Big Ten Football: Eliminating divisions would be step in right direction

Big Ten football is discussing the possibility of eliminating the East and West divisions. What impact would it have on the league’s future schedules?

Over the course of the last few years, Big Ten fans on social media have discussed the possibility of getting rid of the divisions in football. Those fans may soon get their wish.

The Athletic broke the news Tuesday afternoon the conference has been discussing the possibility of eliminating the divisional format. This would also include a reduction from nine to eight conference games.

The elimination of a conference game would open up the possibility of adding non-conference games against other Alliance schools from the ACC and Pac-12. The conference is potentially looking at implementing these changes in time for the 2023 season.

Impact on future conference schedules and championship game

With the elimination of divisions, most likely the conference would go to a format of each team scheduling three annual rivals and the remaining 10 teams would rotate on a yearly basis. The hope would be to give every player a chance to play a home and home versus every team in the conference at least once in their collegiate careers.

The championship game would pit the top two teams in the conference. The regular season crossover record since the conference went to the East-West format in 2014 is 77-70 in favor of the East division. When it comes to the title game though, the East has dominated with a perfect 8-0 record. Five of those contests have been decided by no fewer than two scores with several blowouts.

Several fans on social media have already pointed out this could set up a conference title rematch in back-to-back weeks, most notably Ohio State and Michigan. Whether that is good or bad remains to be seen, but my guess is a back-to-back rematch will be rare.

NCAA rules for FBS football dictate conferences with at least 12 teams must play the divisional format so the league would need a waiver. Worth noting but probably would not hold up the change.

Impact on non-conference schedules and CFP selection

The conference reportedly has the desire to schedule more games against ACC and Pac-12 schools. With the extra non-conference game, this is possible and there could be some great matchups on the horizon.

Big Ten teams already have several future matchups scheduled against ACC and Pac-12 opponents in addition to SEC and Big 12 teams. It will be interesting to see what would happen to any non-Alliance teams scheduled.

What I would like to see is the conference get creative. Schedule two Power Five schools per year and two Group of Five or FCS schools if need be. This way the conference still would play 10 P5 schools annually.

One Alliance game for each team could be left open the schedule, basing matchups on the previous year’s standings. This would create the best matchups. More eyeballs on TV means more money, what all of this ultimately is about. The Big Ten media rights are up after the 2022 season and the conference wants to create the most enticing matchups to sell for big money.

The effect on CFP selection is also creating the best possible resume for the conference’s champion and at large selections when the playoff expands. Using ‘when’ and not ‘if’ because expansion seems inevitable, but perhaps not as soon as we would all like it to happen.

Overall assessment

These changes seem like they would be embraced by the schools and fans. The championship game would feature the two best teams, hopefully hosting more competitive matchups. Playing more games against the Alliance schools creates more exciting possibilities. And of course, a bigger pot of money from media sources means more for each Big Ten school, which divides the media money into equal shares.

There are still questions to be answered including where does Notre Dame fit into the scheduling mix as a quasi ACC member. However, this could be a great thing for the conference and is a step in the right direction.