On WTKA yesterday I made my case for a Big Ten Showcase week to replace the Big Ten Championship. It's a very simple plan: Use Championship Weekend to play the best Big Ten games that were not played already. The weekend after Thanksgiving, each team would play one of the four Big Ten opponents they missed during the 9-game regular season, assigned by record. Sometimes often I suspect the top game would remain a winner-take-all championship bout. But it would do away with rematches, could do away with the need for divisions, virtually ensure all the championship contenders got a chance to play each other, and finish the season with relatively evenly matched Big Ten games we would have otherwise missed. Values of a good scheduling system I came to the Showcase idea by working backwards from the things we want to accomplish in a Big Ten season. They are (in order of relative importance): Produce an uncontroversial Big Ten champion that has the best claim to the best season. Play all
On WTKA yesterday I made my case for a Big Ten Showcase week to replace the Big Ten Championship. It's a very simple plan: Use Championship Weekend to play the best Big Ten games that were not played already. The weekend after Thanksgiving, each team would play one of the four Big Ten opponents they missed during the 9-game regular season, assigned by record. Sometimes often I suspect the top game would remain a winner-take-all championship bout. But it would do away with rematches, could do away with the need for divisions, virtually ensure all the championship contenders got a chance to play each other, and finish the season with relatively evenly matched Big Ten games we would have otherwise missed. Values of a good scheduling system I came to the Showcase idea by working backwards from the things we want to accomplish in a Big Ten season. They are (in order of relative importance): Produce an uncontroversial Big Ten champion that has the best claim to the best season. Play all