Posted on 10/05/2023 1:53:21 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA
The Big Ten Conference today announced league football opponents for the 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 football seasons. With the additions of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Oregon, University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Washington into the conference, 2024 will be the first season with 18 teams and no divisional format.
The 2024 Big Ten football season will debut the Flex Protect XVIII model, which features a combination of protected opponents and rotating opponents for universities. Each member institution will continue to play nine intraconference games per season, and teams will play every other conference opponent at least twice – once home and once away – and will play rotating opponents no more than three times in a five-year period.
Primary objectives considered included the following:
• Balance of annual travel by distance, regions of the conference, and time zones.
• Maintaining control and flexibility as the college football postseason format evolves, with the goal to create access for programs into an expanded College Football Playoff.
• Balance of historic competitiveness and recent competitive trends, including home/away balance of traditionally competitive schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigten.org ...
It’s not a conference. It’s more like a group independents who landed a good TV contract.
It looks cool now, but the ugliness will show up when they play the games and try to make believe they’re playing for an actual championship.
Yeah, we are thrilled we got in. Next year has Ohio State at Autzen.
There’s a joke going around that the Big Ten can’t count and the others can’t do geography.
Good one!
Wash St and Ore St are claiming they are the rightful inheritors of the intellectual property and such.
I can see Wash St and Ore St merging with the Mountain West and calling it the PAC-whatever.
I am acquainted with a guy who did a term as the faculty rep on the athletic governing board at one of the traditional Big I’ve-Lost-Count-of-the-Numbers school. Solid guy. Distinguished senior prof in a stem field, has served for years on NAS grant committees, officer of both national and international professional associations. In the last ten years, as he got within hailing distance of retirement, he has progressed through a succession of the Faculty Bigfoot positions, including president of the Faculty Senate and several appointments in the President’s office. I.e., as distinguished an academic as you can get this side of a Nobel prize. And I repeat: he’s in a serious stem field, not wokestuff.
He LOVED the stint as the faculty honcho on the athletic department beat. This included going to all the Big Whatever meetings, plus the perks.
Bottom line: all that matters is revenue. Television dollars rule the roost. If there’s a tv market, the Big Whatevers want a piece. If the Romulans, Klingons and Vulcans ever arrive, the Big Whatevers and the SEC will scramble to be the first to expand there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.