And here is my projected lineup with respect to the following:
1) TV Markets - to appease the networks and B1G bean counters,
2) AAU Membership - to appease the University academics’ pride and arrogance, and
3) regions with even numbers of teams to enable realistic intra-regional long term rivalries without the complications of cross region protected rivalries to hose up scheduling, or the need to dabble in convoluted names (Legends/Leaders, etc) to justify geographic pairings that make no sense.
To wit, the following lineups with each region’s rivals paired together with the TV markets (and market rank) for each proposed new member:
B1G West
USC (Los Angeles #2)
UCLA (same)
Stanford (SF/OakSJ #6, Sacramento #20)
Cal Berkeley (same)
Oregon (Portland #21)
Washington (Seattle/Tacoma #12)
B1G Midwest
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Missouri (St.Louis #23, KC #34)
Nebraska
Colorado (Denver #16)
B1G Mideast
Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Indinia (!)
Michigan State
Notre Dame (National #1)
B1G East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
Rutgers
Maryland
North Carolina (Charlotte #22, Raleigh/Durham #24, Greensboro #47)
Notes:
1) Yes, I’m aware that Missouri is in the SEC. But for those not paying attention, they’ve made it clear they’d rather be in the B1G. That would open up 5 spots for the SEC to go national while staying south with FSU, Miami, GaTech, and ASU/UofA.
2) The domers won’t come in unless they have favorable matchups in their region, which would include two historic opponents.
3) Colorado has been a bitter rival of Nebraska’s in the past, and would make a ready-made rivalry that would bring in a lot of Midwest TVs.
4) UNC is the big prize in the East and would make a natural rival for Maryland.
5) while Duke has an improving football program, and is AAU, their future in basketball is cloudy and UNC already brings in all the North Carolina eyeballs. My guess is that Duke will be soon relegated to Vanderbilt status. Sorry ma’am, just the facts! Lol
Finally, I understand the attraction of Florida, but the B1G will not take anyone that is not a member of the AAU. Call it snobbery or sheer arrogance, but the B1G presidents pride themselves in being academically superior to the SEC. And UFL (the only AAU member down there, ain’t leaving the SEC.
And as attractive a market as Phoenix is (#11, soon to rocket into the top ten, ASU is also not a member of the AAU, and will never care to be. And UofA is in Tucson, so no help there.
Bottom line is that the big fish in this final move are the Left coast schools, Colorado, Missouri, the domers, and UNC. They’re all AAU, and all bring lots of eyeballs, and at least historically good-to-excellent football cred. And they all make geographic sense.
The dominant regions would be the West and the East. Playoffs would involve West vs Midwest champs, and East vs Mideast champs, with the winners in the B1G championship game in all sports - a very clean arrangement. The domers would be happy, of course believing they would have an easy road to the semis, and Purdue would have a fighting chance to continue to develop the FB program.
A very reasonable solution.
JMHOAU
1) TV Markets - to appease the networks and B1G bean counters,
2) AAU Membership - to appease the University academics’ pride and arrogance, and
3) regions with even numbers of teams to enable realistic intra-regional long term rivalries without the complications of cross region protected rivalries to hose up scheduling, or the need to dabble in convoluted names (Legends/Leaders, etc) to justify geographic pairings that make no sense.
To wit, the following lineups with each region’s rivals paired together with the TV markets (and market rank) for each proposed new member:
B1G West
USC (Los Angeles #2)
UCLA (same)
Stanford (SF/OakSJ #6, Sacramento #20)
Cal Berkeley (same)
Oregon (Portland #21)
Washington (Seattle/Tacoma #12)
B1G Midwest
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Iowa
Missouri (St.Louis #23, KC #34)
Nebraska
Colorado (Denver #16)
B1G Mideast
Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Indinia (!)
Michigan State
Notre Dame (National #1)
B1G East
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
Rutgers
Maryland
North Carolina (Charlotte #22, Raleigh/Durham #24, Greensboro #47)
Notes:
1) Yes, I’m aware that Missouri is in the SEC. But for those not paying attention, they’ve made it clear they’d rather be in the B1G. That would open up 5 spots for the SEC to go national while staying south with FSU, Miami, GaTech, and ASU/UofA.
2) The domers won’t come in unless they have favorable matchups in their region, which would include two historic opponents.
3) Colorado has been a bitter rival of Nebraska’s in the past, and would make a ready-made rivalry that would bring in a lot of Midwest TVs.
4) UNC is the big prize in the East and would make a natural rival for Maryland.
5) while Duke has an improving football program, and is AAU, their future in basketball is cloudy and UNC already brings in all the North Carolina eyeballs. My guess is that Duke will be soon relegated to Vanderbilt status. Sorry ma’am, just the facts! Lol
Finally, I understand the attraction of Florida, but the B1G will not take anyone that is not a member of the AAU. Call it snobbery or sheer arrogance, but the B1G presidents pride themselves in being academically superior to the SEC. And UFL (the only AAU member down there, ain’t leaving the SEC.
And as attractive a market as Phoenix is (#11, soon to rocket into the top ten, ASU is also not a member of the AAU, and will never care to be. And UofA is in Tucson, so no help there.
Bottom line is that the big fish in this final move are the Left coast schools, Colorado, Missouri, the domers, and UNC. They’re all AAU, and all bring lots of eyeballs, and at least historically good-to-excellent football cred. And they all make geographic sense.
The dominant regions would be the West and the East. Playoffs would involve West vs Midwest champs, and East vs Mideast champs, with the winners in the B1G championship game in all sports - a very clean arrangement. The domers would be happy, of course believing they would have an easy road to the semis, and Purdue would have a fighting chance to continue to develop the FB program.
A very reasonable solution.
JMHOAU
