Collisions with Reality

I have been obsessively following the Pac-10 and Big Ten expansion rumors. And no one in Santa Barbara really cares about college football, so I really need to blog about it. I’m not going to touch the Pac-10 rumors — mostly because I don’t care, although it is hilarious that the Texas legislature is involved — but let’s talk Big Ten. If it expands to 12 teams, who should that twelfth team be? And how on earth will we fit a 2 into the Big Ten logo? (Update: Eli sent me these suggestions for a new logo. My favorite is “Big Ten Conference and Northwestern”.)

I know that the deciding factor is actually money, but let’s pretend that geography, academics, traditional rivalries, and competitiveness matter. Who do we want in the Big Ten? It has to be in a state that borders a Great Lake — currently Iowa is the only outlier — and it has to be pretty good both academically and athletically. Of all the teams suggested so far, only Pitt, Syracuse, and Notre Dame make the cut. For family smack-talking purposes, I really want it to be Pitt, but I honestly can’t see Pitt or Syracuse leaving the Big East, due to basketball. Notre Dame is insufferable, but they already play Michigan and Sparty nearly every year, and they can have in-state rivalries with Purdue and Indiana. Plus, they have a big rivalry with USC, so that helps sustain the Pac 10-Big Ten rivalry.

Sigh. Notre Dame. If the Big Ten has to expand by one team, I really think it’s the best fit for everyone. I can’t believe I’ve talked myself into this.

Forgetting about the super-conference rumors for now (I’m afraid the Big Ten will be stuck with the crappy teams from the Big 12) let’s move on to the most important matter: what becomes of the Michigan-Ohio State game? Assuming that the Big Ten in split into two divisions, whether they each have six or eight teams, I figure there are three options:

1. Michigan and Ohio State are in the same division. They’re guaranteed to play each other every season, but then can never play against each other in the Big Ten Championship game.
2. Michigan and Ohio State are in different divisions. Some years they meet in the Big Ten Championship game.
3. Michigan and Ohio State are in different divisions, but are guaranteed to face each other every year. And if there’s a rematch in the championship game, so be it. This is maybe the best solution, although it’s probably unfair to be locked in to the same team year after year for one of the (few) out-of-division, in-conference games. (It would work better in a 12-team conference than in a 16-team conference, for sure.)

(I’m not convinced that a super-conference is good for anyone, except for the people at the top making money off of all of this. In addition to this really being about money, I’m disappointed to see that it looks like teams from the Mountain West and WAC conferences will still be left out in the cold when it comes to the BCS. And it’s sad to see the Big 12 collapsing, even though I don’t particularly care for any of the teams in that conference. If we’re going to have all this crazy expansion and re-alignment, it could at least result in more teams having access to the BCS and/or television revenues. It’s not clear to me that all this will help more teams than it will hurt.)