Davisions

I am a Fighting Illini.  One of the things that gets us all testy on occasion is we are actually rival-less.  Northwestern, although ascendant under Pat Fitzgerald, is a pretty weak in-state rival; with them being a small private school without a large vocal fanbase.  Iowa is too stupid to take seriously, Wisconsin has Minnesota, Indiana has Purdue, Michigan has Ohio St.  In basketball we have the Bragging Rights with Mizzou in St. Louis which we dominate, but they actually hate Kansas.  Therefore, The Illini stand alone, which makes sense because neither the state nor Chicago have any true peer in the midwest.

Now comes word, that the Big Ten after long last is taking a more active role in expanding the conference membership:

http://www.bigten.org/genrel/121509aaa.html

So the Illini can look forward to games against another team (or teams) that will beat on us in football and get crushed by us in basketball in a few years.  The problem I perceive with most expansion speculation is that there is an assumption that the conference is looking for a 12th institution is even out our scheduling and be just like Big XII, SEC and ACC.  No thanks, not good enough.

I want complete realignment with eight 8-team divisions organized regionally.  There are currently 65 team in the six BCS conferences.  I prefer a nice, tidy arrangement rather than the haphazard 8, 12, 12, 12, 10 and 11 set-up we currently live with with a perfect sub-dividable 64.

Atlantic: North: (the former Big East)

UConn, BC, ‘Cuse, Rutgers, Pitt, PENN ST, W.Va & Maryland.

Atlantic: South: (the former ACC)

U.Va, Va Tech, UNC, NC ST, Duke, Wake, Clemson & S. Carolina.

Southern: East: (the former SEC East)

Kentucky, Louisville, Cincinnati, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Florida, Florida St & Miami.

Southern: West: (the former SEC West)

Georgia, Ga Tech, ‘Bama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St, Arkansas & LSU

Central: East: (the former BIG TEN)

ILLINOIS, N’WESTERN, WISCONSIN, MICH ST, MICHIGAN, OHIO ST, PURDUE & INDIANA.

Central: West: (the former Big XII North)

MINNESOTA, IOWA, Iowa St, Nebraska, Mizzou, Kansas, Kansas St & Colorado.

Western: Pacific: (the former Pac-10 is once again the Pac-8)

Cal, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Wash St, Oregon & Oregon St.

Western: Desert: (the former Big XII South)

Texas, A&M, TX Tech, Baylor, Oklahoma, OK ST, Arizona & Arizona St.

-Wisconsin and Minnesota can still play each other every year in a protected inter-conference match-up.  I do not believe anyone from the remnant Big Ten will miss playing the Hawkeyes consistently.  Penn State has never belonged in the Big Ten and this expansion talk is further proof. Therefore contraction and reorganization among the conference commissioners should be the goal.  The Big Ten Network will grow in viewership by absorbing the Big XII North.

-In football each division would play 7 inter-division games a year, plus a rotation of a linked pair from the larger conference structure along with a protected rivalry.  So there would be 10 conference games leaving 2 or 3 non-conference slots.  The 2 division winners would play a conference championship game as part of playoff system in which the final four would complete in a football playoff.  Everybody wins, except the mid-majors of the world.

-In basketball there would be a 22-game slate with 14 inter-division games and 8 games against the counterparts from the other divison; leaving approximately 8 non-conference slots available for the typical 30 game regular season.  The conference tournaments could comprise the 64-team field.  The conference winners would be the Final Four.

The smaller leagues such as the MVC, MAC and WAC can similarly restructure to from another 64-team field and the NCAA tournament expands in essence to 128.  The basketball-only playing Catholic schools of the Big East could be part of this consortium where you could find the ostracized college from South Bend.