APAfter what was reported to be a months-long schism, the Pac-12 and Big Ten finally decided to put their non-conference scheduling agreement on an indefinite hiatus.
At the core of the decision, at least reportedly, were a handful of Pac-12 schools unhappy with the agreement since the league has a nine-game conference schedule while the Big Ten only has an eight-game conference slate.
As far as the Big Ten is concerned, that could be changing.
Speaking to the Chicago Tribune (you must be a digital member to read), Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany implied the thought of adding one more conference game is a possibility once again.
“We’ll have to go back to ground zero and we don’t have a lot of time to do it,” Delany said.
A 10-game conference schedule was also discussed, but with the probability of it happening being equivalent to… well, let’s just say it’s not going to happen. Now that the Big Ten won’t have a steady non-conference game against a “BCS” opponent, it’ll be interesting to see if adding another league game becomes a more serious possibility.
Also, ground work for the new “strength of schedule” considerations in Playoff 1.0.
This needs to be done. Same with the SEC.
Not a big fan of 9 game conference schedules for 12 team leagues. It means you play more than half the teams in the other division which defeats the purpose of a CCG .
(That said, I do like them for 10 team leagues (round robin) and 14+ (it ensures you play your cross divisional opponents more than once a decade))
The Big 10 needs to revisit the schedule and remove Penn State from it for the next two years.