere or signed as an undrafted free agent to any team.
 
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At one point the SIAA had 30 members. And the Southern Conference had up to 23 at one point.
 
Huskerfan69 said:
Didn't Herbie suggest we could end up with two conferences, B1G and the SEC with something like 50 teams in each
Click to expand...
Which Herbie?
190913_HerbieShoot-3a.jpg
RS685403_20190731_JF3_5004-e1566927358699.jpg
 
wcbsas said:
A conference isn't a conference when you do not play each other ... we are already there ... getting to 16, 18, 20 or 24 is just another level.

I do not understand how you can grow larger and NOT have divisions. There is no way IMO to (a) have equitable scheduling - and (b) accurately determine a conference champion when you do not play each other.

I would suspect if you get to 18, 20 or 24 you then have to have separate divisions with the champion emerging from the winners of each division. If you want to have two 10 team divisions with 9 divisional games plus maybe one cross over. Or if you want to have 4 five team pods with 4 pod games and then a matchup with another pod for 9 total games then OK.

One of the unresolved issues with conference realignment is scheduling ... how is that going to be solved?
Click to expand...
Further conference expansion could also lead to increasing the number of games played each year, or eliminating non-conference play altogether.
 




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