My Dad’s Thoughts

Big Ten expansion has been over for awhile, but there is still the issue of how the new conference will shape up. Will there be a Big Ten title game? Where will it be? What will the divisions look like? Will they be competitive? That is where my one and only father comes in. I will give you guys some background on my dad first. He graduated from Penn State in 1982 and got his masters in business from PSU a few years later. He met my mom here and proposed to her in front of Old Main. My dad bleeds blue and white. My mom still tells the story about how she tried to throw a party during the infamous Penn State-Miami Fiesta Bowl in 1987. My dad sat in his chair the same way throughout the entire game, clutching the armrests with white knuckles, talking to no one, and screaming loudly at every play, good or bad. He loves Penn State and even though he has become mellow over the years, he usually has an opinion on everything that happens. His opinions are usually off-center and some would say they are “weird,” but they come from an intelligent place. That brings us back to expansion.

I called my dad a few days after the Nebraska move was official. I had mused a day or two before calling my dad about what I thought would happen with the new divisions and such. He seemed very excited about the expansion, especially because it was Nebraska, who he has a clear disdain for. We talked for awhile about how it was back home and then the conversation of course turned to expansion. We talked for a time about what it means and I told him how I thought things would shake out in the end. He agreed with me, but then decided to come out of left-field with a format that I had not heard before and have not heard since our conversation.

My dad said (and probably still says anytime he gets the chance) that each Big Ten team should play every other Big Ten team. No divisions. Each team would play one out-of-conference game. At the end of the season, the top 4 teams in the Big Ten would play a 4 team “Big Ten tournament,” to decide who goes to the BCS Bowl game. At first I was blown away at the impossibility of this. “No way that would ever happen,” I said. Then my dad said, “Why not?” So I listened to his explanations and have thought about it more and more and it actually makes a lot of sense. There are few good arguments and hopefully I will convince you that my dad and I know a little something about college football.

See the arguments after the jump!

Argument #1: The questions about the Big Ten’s weak out-of-conference schedules would be eliminated. The team coming out of the Big Ten will have to play thirteen games against Big Ten teams. It is nearly impossible to run the table in the Big Ten now, let alone if you add more games to the slate. I think this would encourage teams in the Big Ten to make that one game count by scheduling a quality opponent. A big OOC win would off-set an all but certain loss within the Big Ten and keep more teams from the Big Ten in championship contention.

Argument #2: It will make more money for the Big Ten. We heard all about the $20 million guaranteed that each Big Ten team gets because of the Big Ten Network. That is with each team playing only 8 conference games. Now suddenly, each team is guaranteed to play 11 conference games. I could hear the money being printed while I typed that last sentence. It is an easy equation: More conference games equals more games on the Big Ten Network which equals more cash for every single Big Ten team.

Argument #3: The Big Ten starts something that everyone wants: a playoff. Suddenly there is a playoff, no matter how small, in college football. The Big Ten is an innovator and possibly shows that a playoff would be possible. Oh and instead of just creating one more championship game, it creates three more championship-sized games. Cha-ching.

Argument #4: The Big Ten gets rid of all that extra time between the last game of the season and the bowl games. There are now three more games to be played between the last week of November and the bowl games. Sure that might be considered too much time for the student athletes to be distracted from school, but it would probably take the playoff only one week past where the championship games are now.

Argument #5: It only adds one more game to the schedule as compared to the division-championship game format. With the division-championship format, a Big Ten team that went to the championship then a bowl game would play 14 games. Under my dad’s system they would play 15 games. Not much of a difference in my mind.

Argument #6: It makes Big Ten football even better and more interesting than it already is. Consider this: instead of playing Youngstown State and Kent State, Penn State is playing Purdue and Wisconsin. With my dad’s system, Penn State would be playing Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska, every single year. Not to mention Wisconsin and Illinois. I would give Penn State a blank check for those season tickets.

Let me conclude by saying that this scenario will most likely never even have the possibility of being considered by the Big Ten. I’ve pointed out the advantages and convinced myself that my dad actual knows what he is talking about sometimes. I hope I convinced you guys to lend an ear to your old man every once in awhile. He might say something you might want to hear.