The Big Ten brain trust, just like their SEC peers, is wrestling with how to rejigger conference play in the soon to be world of post-divisional college football. And, sure, just like them, there’s some lip service being paid to what their fans might want and how it would be nice if the member schools faced each other more often.
There’s also Job One ($$).
If there’s a consensus among Big Ten administrators, it’s that any alignment — with or without divisions — should aid the league’s efforts toward College Football Playoff qualification. The current CFP framework includes four teams, and the Big Ten has not qualified more than one team in any of the eight years. The current iteration expires following the 2025 season, and an expanded CFP could include 12 teams.
Minnesota athletics director Mark Coyle said he and his colleagues “have to operate with a sense of urgency” but also want to see how the CFP unfolds before switching formats.
“What I would hate to see is for us to make a series of changes,” Whitman said. “I’m in favor possibly of a single round of changes. But I’d hate for us to make a round of changes now and then the CFP, or whatever succeeds it, makes a change and then we have to make another round of changes. I think our fans, they like tradition, they like predictability. Hopefully, we can get to a point where we can make a decision about whether to make a single round of change and then move forward.”
“We don’t know what the CFP will look like,” Smith said. “Some of us believe there will be expansion. So, what does that mean? The other part of this is we’ve got to be careful because what we’ve built is pretty solid. When you think about the championship game, its attendance and think about our viewership…
“Whatever helps us make the most money” may not qualify as a tradition, but it’s certainly predictable.
Get The Picture 
““Whatever helps us make the most money” may not qualify as a tradition, but it’s certainly predictable.”
Exactly right, sir.
I am SO sick of the Big Ten crap about “tradition.”
Other than PSU, OSU and UM, what tradition is there? (Alright, maybe points for Wisconsin?)
Nebraska had tradition, won multiple nattys… in another conference … then it joined the Big.
UMD won a natty … 69 years ago … in another conference.
Some tradition.
LikeLike
They aren’t talking about team success, the’re referring to longstanding traditions. Whether you like the Big Ten or not, they have a lot of rivalry games that have been played for a very, very long time,
LikeLike
I’m going to watch the PGA championship this weekend and marvel at how one of the biggest amateur sporting organizations in the world (not to be confused with the PGA Tour) manages to favorably blend all of the issues the NCAA constantly bungles.
LikeLike
Try to ignore the fact that a not-insignificant number of their players are considering an open revolt and defection to a rival league, then.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wrong group…I pointed out, that is the Tour professionals own organization of which amateurs are not members, NOT the PGA of America. The playing pros broke away to handle to their own tournaments (not the majors), TV and broadcast rights, and the network of TPC courses. LIV is a fight over NIL control and money among the pros. The two orgs work together, but also clash on many things. The guy in your pro shop running amateur tournaments is a member of the PGA of America, not the PGA Tour. The pros playing this week are invited qualifiers to the tournament along with PGA of America professionals who qualified. This is not a PGA Tour event.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Peak, you rightly make the distinction…I’ve been to several PGA Championships, Ryder Cups, even the US Opens which are USGA…and some folks often blur the lines between the Tour and PGA of America…all I know is all 3 golf organizations inundate my email
LikeLike
The SEC Championship Game and the SEC Championship are so damn cool and I really hope that we don’t end up screwing that up. That’s all I’m here to say. As it stands now, winning the SEC is a big deal and getting to that game is a big deal. Sadly it’s less of a big deal than it used to be, but I hope we don’t end up making it such a gimmick with pods or winning percentages or a focus on the CFP that it becomes an afterthought. That would be a shame.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Looking about, the SECCG is a stand alone product, the winner being one up on almost all other conference champs, the loser in those championship games saying no matter what, we are still in the playoffs, does not put a shine on the cfp…when UGA football was dispensed with last year vs the bammers, mine Bulldawg soul was hurt, that 12-0 season was just enough to keep UGA football in the conversation, the rest is Championship history….winners should play on for the trophy and the others play in bowl games for that experience and extra practice time….GO DAWGS!
LikeLike
Nothing drives ratings like teams who went 9-3 and 12-0 in the regular season that play in their conference championship, with the margin of victory being 3-4 TDs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a boring sideshow the CFB arms race has been this century. Everybody doing the same dumb shit everyone else does to gain an advantage over all the other people doing the same thing you are.
Billions of dollars and dozens of long-standing rivalries later we have…. almost exactly the same balance if power in college football as we did in 1992.
LikeLike
I still haven’t heard anyone justify a championship game that doesn’t match up division winners other than money. It doesn’t make any sense to have a regular season with all teams lumped into a single pool and then play an additional game to decide the conference champion other than as a pure money grab. These guys at least have some BS reason that they attribute these decisions to, but there’s nothing at all for this one that I’ve heard.
LikeLike
As long as we play Auburn, Florida and OC GT I’m good. UT only became a rival with the Divisions. We used to play Ole Piss each year. Alabama only cares about Auburn and UT. UT wants Vandy, Kentucky and is not really sure about Alabama any more. No body wants Missouri and SCU. UF wants UGA, LSU and a team to be named later. What I’m getting at is that we old guys were used to no Divisions. It was all done for TV in the first place. If we go to a 3 school constant and a 5 school rotation I’ll be happy. When we pick up OK and UTX then Missouri and Arkansas have their rivals back too. Oh yea and if we do get 3 throw SCU our way.
LikeLike
69 i agree with all your points except that UF doesn’t want to play LSU. It has complained about LSU being a permanent opponent for years.
LikeLike