Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which wants you to prepare yourself. I mean, find a seat.
Last week, without prompting, you all started suggesting possible alignment formats for a split Big 12 … and robbed me of a perfect Monday morning post. But, whatever. As per usual, you all did the heavy lifting. I spun it around in my head on the way to a wedding and maybe during the wedding, and I couldn’t come up with a very equitable design.
Turns out there are a lot of dynamics, like geography, OU v. Texas, linking the Oklahoma and Texas schools and competitiveness as a consistent concern, to name just a few. I am, as you know, into soccer. I love the concept or relegation, how the final standings and in-season competitions send teams to the Champions and Europa league. I fumbled with that a bunch but couldn’t find a way to insert futbol into football. Like, what do you do to Nos. 9 and 10? It doesn’t work.
So, who knows what happens next? It’s weird, but last week I was joking with someone about the Big 12 and its decisions, and we wondered how the league would split. “The only ending that would fit,” I said, “is to have North and West divisions.” Because jokes. But … that’s actually not a bad idea.
(Best idea: Horses and Bayonets. That was savage. No one has ever been shook like Mitt was there.)
Leave it to the comments, though.
SheikYbuti said:
They should mix the divisions up every year by order of finish the previous season:
1 2
4 3
5 6
8 7
9 10
Now we’re talking. Now we can have some fun. Let’s get weird. New season format: Two non-conference games that are essentially warmups and then nine conference games. After those 11 games, a 1 v. 4 / 2 v. 3 tournament crowns a league champion while a 5 v. 8 / 6 v. 7 tournament is valuable for next season’s divisions … and revenue. Nos. 9 and 10 are left out, but they’ll play a game against one another … but just one game, and that’s their penalty for being at the bottom of the league. They’re getting a 12-game regular season. The others get 13, and you could split monetization for those other six games. And if we ever see non-conference invitationals, like a Big 12-ACC Challenge, have the standings determine the matchups against the corresponding team in the other league.
Are there problems? I guess, but the big one is reality. Realistically, it’s not happening because people are not and will not be obtuse, and this order-of-finish angle is at 135 degrees.
Or is it?
Splitting up Big 12 Conference football into divisions based on seeding might be picking up a key vote.
Iowa State University president Steven Leath stopped short of an all-out endorsement, but he certainly didn’t say anything negative about the concept conference officials discussed at their spring meeting last week.
“The idea of re-seeding every year is intriguing,” Leath said during a break at Thursday’s Iowa Board of Regents meeting at Iowa State. “It differentiates us as a league. It keeps the league really vibrant, exciting and fresh.
“I think if we do that, other leagues will say “Wow, that’s a really neat idea.”
Had me up to the last line, S.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, cope with the same b-s.
Brad Lewis said:
2001 3-8 team was pretty painful to watch. Still stings losing to the fierce Temple Owls, at home.
Odd. Another F word usually precedes “… Temple Owls, at home” when others recall that.
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