One of the major points being discussed around the Big Ten right now with the addition of Nebraska is: should the Big Ten go to a nine game conference slate? While there are strong arguments on both sides, eventually the Big Ten will have to come to a decision.
On one hand you have the athletic directors, who say a nine game conference slate is becoming a necessity for two reasons. The first being that it is becoming harder and harder to schedule out of conference games, and the second being that the price of those out of conference games is skyrocketing.
On the other hand you have the coaches. The coaches argue that adding an extra Big Ten team to their already rigorous conference schedule would have disastrous results. The reason for this is that some Big Ten teams rely on the non conference games in order to become bowl eligible.
I believe the coaches have a very solid case and that the Big Ten should stay at eight conference games, at least for the forseeable future.
The first point in my argument against expanding the conference slate is the same as the coaches in that it would cost the Big Ten bowl games. If you think about it, some teams do need to win all of their non conference games in order to be bowl eligible. I doubt a team like Michigan would have made a bowl game last season without defeating all four of their out of conference opponents. In addition, teams like Purdue, Indiana, and Minnesota depend wins in the non conference portion in order to challenge for a bowl game every year.
The expanded conference schedule will also add losses to the Big Ten, therefore weakening the Big Ten’s national reputation in the process. The elite teams in the Big Ten will have a harder time going undefeated because they will be adding another very good team to their schedule.
Take a team like Ohio State for example: The Buckeyes are one of the ” Big 4″ of the Big Ten- Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska- so Ohio State could have a schedule setting up like this: The Leaders division opponents of Penn State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, and Wisconsin, their protected cross over in Michigan, and then three other Legends teams, lets take Nebraska, Iowa, and Michigan State. Based on recent history, Ohio State would probably have the toughest schedule in the nation; if it broke down like that.
The Big Ten should also learn from the former Pac 10 on this issue. The Pac 10 played a 9 game schedule and very rarely did anyone run the table. In addition, many experts are suggesting that the nine game conference schedule that the Pac 10 deployed cost them spots in the BCS.
The Big Ten fares very well currently in the BCS, sending two teams almost every year. Would the Big Ten really want to give up the exposure of the BCS to play a nine game conference schedule? My guess is Jim Delany would never allow a plan that could damage the Big Ten’s reputation like this has the potential to.
While athletic directors think that adding another conference game would save money, I disagree, I believe it would actually cost the conference money.
There are many contributing factors to this, the first being that half the Big Ten would have an additional road game. While this may not seem like a big deal, it actually is because many Big Ten teams rely on the revenue that the football program brings in to fund all the athletics of their school. When you take out one home game, the program ends up losing a lot of money.
The next is that with half the Big Ten getting an additional loss because of playing another game against a Big Ten team, there will be less bowl eligible teams coming out of the Big Ten each season. Bowl games, especially BCS bowls, bring in a ridiculous amount of revenue to each program, not to mention the national platform that each team in a bowl game receives.
All in all, while adding a conference game seems like a good idea at first if you dig a little deeper and think about it, the additional game against a Big Ten opponent isn’t so enticing after all. It should be very interesting to see what the Big Ten does here, but I believe it would be a terrible mistake to add a conference game for every team.
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