There seems to be a misconception out there that you need at least 16 - team conferences to go to pods or set up a flexible rotating schedules. But this is simply not true. You can have pods with a 12 or 14 team conference. One way to do this is set up rotating divisions that alternate between odd and even years. There are countless number of combinations but just for the sake of conversation, here are some examples below of how this could work with the 14 team P5 conferences.

SEC
Even West - A&M, LSU, Arky, Miss, MSU, Bama, Auburn

Even East- Fla, Georgia, S. CAR., Tenn, Vandy, Ky, Mizzou

Odd West-A&M, LSU, Arky, Tenn, Vandy, Ky, Mizzou

Odd East- Fla, Ga., S.Car., Miss, MSU, Bama, Auburn

ACC
Even North-BC, Syr, Pitt, Va, VT, WF, NCSU

Even South-Miami, FSU, Clemson, GT, LV, NC, Duke


Odd North-BC, Syr, Pitt, Va, VT, NC, Duke

ODD South-Miami, FSU, Clemson, GT, LV, NCSU, WF

BIG Ten
Even West-Neb, Iowa, Minn, Wisc, NW, ILL, Pur

Even East- Rut, MD, PSU, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indy

ODD West-Neb, Iowa, Minn, Wisc, NW, ILL, indy

ODD East- Rut, MD, PSU, OSU, Mich, MSU, Pur

The division names take some getting used to, but eventually they start to roll off the tongue with ease. Even East, Even West, Odd East, Odd West. I could get used to that in time.

(05-25-2014 08:57 AM)goofus Wrote:  There seems to be a misconception out there that you need at least 16 - team conferences to go to pods or set up a flexible rotating schedules. But this is simply not true. You can have pods with a 12 or 14 team conference. One way to do this is set up rotating divisions that alternate between odd and even years. There are countless number of combinations but just for the sake of conversation, here are some examples below of how this could work with the 14 team P5 conferences.

SEC
Even West - A&M, LSU, Arky, Miss, MSU, Bama, Auburn

Even East- Fla, Georgia, S. CAR., Tenn, Vandy, Ky, Mizzou

Odd West-A&M, LSU, Arky, Tenn, Vandy, Ky, Mizzou

Odd East- Fla, Ga., S.Car., Miss, MSU, Bama, Auburn

ACC
Even North-BC, Syr, Pitt, Va, VT, WF, NCSU

Even South-Miami, FSU, Clemson, GT, LV, NC, Duke


Odd North-BC, Syr, Pitt, Va, VT, NC, Duke

ODD South-Miami, FSU, Clemson, GT, LV, NCSU, WF

BIG Ten
Even West-Neb, Iowa, Minn, Wisc, NW, ILL, Pur

Even East- Rut, MD, PSU, OSU, Mich, MSU, Indy

ODD West-Neb, Iowa, Minn, Wisc, NW, ILL, indy

ODD East- Rut, MD, PSU, OSU, Mich, MSU, Pur

The division names take some getting used to, but eventually they start to roll off the tongue with ease. Even East, Even West, Odd East, Odd West. I could get used to that in time.

why would anyone agree to this? Destroys rivalries, screws up home and home concept, -plus much more.

horrible thread

(05-25-2014 12:04 PM)NotANewbie Wrote:  why would anyone agree to this? Destroys rivalries, screws up home and home concept, -plus much more.

Actually it would not screw up rivialries. To avoid making the thread too long I left out the details of how the schedules would work, but it could be set up so that everyone will play everyone else twice in 4 years. Plus everyone will still have permanent rivals they play every year.

(05-25-2014 12:04 PM)NotANewbie Wrote:  why would anyone agree to this? Destroys rivalries, screws up home and home concept, -plus much more.

As far as the home and home concept, on past precedent when the Big Ten had eight games and ten or eleven members, they'd be more likely to play two years in one alignment, home and home, then two years in the other alignment, home and home.

On the other points, going to divisions already destroys rivalries. What alternating divisions does versus fixed divisions in a fourteen school conference playing nine conference games is guarantee playing all of the conference at least twice over a four year cycle, trading off a smaller list of annual games for more games with what would have otherwise been the cross conference rivals.

Though if enough conferences are dissatisfied with fixed divisions to consider this, I reckon that eliminating the divisional round robin part of the CCG rules would offer the simpler way to address that, allowing different schools to have different collections of annual rivals.

I like having one division, 3 perm rivals, and 5 other games. Obviously that only works for 14 team conferences, but 12 team conferences could simply split into two divisions, with 5 division games and 3 games against the other division. 10 team conferences could either have a 9 game schedule w/ one division or an 8 game schedule and play any important games "OOC" once every 9 years.

I agree completely about pods being very possible in 14 team conferences. I don't think they'll ever do them, but there is nothing structurally preventing them. I'd set them up in the Big Ten something like this:

Pod A
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers

Pod B
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State

Pod C
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinios
Northwestern

Pod D
Nebraska
Iowa
Indiana
Purdue

Set-up
Pods A and B are always opposite are pods c and d. However, you play most/all your crossover games against the pod you are never with. They could lock in games here and you'd still play everyone at least half the time.

(05-25-2014 04:13 PM)ohio1317 Wrote:  I agree completely about pods being very possible in 14 team conferences. I don't think they'll ever do them, but there is nothing structurally preventing them. I'd set them up in the Big Ten something like this:

Pod A
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers

Pod B
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State

Pod C
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinios
Northwestern

Pod D
Nebraska
Iowa
Indiana
Purdue

Set-up
Pods A and B are always opposite are pods c and d. However, you play most/all your crossover games against the pod you are never with. They could lock in games here and you'd still play everyone at least half the time.

Strange that you go east/west in the two eastern pods but not in the western pods where Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin would all like to play each other.

But the three school pods on the east would allow addressing one thing tension with the pods, that the Big 10 conference would like OSU and Penn State to play every year, and would like the big name schools playing on the East Coast, since with a nine game schedule:

- Pod A and Pod B plays Pod C and Pod D in alternation across four years, 6 games
- So Pod A plays Pod B every year

- Pod C is split into pairs, playing a pair from Pod D every year, and swapping the other pair from Pod D.

Still prefer single division scheduling playing four fixed rivals, plus one game locked over a four year period and the other eight schools two years on, two years off, which partial CCG game deregulation would allow.

Don't get me wrong, I vastly prefer no divisions as well, just thinks this works better if we must go with divisions.

For the western pods, my preference (and what I used to always put) was the Illinois/Indiana schools together and the western 4 together. Since that gives us of Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Iowa in the same division every other year though, I thought had to balance it a bit more.

Aiming for competitive balance is how they arrived at that Leggings and Liederhosen division nonsense, but if the competitive balance of the more natural East / West divisions is better than the competitive balance of the tick-tock divisions when laid out in the most natural way, that may be signalling that its not so great for the Big Ten after all.