June 4, 2009

Big Televen Fantasy Expansion

Continuing with our Fanblogs Open Mic series, our own Clemson Joe submits his first thread, linking to recent chatter about a Big Ten expansion and also providing his own comments on the subject.

Penn State's legendary head football coach Joe Paterno has recently stated that he would like to see the Big Televen expand to twelve teams. This topic isn't new, and it has been discussed many times in multiple different ways. However, in the dead of the offseason, this seems like some pretty juicy thread material, so let's have a go at it, shall we?

SportsIllustrated's Andy Staples has taken this idea and run with it. Essentially he sees this as having 3 potential solutions. In short, they are:

1. Notre Dame finally joins the Big Ten.

2. A team from the Big East defects, yet again, and joins the Big Ten. Paterno likes Rutgers, Syracuse, or Pitt here.

3. The playoff buster. In this case, Missouri joins the Big Ten. The Big 12 pulls TCU to replace them. The Pac 10 picks up Boise State and Utah (or BYU and Utah), and virtually all of the major players pushing for a playoff would then be in a BCS conference, and wouldn't care so much.

All 3 of these scenarios would be incorporated the same way. Basically, the 12 teams split into 2 divisions, with each having a "permanent rival", much like the SEC and ACC, and the conference finally has a true champion decided by a Championship game

Even though recently Paterno has backed off of his expansion idea a bit, it's certainly still worth considering and discussing.

Now, if all of this were up to me, I would have Pitt join the Big Ten. I'm not a fan of anything Notre Dame, and I want them to be completely left out in the cold, so, I wouldn't choose them--which would hopefully leave them as the lone independent after everything were said and done. With Pitt in the Big Ten, it would give Penn State their old rival back, and add yet another major metro area in the region to the conference formerly known as the Big Ten. Then I would split the divisions into a North and South like so:

North
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Michigan State
Northwestern
Iowa

South
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh

Finally, I would give each team a "permanent rival". I won't pretend to know the Big Televen well, but I do know that Michigan and Ohio State would need to be "permanent rivals". Maybe one of you guys more familiar with the conference could help me set up the rest of them.

This is all fine and dandy, but it would leave us with 2 problems:

1. Who is going to replace Pittsburgh in the Big East. My proposal is actually for the Big East to not only replace Pitt, but to add enough teams to get to 12 themselves, much like we're discussing for the Big Televen. That's another topic for another day.

2. What would we call the Big Ten? The Great Midwest? The Great Lakes? Maybe we should just leave the name since they obviously can't count anyway.

Comments:

Big Televen Fantasy Expansion
Continuing with our Fanblogs Open Mic series, our own Clemson Joe submits his first thread, linking to recent chatter about a Big Ten expansion and also providing his own comments on the subject. Penn State's legendary head football coach Joe Paterno has recently stated that he would like to see the Big Televen expand to twelve teams. This topic isn't new, and it has been discussed many times in multiple different ways. However, in the dead of the offseason, this seems like some pretty juicy thread material, so let's have a go at it, shall we? SportsIllustrated's Andy Staples has taken this idea and run with it. Essentially he sees this as having 3 potential solutions. In short, they are: 1. Notre Dame finally joins the Big Ten. 2. A team from the Big East defects, yet again, and joins the Big Ten. Paterno likes Rutgers, Syracuse, or Pitt here. 3. The playoff buster. In this case, Missouri joins the Big Ten. The Big 12 pulls TCU to replace them. The Pac 10 picks up Boise State and Utah (or BYU and Utah), and virtually all of the major players pushing for a playoff would then be in a BCS conference, and wouldn't care so much. All 3 of these scenarios would be incorporated the same way. Basically, the 12 teams split into 2 divisions, with each having a "permanent rival", much like the SEC and ACC, and the conference finally has a true champion decided by a Championship game Even though recently Paterno has backed off of his expansion idea a bit, it's certainly still worth considering and discussing. Now, if all of this were up to me, I would have Pitt join the Big Ten. I'm not a fan of anything Notre Dame, and I want them to be completely left out in the cold, so, I wouldn't choose them--which would hopefully leave them as the lone independent after everything were said and done. With Pitt in the Big Ten, it would give Penn State their old rival back, and add yet another major metro area in the region to the conference formerly known as the Big Ten. Then I would split the divisions into a North and South like so: North Minnesota Wisconsin Michigan Michigan State Northwestern Iowa South Illinois Purdue Indiana Ohio State Penn State Pittsburgh Finally, I would give each team a "permanent rival". I won't pretend to know the Big Televen well, but I do know that Michigan and Ohio State would need to be "permanent rivals". Maybe one of you guys more familiar with the conference could help me set up the rest of them. This is all fine and dandy, but it would leave us with 2 problems: 1. Who is going to replace Pittsburgh in the Big East. My proposal is actually for the Big East to not only replace Pitt, but to add enough teams to get to 12 themselves, much like we're discussing for the Big Televen. That's another topic for another day. 2. What would we call the Big Ten? The Great Midwest? The Great Lakes? Maybe we should just leave the name since they obviously can't count anyway.