Read Loyal Homer’s argument to add another team to the Big 10 and Bleacher Fan’s argument to avoid another team.
Another year of exciting college football is nearly upon us. We’re also just starting to hit the peak of the “the Big 10 should add another team to the conference” season, too. It, like the bowl games, is an annual tradition everyone in the Midwest has come to know and love.
This year’s version of the topic was started by none other than the venerable Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. In between stories about first-hand encounters with dinosaurs and how he consoled Adam after Eve offered him an apple, he said Division I football’s oldest conference deserves its own time in the spotlight with a championship game to decide who wins the conference, rather than the current system of an imbalanced schedule and a litany of tiebreakers (Penn State litany Lions?).
Of course, one of the bigger issues with this topic is what the heck to call the conference if they do add another team. I have a sneaking suspension it would be completely creative, out of the box thinking. Something fancy like, “Bigger 10” or “Big Dozen.” Marketing geniuses over there.
Truthfully, there are schools willing and able to play in the Big 10 from other Midwestern conferences like the MAC, who boast at least one good team pretty much every year… and even have two automatic bowl bids (but, who doesn’t?). The seemingly perfect option of adding Notre Dame is off the table, according to JoePa (and it’s wise to believe him… or he’ll chase you down as you run off the field like a ref who made a bad call).
Adding another team to the Big 10 does have some obvious advantages. For example, the conference can add a lucrative conference championship game and make some extra cash for the conference as a whole. The Big 10 has always been a television ratings draw, and would probably sell out a championship football game, unlike their counterparts in the ACC (though I’m guessing the 28,000 that attended last year had a great time).
But, of course, this issue is more complicated than just getting a championship game. If only there was a website that offered smart fans the chance to understand both sides of a complex sports issue and forecast how that issue might be logically resolved? WAIT A MINUTE!! Have you heard of The Sports Debates??? That is a great site. Tell your friends.
For today’s debate, our friend the Loyal Homer will argue that the Big 10 must add another member to the conference – no matter who that is – because the upside is too great to ignore. Loyal Homer is an SEC expert, too, so there’s good precedent to cite.
Our other good friend, Bleacher Fan, will argue that the Big 10 must avoid the temptation of adding another team to the conference – no matter who it is – because they simply do not need to do it.
Make a good case, and pay attention to the details – trust me.
[...] The Big 10 Evolution Debate – Should the Big 10 Add Another Team … [...]
[...] The Big 10 Evolution Debate – Should the Big 10 Add Another Team … [...]
I have an even better idea that makes a LOT more sense: let’s just establish that the national championship, every year, will be between the SEC and whoever the media nominates to become ground meat.
It’s a simple, elegant solution that allows all the other conferences to maintain their traditions (of coming in second, mostly) without adding another game to beat themselves up with–prior to taking the field and having an SEC team stomp them a new mudhole.
Leave the real football to the boys from the South and let the other conferences dot the I’s, run a cow around the field with some dudes dressed up in cowboy outfits and parade their fossilized coach up and down the sidelines prior to returning him to the Smithsonian for the rest of the week.
And oh yeah…Notre Dame can just keep playing with themselves. They seem to have that down pat.
Ryangsanders,
I take it you are from SEC country? Do you call the Hogs? Do you do the Dawg Walk? Do you Gator chop? Who do you support?
Well, I’m an alum of the one of only two, two time winners of the BCS crystal ball and the reigning collegiate baseball champs. Does that narrow it down?
Luckily we’re multi-talented here in the South…I’m not a huge football fan but hey, we play some mean baseball too…and run really fast and jump really high. We don’t have that swimming thing down yet though.
Unlike the other conferences, we don’t have ANY huge TV markets in our geographic region, which means we get short shrift in the national spotlight (in both football and baseball, generally), so those folks from the other conferences are surprised when they show up for a national-championship-something-or-other and take an old-fashioned butt-whoopin….
Ahhh…Geaux Tigers! Saw your Tigers play in the Chick Fil-A Bowl this past year personally and put a whipping on Georgia Tech. Expecting big things from LSU’s football team this year. Congrats on the big win in the CWS also!
I’ll agree that there really isn’t any big markets down in the Bayou and in the Delta. New Orleans, I guess, would be the closest thing. I guess major league baseball gets no attention down there, does it?
For the record, I’m from the South, but Sports Geek and Bleacher Fan are from the Midwest so it gives us different perspectives on how much region feels. I’m outnumbered though, so I appreciate the support from my fellow Southerners!
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