(10-01-2016 11:21 AM)jhn31 Wrote: They could try something innovative and do a 7-game conference schedule (4-1-2) and require 3 high-profile non-conference games or something like that...
that is what I have advocated for all along
Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, WVU, ISU
OU, OkState, TCU, KU, KSU
with a fixed crossover game between the above and below teams
this keeps all the major rivalry games in tact, it is pretty balanced and it gets teams into Texas frequently
even with this the Big 12 would still have every team play every other team more frequently than any other conference and it reduces the chances of a repeat in the CCG down to near the same % as the PAC 12 playing 9 conference games and it would give the Big 12 the best POSSIBLE conference winning % of any other conference
as for the "number of P5 games" argument the Big 12 currently has every team playing as many or more P5 games as a number of SEC SEC SEC teams and the reality is there are several Big 12 teams that need to concern themselves with just getting some wins Vs scheduling for the playoffs any time soon
so really they would need about 8 or 10 additional "P5" type games at most
if they had an agreement for SCHEDULING ONLY with BYU for BYU to play half the conference every two years that would make it even better and WVU would be allowed to opt out of the BYU games if they wanted to schedule teams on the east coast where they recruit more heavily
they actually did play BYU this year along with MU so they will play 11 "P5" games this year so again the Big 12 does not have an issue with "number of P5 games" they have an issue with beating up on each other too much and driving down the potential for several teams to ever get traction and improve to even make a bowl game
if the ACC is forced to go to 2 P5 OOC games by ESPN (ESPN wanting to force them to 9 conference games) well that is more available P5 games right there especially for WVU and with the Big 10 and others moving away from D1-AA games that means they either pay MAC, Sunbelt, AAC, MWC and CUSA a lot of money for a one and done or a 2 for 1 as those conferences try and hold out for a bigger payment or it means some Big 10 teams realize they can do just as well financially scheduling a P5 home and home with other similar lesser programs in their respective conferences
there are Big 10 teams out there that will not see a massive financial windfall from buying in a game for $1.25 million or more
Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and Maryland as examples are only bringing in $10 to $16 million in ticket sales from ALL events and with basketball schools like Indiana especially that tells you that 6 or 7 football games a year are not bringing in more than $1 to $1.5 million or so a game if that so at some point you reach the limits on what you can pay for a buy in game every year
