BIGCG #1 Ohio State (12-0/9-0) vs #2 Indiana (12-0/9-0) Game Week

[FearlessF]

Let's wake up Cincy!

[SuperMario]

Good win by the Buckeyes today.  Overcame road game, hostile crowd. Chippy after the whistle bs, and win with humility.  No flag planting BS. 

Wrong thread. Day was very classy without a doubt. The players showed that 18-22 years olds can do dumb things even with good leadership.

[FearlessF]

Day admitted, that it took some effort on his part to stay classy

good for him

[FearlessF]

[medinabuckeye1]

This will be Indiana's first ever 1 v 2 game as prior to this season, they had never been ranked above #4.  Here is Ohio State's history in 1 v 2 games and what they led to:

• 1968 season:  On January 1, 1969 #1 Ohio State defeated #2 USC 27-16 in the Rose Bowl to claim the NC.  
• 2002 season:  On January 3, 2003 #2 Ohio State defeated #1 Miami 31-24 in 2OT to claim the NC.  
• 2006 season:  On September 9, 2006 #1 Ohio State defeated #2 Texas in Austin to solidify their hold on #1.  
• 2006 season:  On November 18, 2006 #1 Ohio State defeated #2 Michigan in Columbus to solidify their hold on #1.  
• 2006 season:  On January 8, 2007 Ohio State became the first team to ever play three 1v2 games in a single season when they lost to #2 UF for the NC.  
• 2007 season:  On January 7, 2008 #1 Ohio State lost to #2 LSU in NOLA for the NC.  

By my count Ohio State is 4-2 (3-2 as #1, 1-0 as #2) in 1v2 games.  

[medinabuckeye1]

On Saturday Ohio State will be playing for the first B1G Championship since 2020 which seems like a long time because frankly it is for the Buckeyes but Indiana will be playing for their first league Championship in nearly 60 years.  

Indiana last on the league in 1967.  That year the league had three co-champions:  Indiana, Purdue, and Minnesota.  It was one of those three-way ties where they each went 1-1 against each other:

• Purdue beat Minnesota 41-12 in West Lafayette on November 11
• Minnesota beat Indiana 33-7 in Minneapolis on November 18
• Indiana beat Purdue 19-14 on November 25

Indiana went to the RoseBowl based on two now antiquated rules:

• Purdue was eliminated by the 'no repeat' rule because the went to and won the Rose Bowl after the 1966 season.  
• Indiana was selected over Minnesota based on the 'longest loser rule' because Minnesota had been to two RoseBowls earlier in the 1960s while Indiana had never been.  

Interestingly, the 1967 season is also the last league title for Minnesota while the Boilermakers have fared much better with one league title since then (2000).  

[ManHawk]

Thinking about 3 alternative scenarios

1.  What if the Big Ten has 2 separate 9=team divisions where the 2 division winners go to the CCG.
2.  What is the Big Ten had 3 separate 6-team divisions and the 2 best division winners go the CCG
3.  What if the Big Ten had 4 automatic qualifiers that made the CFP with wild card games to determine who gets the #3 and #4 spot.

I might dig into these in more detail in separate posts below.

[ManHawk]

So what if the Big Ten had 2 separate 9-team divisions?  You could try to split teams geographically

Geographic Divisions

West
1.  Oregon 8-1
2.  USC 7-2
3.  Iowa 6-3
4.  Wash 5-4
5.  Minn 5-4
6.  NW 4-5
7.  Neb 4-5
8.  UCLA 3-6
9.  Wisc 2-7
Overall.  44-37

East
1.  Ohio St 9-0
2.  Indiana 9-0
3.  Mich 7-2
4.  ILL 5-4
5.  PSU 3-6
6.  Rut 2-7
7.  MSU 1-8
8.  MD 1-8
9.  Pur 0-9
Overall 37-44

If there were geographic East-West divisions,  Oregon would play whoever won the OSU/Indiana game in the regular season.

Also the West Division would be the clear winner in overall records

[ManHawk]

What if the Big Ten had 3 separate 6-team divisions

North Division
1.  Oregon 8-1
2.  Iowa 6-3
3.  Wash 5-4
4.  Minn 5-4
5.  Neb 4-5
6.  Wisc 2-7
Overall 30-24

South Division
1.  Indiana 9-0
2.  USC 7-2
3.  ILL 5-4
4.  NW 4-5
5.  UCLA 3-6
6.  Pur 0-9
Overall 28-26

East Division
1.  Ohio St 9-0
2.  Mich 7-2
3.  PSU 3-6
4.  Rut 2-7
5.  MSU 1-8
6.  MD 1-8
Overall. 23-31

So OHio St and Indiana would be the 2 best division winners and would play in the CCG.

Overall the North Division would be the winner in Overall records,  with the south 2nd and the East in last place.

[betarhoalphadelta]

We've hashed all this out before, but the problem with 9-team divisions is that it's not really a single conference any longer. If you play a 9-game conference schedule, you literally play each team from the opposite division once every 9 years. Maybe that's okay (because 16- or 18-team conferences are stupid anyway), but it's still not a single unified conference. (The NFL gets around this with 16-team conferences by having the divisional 2-play model, a 17-game regular season, and then a conference playoff before the Super Bowl, none of which I think is palatable in CFB.)

3 divisions helps with that because you have 5 division games and 4 cross-division games each season. But then... Who goes to the CCG? Winning your division can't be an automatic CCG berth. And I think you know how I'm not a big fan of a lack of objectivity.

4 "pods" may also be a viable solution. With rotating alignment such that the four pods form annual divisions, you can ensure regular scheduling of everyone in the conference, an objective process to determine CCG eligibility, etc... But for that you need either 16 teams or 20 teams, because 18 doesn't evenly divide by 4. 

Once you start having superconferences, this is just going to be a problem. Maybe superconferences aren't such a good idea...
 

[SFBadger96]

Common results:
Illinois: IU: 63-10    OSU (@): 34-16. Edge: IU

UCLA: IU: 56-6, OSU: 48-10. is one blowout better than another?

Penn State: IU (@): 27-24, OSU: 38-14. Edge: OSU

Wisconsin: IU: 31-7, OSU (@): 34-0. Both blowouts

How ridiculous is it that they only have four common opponents!?!

[medinabuckeye1]

Common results:
Illinois: IU: 63-10    OSU (@): 34-16. Edge: IU

UCLA: IU: 56-6, OSU: 48-10. is one blowout better than another?

Penn State: IU (@): 27-24, OSU: 38-14. Edge: OSU

Wisconsin: IU: 31-7, OSU (@): 34-0. Both blowouts

How ridiculous is it that they only have four common opponents!?!

They also both played Purdue 

I like College Football Nerds. Their question is whether or not Indiana' has the ability to "scale". 

[FearlessF]

So what if the Big Ten had 2 separate 9-team divisions?  You could try to split teams geographically

Geographic Divisions

West
1.  Oregon 8-1
2.  USC 7-2
3.  Iowa 6-3
4.  Wash 5-4
5.  Minn 5-4
6.  NW 4-5
7.  Neb 4-5
8.  UCLA 3-6
9.  Wisc 2-7
Overall.  44-37

East
1.  Ohio St 9-0
2.  Indiana 9-0
3.  Mich 7-2
4.  ILL 5-4
5.  PSU 3-6
6.  Rut 2-7
7.  MSU 1-8
8.  MD 1-8
9.  Pur 0-9
Overall 37-44

If there were geographic East-West divisions,  Oregon would play whoever won the OSU/Indiana game in the regular season.

Also the West Division would be the clear winner in overall records

We've hashed all this out before, but the problem with 9-team divisions is that it's not really a single conference any longer. If you play a 9-game conference schedule, you literally play each team from the opposite division once every 9 years. Maybe that's okay 

yup, that's Okay because it's not really a single conference - just a group negotiating TV contracts
It's 2 conferences
3 or 4 or 5 pods is silly