(10-01-2013 05:55 AM)goofus Wrote: Well, you are on the right board. I have done the spreadsheets and it can work. This was a popular subject when the pac-10 was talking of expanding to 16.
the key is don't get locked into thinking permanent rivals have to be in the same divisions. Or in some models that have pods, dont assume that teams in the same pods have to be in the same division. Once you free yourself from that thought , everything else falls into place. rhe pac-16 was perfect for 4 pods non-permanent division model. The Big Ten is more ideal for 3 defined permanent rivals but no defined pods.
With 16 teams, the pods are pretty easy to do, so long as you have a nine team schedule. You can come up with a lot of possibilities. Now first, I am curious of the line I bolded: I don't understand how you can have teams in the same pod NOT in the same division. The inverse is true, but not sure about this.
Anyway I have done this scenario a few times, and for the purposes of understanding how it works, I am going to repost it. Okay when I created this example, for some reason Missouri and Navy were the two teams that were added. I don’t remember the reasons at the moment why those two were it, but it was due to some discussion we were having. Anyway the “who” is not important. This is simply an exercise of how to create a schedule.
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The idea is that pods simply create a new division every year. Consider it like an NFL schedule modified to fit college. You would have nine games as opposed to eight, otherwise it doesn’t work, but the Big Ten is going to nine anyway, so no big deal.
The pods will look like this:
Code:
Mideast East West Midwest
Ohio St Penn St Nebraska Illinois
Michigan M’land Wisconsin Purdue
Michgn St Rutgers Missouri Indiana
Minnesota Navy Univ Iowa Northwestern
For most of these purposes, I am going to be Ohio State when I make these examples
- * Each team plays each of the other three teams in its pod: once at home, and two on the road, alternating in years (three games). Thus Ohio State will play Michigan, Michigan St, and Minnesota ever year.
* Each team plays the four teams from another pod once on a rotating three-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games). This creates the "division" for that season, the two pods playing each other. . The two entire pods that play each other create a “division” for that year, which obviously changes each year, and the team with the best conference record in that “division” (normal tie breaker rules apply) goes to the conference championship game. Thus Ohio State will play the East division one year, the West division the next year, and the Midwest division the third year
Then you have three options for how to schedule the last two games which we dub "Wild Card" games:
- *(Rival Style) - Each team plays once against the team in each pod designated as a rival, not counting the pod they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games). The advantage of allowing each team to have a unique 7 team conference of teams they play each year, allowing the most rivalries to stay intact. Thus in addition to OSU playing Michigan, Michigan St, and Minnesota every year, they would also play Penn State, Nebraska, and Illinois every season. Note that while OSU’s schedule seems incredibly tough, these pods were designed so that each team continued with rivalries they already have. Newer teams had to fit where they could into existing older rivalries. OSU’s schedule rotation would look like this:
Code:
- Division Games Cross Division Wild Card
Year 1 2 3 Pod 1 2 3 4 Riv1 Riv2
2016 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Neb Ill
2017 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa PSU Ill
2018 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW PSU Neb
2019 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Neb Ill
2020 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa PSU Ill
2021 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW PSU Neb
2022 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Neb Ill
2023 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa PSU Ill
2024 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW PSU Neb
2025 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Neb Ill
2026 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa PSU Ill
2027 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW PSU Neb
* (Rotation Style) - Each team plays once against the team in each pod designated in sequential order rotating in a three year cycle, not counting the pod they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games). Advantage: allows you to play each team in your pod every year and every other team six years per twelve year cycle, for an average of once every other year (won't work out exactly that way per year, but will over the course of 12 years). OSU’s schedule would look like this:
Code:
- Division Games Cross Division Wild Card
Year 1 2 3 Pod 1 2 3 4 Seq1 Seq2
2016 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Neb Ill
2017 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa MD Pur
2018 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW Rut Mizz
2019 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Iowa NW
2020 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa PSU Ill
2021 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW MD Wisc
2022 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Mizz IU
2023 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa Navy NW
2024 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW PSU Neb
2025 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy Wisc Pur
2026 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa Rut IU
2027 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW Navy Iowa
* (NFL Style) - Each team plays once against the other teams that finished in the same place in their own pods as themselves in the previous season, not counting the pod they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games). Advantage of allowing contenders to have the best SOS. OSU’s schedule *may* look like this (using hypothetical finishes)
Code:
- Division Games Cross Division Wild Card NFL
Year 1 2 3 Pod 1 2 3 4 Fin Tm1 Tm2
2016 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy 1 Neb Pur
2017 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa 2 MD Pur
2018 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW 1 PSU Neb
2019 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy 1 Iowa NW
2020 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa 3 PSU Pur
2021 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW 2 MD Neb
2022 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy 1 Neb Pur
2023 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa 3 Navy IU
2024 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW 2 Navy Wisc
2025 UM MSU Minn East PSU MD Rut Navy 1 Neb Pur
2026 UM MSU Minn West Neb Wisc Mizz Iowa 1 PSU NW
2027 UM MSU Minn Mwst Ill Pur IU NW 4 Rut Iowa
Now ultimately how the “wild card” games are handled would probably dictate how the pods were made up. I would imagine they would stay the same, but it's possible the "rival" set up may cause a team or two to be moved around. But since the new Big Ten divisions look pretty much like I have them, only with Indiana and Minnesota swapping places, seems about right. Anyway for the purposes of evaluating each method of scheduling, here is how often Ohio State would play each team under each scheduling method:
Games played vs. each team Over 12 year period
Tm_ Seq Riv NFL
Mich 12 12_ 12
MSU 12 12_ 12
Minn 12 12_ 12
PSU_ 6_ 12_ 7
UMD 6_ 4__ 6
Rutg 6_ 4__ 5
Navy 6_ 4__ 6
Neb_ 6_ 12_ 9
Wisc 6_ 4__ 5
Mizz 6_ 4__ 4
Iowa 6_ 4__ 6
Illini 6_ 12_ 4
Purd 6_ 4__ 9
Ind_ 6_ 4__ 5
Nwst 6_ 4__ 6
/
I just dont get why this idea wont work for conf. scheduling
