Davisions

It has been two months since the Big Ten released their statement about exploring expansion and I’m still obsessed with the concept.  I’ve been reading Frank the Tank’s blog and he has laid out the case for the inclusion of the University of Texas repeatedly and each time more convincingly.

http://frankthetank.wordpress.com/

However, as attractive as the candidacy of the Longhorns and Aggies to a lesser extent are to the Big Ten, I just cannot resist the lure of massive geographic realignment.  Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated one-upped my previous rant about re-alignment, proposing the abandonment of the NCAA.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/andy_staples/02/16/conference-realignment/index.html?eref=writers

I love the idea of rendering the NCAA useless, as much like the federal government, they provide nothing of immediate service to their direct constituencies, be they major universities or the States.  From my Illini perspective the NCAA has earned my ire twice.  First they placed the basketball program on probation due to sour grapes regarding the Don Thomas recruitment.

http://underscorebleach.net/jotsheet/supplementary/bruce_pearl_ncaa_memo.html

Next, they indiscriminately deemed Native American imagery and therefore our beloved Chief Illiniwek “hostile and abusive” and our spineless Board of Trustees and Athletic Department failed to display any courage to challenge their authority to our sovereignty.

http://www.uillinois.edu/chief/ChiefRelease2-16-07.pdf

Therefore, I’d appreciate little more than the Big Ten leading the charge towards marginalizing that progressive organization spawned by Teddy Roosevelt.  Beyond the athletic and economic designs of the conference, I’d like us to cooperatively bring about ultra-expansion of the four oldest leagues at the expense of the relatively new Big XII and Big East.

The trick for conference and scheduling balance for a 16-team league is 4-team pods.  Each football season a university would play each team in their pod every year and then rotate among the other three pods every two years plus home and home against the third division every four years in a nine-game conference slate.  In basketball each university would play home and home against their own pod and then once against everybody else for a 22-game schedule.  For instance, a typical Illinois football schedule would look like this:

A conference title game could be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which for the Illini would be an appearance once every decade or so.  The Big 16 and Pac 16 league champs would meet as usual in the Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl.  A playoff could ensue with the victor of an ACC-SEC bowl, but that’s not all that important to me.