Big 10 Divisional Possibilities

Madison.com columnist Tom Oates ponders where the University of Wisconsin will end up when the Big 10 organizes into two six-team divisions.

Scheduling Schemes for Conferences with Two Six-Team Divisions

Barring any further shifting by schools, the Pac 10 and Big 10 will each have 12 teams once the recently announced changes (Colorado and Utah to the Pac 10; Nebraska to the Big 10) go into effect in the next couple of years. It is widely expected that each of these conferences will divide things up into two six-team divisions. In addition to setting the stage for a conference championship game in football, a divisional system will clarify scheduling matters.

In football, a school potentially would play all of its intra-divisional rivals each season, but each of its extra-divisional rivals two out of every four years (once at each school's home). Variations on this theme exist, such at the permanent extra-divisional "designated-rival" concept used by the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference. In basketball (men's and women's), a commonly used system is to have a team play each of its intra-divisional rivals twice per year, with each team hosting one of the games ("home and home"), with one game per year against each extra-divisional opponent.

Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel, after some thoughtful consideration (for football) of competitive balance and the need to preserve annual match-ups of traditional rivals, offers his proposals for divisional line-ups in the Pac 10 and Big 10.

Realignment Quieting Down for this Year

With the shifting of schools and conferences apparently dying down, the Orlando Sentinel asks whether or not more extensive realignment is still around the corner in the next few years.

Barring any new major developments (such as the Big 10 seeking additional new members beyond Nebraska), the final few steps for this year would seem to include:

*Utah moving from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac 10, to give the latter 12 teams.

*The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) seeking one (or more) teams to replace Boise State, which moved to the Mountain West. According to this article, contenders to join the WAC include the University of Montana, Sacramento State, Portland State, and UC Davis. 

Big 12 Will Remain

The Big 12 (minus Colorado and Nebraska) is remaining intact. The University of Texas, which presumably was the Pac 10's primary target, worked out a favorable television agreement to stay with the Big 12. Under the new agreement, UT retains the right to create its own "Longhorn TV Network," in addition to the Big 12 leaguewide package. A solo network for UT apparently would not have been possible within the Pac 10 deal being discussed.

UT's press conference on its non-departure will be webcast later this morning, at 10:00 am Central.

The conventional wisdom is that the Pac 10 will now go after Utah (from the Mountain West Conference) to bring its size to 12 teams, but go no larger.

Big 12 Exodus Loses Momentum

The expected shift of several Big 12 teams to the Pac 10 seems to have lost a little momentum, for now at least. According to this Kansas City Star article, "[Big 12 commissioner Dan] Beebe’s efforts to halt a mass exodus from the Big 12 might be gaining at least a tenuous foothold." Also, "Orangeblood" writer Chip Brown's latest Twitter "tweets" are focusing on the potential outcome of the Big 12 remaining relatively intact.

Provided no other defections take place beyond the already-departed Colorado and Nebraska, we would have, for the moment, the bizarre situation of the Big 10 having 12 teams, and the Big 12 having 10.

Whether the Big 12 would at some point invite teams such as Texas Christian University and the University of Houston, to get back to actually having 12 teams, remains to be seen. Perhaps as a pitch to move to a more prominent circuit than its current Conference USA home, UH announced plans to build a completely new football stadium on the site of its current one and renovate its basketball arena, Hofheinz Pavilion. Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans, would of course also be available, for example, for when UH (hypothetically) hosted Texas.

Academics and Realignment

Regarding the academic aspect of conference realignment, an organization whose name you may have seen bandied about is the AAU. Not the Amateur Athletic Union, but rather the Association of American Universities. The latter is an elite consortium of 63 research universities (61 in the U.S., two in Canada). When schools discuss wanting to be in a conference with academically comparable institutions, the AAU is usually the yardstick. I have gone ahead and mapped out AAU membership in the conferences that are at the center of the realignment talk.

The Big 10 stands alone in all of its current members (plus incoming Nebraska) having achieved AAU membership. In fact, not even the Ivy League can make that claim, as Dartmouth has not qualified (the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests it may be because the school "has long emphasized undergraduate education"). The only non-AAU institution the Big 10 would be willing to take in, it appears, is Notre Dame.

As the realignment process continues to unfold, the map above will show how conferences are strengthening themselves academically -- or not.

UPDATE: The University of Nebraska was officially dropped from the AAU in April 2011, whereas Syracuse University has pulled out on its own. According to this Chronicle of Higher Education article: "It's not clear what prompted the special reviews of Nebraska and Syracuse last year, except that they ranked at the bottom of the AAU metrics."

Brief Items: Boise State, Texas Tech, Nebraska

A few brief items:

Boise State yesterday moved from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Mountain West Conference. I guess the Mountain West's wait-and-see period, alluded to in one of my earlier postings, was short-lived.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (isn't that a cool name for our newspaper?) speculates on how a possible move of Texas Tech to the Pac 10 would affect the city's economy.

The Sports Economist blog compares Nebraskas's average travel distance to its opponents' cities within the Big 12 and Big 10. Short answer: Excluding the Penn State trip, the Cornhuskers' flights for conference play won't be that much longer than they used to be.