It’s Conference Championship Week…So Where is the Big Ten?

by KVB @ 2009-11-30 No Comments Email Post

Ah…Championship Week in college football.

Every Midwest fan has the pleasure of looking toward the, err, the MAC Championship? Ohio Bobcats vs. Central Michigan Chippewas? And on a Friday night?

I’d rather go on a bar crawl with friends, see a movie, gouge an ice pick straight into my eyes…anything but watch that game.

(Not that I don’t try. The 11:00am contest last Friday between Ohio and Temple had its one viewer before I changed the channel immediately at noon when better games kicked off. I will say the first hour of Ohio-Temple was way better than standing in line waiting for a Black Friday sale item in the freezing cold. But sorry, you can’t trick me with your lone game this upcoming Friday night as if it is anything special before the REAL championship games on Saturday.)

Thinking about this obviously led me to fantasizing about something I have been dreaming about since high school.

No not my true high school crush Alyssa Milano, I’m actually talking about a BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP game! (No homo.)

There are some pretty straightforward answers to the questions that inevitably are raised whenever the topic of a Big Ten Championship game comes up:

They could play it in the Indianapolis Colts’ conveniently located and incredibly well-built Lucas Oil Stadium.
It would obviously occur this last weekend in college football.
Hell, Wisconsin could still go to Hawaii this year since they lost too many Big Ten games to be in the title game (I’m sure you were wondering this aloud).
It would also help the champion on the BCS stage and level the playing field with opponents who play in their conference championship game.

Of course the “ifs” are much more interesting to discuss.

How do you split the two divisions?
What school should be added as the 12^th team to the conference?
Do you really need a 12^th team to have a championship game?
Is Cincinnati the team most likely to get a final spot?
How would the graphic artist sneak the number “12” into that “BIG TEN” symbol?

The two division split is hard even before you add a 12^th team. East and West divisions seem logical and easy. But I don’t always like the easy way out.

Is a Woody and a Bo division a good idea? Separating Ohio State and Michigan seems like a good idea for the conference commonly called the Big Two. But I can hardly make that argument after the last two years have seen Michigan generate one of the worst conference records at 3-13, tied with the “mighty” Hoosiers.

Will Michigan ever be relevant again? Almost for sure, but let’s move on, and I will contradict myself by saying let’s take the easy way out.

The records are from this year. The name of each division is a tribute to the previous year’s divisional champ:

2009 PATERNO EAST

Ohio State (7-1)
Penn State (6-2)
Michigan State (4-4)
Purdue (4-4)
Michigan (1-7)
Indiana (1-7)

2009 FITZGERALD WEST

Iowa (6-2)
Wisconsin (5-3)
Northwestern (5-3)
Notre Dame (2-1, projected 4-4)
Minnesota (3-5)
Illinois (2-6)

For argument’s sake, let’s add Notre Dame as the 12th team since they are the most talked about potential 12th Big Ten team that I know of. Though they were 2-1 versus the Big Ten this year, it is hard to believe they would not have lost their share of games against teams like Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin. It was either Purdue or Notre Dame in the FITZY WEST (as I like to call it) and this way Indiana and Purdue stay in the same division.

All that being said, had this been the alignment for this year, we would have had a re-match of the awesome November 14th Iowa-Ohio State game in Columbus that had to be concluded in overtime. This time, however, the game would take place on a neutral field.

Sounds like an intriguing Big Ten title game right? Sounds like Ohio State might not have had at least a “share” of the Big Ten title the last five years if there was a title game? For all these “what ifs” let us refer to whatifsports.com to get some simulated answers. They do not create simulations for 2009 college teams until after the bowl games so let’s go backwards five years:

Darryl Clark

2008 SIMULATION

Ohio State (7-1) shared the Big Ten title with Penn State (7-1) even though the Bucks lost head to head, which perturbed many Nittany Lion fans. Rightfully so.

In the above division separations, Penn State would have won the Tressel East while Northwestern would have come out on top in the Zook West. The simulation includes play on a neutral field so that is how all these outcomes are calculated.

It didn’t matter as Penn State won 10 out of 10 simulations by an average score of 38-13. Not too exciting. Still want that championship game? Let’s look deeper and decide.

Todd Boeckman

2007 SIMULATION

Ohio State out of the Tressel East with Illinois from the Bielema West. At the time, this would have been an intriguing matchup on paper since weeks earlier Illinois upset Ohio State in Columbus.

But I think we’ve seen many rematch games turn out the way the simulation did. Ohio State won 8 of 10 simulations by an average score of 27 to 19.

Would fans still have seen LSU beat the Bucks in the national title game with less time off and a championship game? Probably. Moving on.

2006 SIMULATION

PreGame WarmUps

This was one of the most interesting simulations…or the most backwards simulation I haven’t decided yet. Ohio State beat Michigan in that awesome #1 versus #2 game, moving on to play Wisconsin out of the Weis West.

The simulation? Wisconsin winning 6 out of 10 games by a definitive average of 29-14!

Would Troy Smith still have won the Heisman (and gotten fat during the layoff)?! Would Florida have destroyed their opponent in the title game if it was not Ohio State? Who would it have been, Michigan, USC, Boise State, Louisville?! We will never know but it shakes so many things up.

2005 SIMULATION

This year would have been another Penn State thrashing of Northwestern from the Ferentz West by an average score of 50-13. Wow.

Let’s give Notre Dame (9-3, BCS Sugar Bowl loss to LSU) a chance. They were arguably better this year than the following senior season with Quinn and his mates. Penn State and Notre Dame were tied after 10 simulations, with Notre Dame winning an eleventh sim. The averages were tied at 24 as well, so needless to say this could have been one of the best conference titles that we have seen so far.

Looking at other conferences with title games, they can only expect one really close game and one major upset every five years.

Frosh Chad Henne

2004 SIMULATION

Yes this was a long time ago…Michigan was actually competitive! Iowa comes out of the Ferentz West for this year’s title game, with Michigan getting 6 out of 10 victories by a simulated 21-16 average.

Yes, this would have been consecutive years for the title game match-up so I’m sure you get the point.

All these simulations should be taken with a grain of salt of course, but it is a fun way to show the potential results if the Big Ten split into two divisions and played a championship game. It would obviously be exciting for Midwesterners but wouldn’t shake up the national scene that much.

That is also why this is a simulation and can’t be compared to reality. Heck, maybe the national media would respect the Big Ten more if they had one. Maybe recruits would pay more attention to these teams if they competed in a finale game.

All that said, would it be the greatest dream in the world to see a Big Ten conference title game? Or could it just delay the inevitable? Could it help the winner by giving that school less days off as the BCS gets extended further and further into January because of TV networks? I do believe that is the true advantage for the current conferences with championship games.

And as for the games themselves, it is certain that we would get match-ups at least as exciting as Ohio-Central Michigan or Texas-Colorado in 2005 (70-3).

Wrapping things up all I can say is I would be in favor. Forget Notre Dame if they are too self-absorbed to join a conference in football. They are in shambles anyway and I don’t think even Super Stoops can save them. Also, forget making an argument and pulling teams from another conference (i think we’ve all heard cases from as far East as Syracuse to as far West as Iowa State).

Get a conference championship game going with the current league of eleven and see who wants in after that.