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nerdvana

UCLA and USC Joining the Big Ten

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I liked the regional conferences. This conglomeration of teams into conferences that no longer resemble their beginnings makes no sense to me. Why not just do away with conferences altogether and let schools schedule whoever they want. Put everyone in the tournament and let the best team win. With NIL money, the "haves" will likely dominate anyway. Money and power, as always, is driving the trend. It doesn't feel right to me, but nothing is going to stop the direction we are going.

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Looking down the road to the inevitable Super-Conference concept.

Where does IU fit in such a hierarchy?   It's a football driven concept after all.  

I'm indifferent to UCLA and USC.  If you're going to take the plunge, those are two good schools to start with.  But, the overall concept of Super-Conferences is bad for teams with subpar football programs, and that group includes IU.  

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2 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

Looking down the road to the inevitable Super-Conference concept.

Where does IU fit in such a hierarchy?   It's a football driven concept after all.  

I'm indifferent to UCLA and USC.  If you're going to take the plunge, those are two good schools to start with.  But, the overall concept of Super-Conferences is bad for teams with subpar football programs, and that group includes IU.  

As the super conference concept becomes the de facto NFL minor league (like it wasn’t already…), IU needs to become a farm team affiliate for the Colts and Bengals. 

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5 hours ago, IGotMeAWoody said:

As bball fans, conference re-alignment gives no craps about us. It's all about how much money football will bring in. Luckily, these two schools actually have great bball programs along with the football money. It's probably the best schools we could have added.

To me this is all about football so I wish the top 20 football programs just start a mega football conference only and leave everything else the same.

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4 hours ago, DChoosier said:

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Basketball teams fly out the the Cali area for a week to play both USC and UCLA in the same trip.  It involves cross country flights, multiple time zone changes etc but don’t forget……it’s all about the student athletes. Nothing matters more than the students.

To me if we have 16 teams we need the go back to having traveling partners like they use to have. 

Rutgers/Maryland

PSU/OSU 

IU/PU 

UM/MSU 

UI/NW

UW/Minn. 

Iowa/Neb. 

UCLA/USC 

If you play a 20 conference game season then you play 10 teams once and 5 teams twice. You play your travel partner twice a year and two other travel partners twice and the other sets once.

 

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9 minutes ago, HoosierAloha said:

What are we thinking for travel partners in the new Big 10 (16)?

UCLA-USC
Michigan schools
Rutger-Maryland
PSU-O$U
Indiana schools
Ill schools
Minny-Wiscy
Iowa-Neb


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8 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

To me if we have 16 teams we need the go back to having traveling partners like they use to have. 

Rutgers/Maryland

PSU/OSU 

IU/PU 

UM/MSU 

UI/NW

UW/Minn. 

Iowa/Neb. 

UCLA/USC 

If you play a 20 conference game season then you play 10 teams once and 5 teams twice. You play your travel partner twice a year and two other travel partners twice and the other sets once.

 

Travel partners are very hard to do without a round-robin schedule.

Take Scott's example for instance.  Assume IU's twice a year pods year one are Purdue, as well as Rutgers/Maryland and OSU/PSU.  Now, assume our 1 game road pods are UM\MSU and UI/NW.  Then say our 1 game home pods are UW/Minn and Iowa/Nebraska.  At that point we have played 9 home games and 9 road games.  But, there is only 1 pod left.  The USC/UCLA pod is split at that point.  

 

Edited by 5fouls

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2 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

 

Travel partners are very hard to do without a round-robin schedule.

Take Scott's example for instance.  Assume IU's twice a year pods year one are Purdue, as well as Rutgers/Notre Dame and OSU/PSU.  Now, assume our 1 game road pods are UM\MSU and UI/NW.  Then say our 1 game home pods are UW/Minn and Iowa/Nebraska.  At that point we have played 9 home games and 9 road games.  But, there is only 1 pod left.  The USC/UCLA pod is split at that point.  

 

I would think you would have to find a way that you play UCLA and USC on the road in the same year as well as home the next year but probably wouldn't work out.  Also why do you have Notre Dame in the conference instead of Maryland 

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2 minutes ago, IU Scott said:

I would think you would have to find a way that you play UCLA and USC on the road in the same year as well as home the next year but probably wouldn't work out.  Also why do you have Notre Dame in the conference instead of Maryland 

My version says Maryland.  Why does your version say Notre Dame?  :coffee:

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I would guess — and the credible “not done” chatter suggests — they want to get to 18.

In hoops, that’s easy: three protected double plays, the other 14 teams once. In football, you play your three protected games annually, plus six others, and you play everyone (plus one repeat) every 3 years.

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I don’t know how they will handle scheduling but I’d bet  that IU will play UCLA in basketball the very first year but will be lucky to get USC in Bloomington for a football game more than once in the first 10-15 years.

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Shortly after Texas/OU went to the SEC the BT, Pac12 and ACC announced  their “let’s work together” agreement. Wonder how the ACC and Pac12 commissioners are feeling tonight?  I would not be surprised to see the BT go after UNC. 

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So, I think the Big Ten wants to go all in and up the league to 20, and considering that the Association of American Universities is likely still going to play a key factor, as well as finances and logistics, here's my picks:

*Stanford and Cal: Northern California is a big market, alumni-wise, even if it doesn't have the media reach, plus it would help with travel for USC and UCLA.  And, as far as the academics go, you can't go wrong with two University of California members as well as a major private institution out west, plus it could be used as collateral to bring in Notre Dame if you choose.

*Duke and North Carolina: If you're going to kill one former Alliance member, why not kill the other?  Duke would be brought in for stellar academics and health research, and North Carolina would be brought in for cancer care.  Oh, and uh, basketball.  The downside would be neither are known for their football, but if you get Stanford and Cal, why would that be a problem?

*Kansas and Iowa State: The benefits here would be shoring up your region even further and cementing a natural rivalry with Iowa.  The problems, however, are big.  For starters, Iowa State is NOT an AAU school.  Second, Iowa State is inconsistent in the major sports, and Kansas is horrible at football at the moment.  And third, you would sacrifice potential windfall in other regions that you could get with these schools than by going for other regions.

*Oregon and Washington: Similar to Stanford and Cal, you'd shore up the entire Pacific Coast, but you'll jilt the state schools in the process, whom, let's face it, are destined for the Mountain West.

If I had to say which of the pairs the Big Ten would aim for, it'd definitely be Stanford and Cal & Duke and North Carolina.

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9 minutes ago, DChoosier said:

I don’t know how they will handle scheduling but I’d bet  that IU will play UCLA in basketball the very first year but will be lucky to get USC in Bloomington for a football game more than once in the first 10-15 years.

Priority-wise, the Big Ten should scale the conference in terms of competition when it comes to football, meaning Indiana is not obligated to play the big boys often unless we are able to hold our own; in effect, creating a Tier I (the super programs like Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, UCLA, USC, and for the hell of it, Iowa) and a Tier II (everyone else).  I get the issue with this idea is that if all you do is beat soup cans, then you don't get "real" experience, but if you're a crap program like IU, how are you going to get better and convince people to come play for you if you keep going 4-8 or 3-9 unless divine intervention happens and the world goes to ****?

This unfortunately means that we would only see USC coming to the Rock once in a blue moon, but I think this may be the better solution.

... did I make sense?

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Can we acknowledge also that the Rose Bowl itself, the very bowl game that obstinately forced things to change, such as how the BCS Championship Game had to be on ESPN instead of FOX back when that was around because it had its own network contract, or it had be on New Year's Day and at a certain time, is going to probably go kaput because of this?

They're not going to end the bowl itself, but the bowl being a brick wall for negotiations probably is no longer a thing.

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