Without being able to rely on a historically weaker West Division, the Wildcats face an uphill battle to be one of the two best teams in an 18-team conference - what it’ll take to have the chance to play for a conference championship. The ‘Cats won their only meeting in program history against the Ducks but are 0-3 all-time against the Huskies. Although the new model was supposed to strip the conference of the West and East divisions, especially if the conference continues to expand, it may make logistical sense to create a West Coast division to cut down on travel and keep those rivalries in place.įor Northwestern specifically, Washington and Oregon’s arrival only further crowds the competitive field. It is possible that the conference could re-implement some sort of division structure. The schedule-makers will have to find a format that maintains rivalries, limits the amount of cross-country trips and ensures that teams will play one another with some regularity. However, this would take away annual rivalries such as Michigan-Michigan State with only Michigan-Ohio State being able to be protected. This would still allow for each team to host every other opponent in the conference once every four years, ensuring matchups once every two seasons. The remaining sixteen teams would be split into two, with eight more games each year to fill out the nine-game conference gauntlet. The Big Ten may have to implement a plan that gives each team one protected rival to play every season. The current “flex protect plus” model, which allowed for each team to have up to three protected rivals and guaranteed that each team would play a home and away matchup against every program in a four-year span, no longer works. The conference’s 20 schedule, which had already been announced, will have to be revised to account for the two new additions. ![]() In terms of logistics, the Big Ten, now clearly a mega-conference, could realistically field as many as five playoff teams in the expanded 12-team playoff format which will begin in 2024 - the same year all four West Coast teams will join the conference. Even Washington-Penn State, which seems exciting on paper, will not draw the same fervent passion as the annual Apple Cup and the geographic rivalry that those two schools have built. Instead we will get matchups like Oregon-Maryland and Oregon-Rutgers, who have never played each other in program history. Although both schools have indicated they intend to keep state rivalries intact, the loss of Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State on the conference schedule, matchups that have faced off 126 and 114 times, respectively, is a major blow. Traditional rivalries also become a casualty of the new conference structure. ![]() In a few years, it’s possible that nobody will care about regional identities as they continue to tune into exciting Oregon-Michigan matchups, but for diehard college football plans, this loss is notable. ![]() The Big Ten was run-first, physical and gritty while the Big 12 featured high-flying offenses and exorbitant point totals. One of the biggest draws to college football was how each conference and each region had it’s own distinct style of play. The Big Ten covers coast to coast, the new Big 12 stretches from Orlando to Salt Lake City, and rumors of Cal and Stanford joining the ACC would destroy the “Atlantic Coast” element of the “Atlantic Coast Conference.” Ultimately, this move is not the “death of college sports” like some pundits claim, but the situation is complex and, unsurprisingly, motivated by money.įor starters, the days of conferences being regional entities are gone. The announcement rattled the college sports landscape like a West Coast earthquake, and with a few dominoes still left to fall, it remains to be seen just how widespread the ramifications will be. After the additions of USC and UCLA, the conference now stands at 18 programs and is a true national grouping, spanning from Seattle and Los Angeles to Piscataway and College Park. After the departure of Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12, it was announced on Friday that Washington and Oregon would be joining the Big Ten.
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