Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I'll weirdly excited to watch Illinois-UConn. I think Brandon Peters hasn't been talked about enough from Week 1.

+1

Texas' coach is an ex-Buckeye, so I watch them and hope they do good.
I root for Maryland in all but one game. I get really frustrated when they get lumped in with Rutgers as not deserving to be in the B1G. Maryland is a great school, with great athletics, they are B1G ten worthy. It's not their fault they got added with the dredges of the East Coast, and that they are playing 4 top 20ish teams each year in football. There is only a handful of teams that can post a winning record against OSU-MSU, PSU and TTUN. (Maybe 3-4 in the SEC, 2 in the ACC, 2 in the B12, and 0-1 in the Pac?) So, I root for Maryland all the time cause I want them to feel wanted by our conference, and winning breeds respect.

Thank you on behalf of Terrapins everywhere.

We know from experience in the ACC that it's hard to accept new members after having a stable league for years.  After expansion we were always pining away for the old ACC, but it was nothing personal against the likes of Miami and Virginia Tech, et al.

So I don't take it personally when I hear stuff like "Maryland doesn't belong..." because I always thought the same thing about the expansion teams in the league where my team was a founding member.  I can understand the sentiment.  

I think a ten team Big Ten makes sense, but ain't nobody asking me.

I always liked the Huskers as an alternate for Notre Dame as team #12, although I didn't expect much interest on their end with all their Big 6/8/XII history. 

It never even occurred to me that we might expand beyond 12 teams. 

Gross.

I'm not sure I'll watch any college football at all when they hit 16-team conferences.

The world is not a perfect place.

in a perfect place everyone asks Utee

16 will be better - more or less two 8 team conferences with a built-in playoff to the playoff

similar to the old Big 8 with a bowl tie-in

I'm in this camp.  

In theory, like @utee94 said, I'd prefer a 10 team Big Ten but that isn't happening.  I thought 12 was ok and I think 16 would be ok, but I feel like 14 is just a temporary stop on the way to 16.  Same as @847badgerfan , when the B1G logo came out I immediately surmised that the "IG" looking suspiciously like "16" was not coincidental.  

I like the idea of 16 teams in four pods of four with the pods rotating to form temporary divisions.  

I also continue to believe that a big part of the reason to grab Nebraska was to get a fourth "Helmet" along with tOSU, M, and PSU so that each pod would have a Helmet headliner.  

Further, the B1G's shunning of Mizzou when they were basically begging for an invite makes it clear to me that the B1G's eyes are turned Eastward not Westward so I continue to believe that the next two members will be from the relatively populous and fast-growing states of Virginia and North Carolina.  Then I assume that the Pods and groups will be as follows:

Each team's annual schedule would be as follows:

• You play the other three teams in your group (for Michigan in Group 1, this would be tOSU, PSU, and UNL).  
• You play the other three teams in your pod (for Michigan in the North Pod this would be MSU, PU, and NU).  
• You play the remaining three teams in whichever pod your pod is temporarily combined with to form a division.  

Suppose that the divisions are North-South and East-West in year 1, Michigan would play:

• tOSU, PSU, UNL
• MSU, PU, NU
• RU, IU, IL

Then in year two the divisions would be North-East and South-West, Michigan would play:

• tOSU, PSU, UNL
• MSU, PU, NU
• UNC, UVA, UMD

Then in year three the divisions would be North-West and South-East, Michigan would play:

• tOSU, PSU, UNL
• MSU, PU, NU
• UW, IA, MN

In six years each team would:

• Host and travel to their three pod-mates three times each.  (total of 18 games)
• Host and travel to their three group-mates three times each.  (total of 18 games)
• Host and travel to the other nine teams once each.  (total of 18 games)

That makes 54 conference games in six years or nine per year and you both host and visit all conference-mates at least once every six years.  

What I like about it:

• It would "feel like" your team was in a conference with your six pod-mates and group-mates.  
• Your team would never be too far away from playing any other conference team (every third year maximum).  
• There is some degree of competitive balance built into the groups.  Ie, the Helmets all have to play each other every year so their schedules would typically be harder than the other teams.  

What I don't like about it:

• The northernmost team (MN) is in the West pod.  
• The easternmost team (RU) is in the South pod.  
• The southernmost team (UNC) is in the East pod.  
• The aforementioned three issues would make this very easy to make fun of.