In 1992, the SEC had nothing to go on. They were entering unchartered territory. With the additions of South Carolina and Arkansas, the conference had officially become the country’s first super conference. They were going to host the first college football conference championship game. It must have been an exciting time in the SEC offices. It must have also been frightening.
How the heck do we split these teams up?
I don’t know how it happened or what else they came up with but the SEC came up with the absolutely perfect solution. They split their conference along geographically lines, setting up an East and West division. To maintain the football rivalries that had defined the conference for a century, they allowed each team to have one rival from the other division that they would play every year. It preserved rivals like Alabama/Tennessee, Auburn/Georgia and LSU/Florida that would have infuriated locals if they had been destroyed.
As we stand here in 2010, the SEC is the gold standard in college football and I don’t think you give enough credit to the brilliance of the division splits. Every college football fan knows which teams are in which divisions. They know that Tennessee, Florida and Georgia battle in the East while Auburn, Alabama and LSU battle it out in the West. It makes sense. It’s easy to follow. There’s no confusion.
In fact, the NFL realized the error of their own divisions following expansion – Atlanta in the NFC West, Tampa Bay in the NFC Central, etc. – and realigned the divisions so they made sense geographically. Despite the current atrocity that is the NFC West, no one has ever complained that the NFL’s division didn’t make sense.
The SEC, nearly two decades ago without a map to follow, stumbled upon the key to a divisional setup – geographic concerns meshed with the traditional rivalries. The SEC got it right. And no one since has.
The Big XII came to closest, by splitting its conference between the North, the old Big 8 schools, and the South, the former SWC schools with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Unfortunately, they erred from the beginning but not mandating Oklahoma and Nebraska play every year. In doing so, they destroyed the rivalry that had built the Big 8 and made the Texas/Oklahoma game the conference’s defining rivalry. The constant rotation of the three inter-divisional matchups only further split the divisions apart, creating such a divide that Nebraska and Colorado eventually took their ball and left.
The next super conference to step up to the plate was the ACC, which managed to mess up the divisional split even worse. Those in charge of the ACC, blinded by money, divided the divisions with literally one goal in mind – get Miami to play Florida State in the conference championship game. They ignored rivalries, geography and, quite frankly, common sense.
It’s now the common punch line – try to name who plays in the ACC Coastal division. Or the Atlantic division. It’s practically impossible unless you’re a fan of an ACC school. It made no sense considering the North/South split would’ve been perfect. You have four southern schools – Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech – that have all enjoyed solid rivalries with each other. You have four northern schools – Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Maryland – that are very similar in nature. Split up the four North Carolina schools however you want and, volia, two divisions.
Did that happen? Of course not. Along with the conference’s brain dead decision to have the first few title games in Florida, the title game devolved into a joke. Will anyone forget the painful blimp shots of empty stadiums as Virginia Tech and Boston College – two schools hundreds upon hundreds of miles from Florida – playing what looked like a high school game? This year’s ACC title game in Charlotte finally felt like a real title game – a southern Florida State team playing a northern Virginia Tech team somewhere in the middle. I have to admit I was hoping for the first Florida State/Miami title game to take place in Charlotte but there’s still time.
This brings us to the next conference to come up with divisional splits, and the Pac-12 came close to getting it right. They tried to go north/south but Utah and Colorado, in the South division, are further north on the map than Stanford and California, in the North division. It actually led to a pretty funny Pac-12 map showing Utah and Colorado about 300 miles to the south of where they’re actually located.
The California schools needed to be kept together but commissioner Larry Scott, receiving a lesson in university politics, caved in and gave the Oregon and Washington schools Stanford and Cal. But it’s only created another political issue – namely that the California schools need to play each other every year in football. The nine-game conference schedule will help and it may end up only being a minor issue down the line. Still, it wasn’t perfect.
Of course, nothing compares to the incredible epic fail the Big Ten dropped on the college football world earlier this week. The conference did literally everything wrong – splitting up traditional rivals, coming up with nonsensical names and putting far too much weight on the past success of the programs.
The worst part is that the Big Ten had its divisions perfectly laid out for them thanks to the United States map. The East would’ve been led by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State with Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue rounding it out. The West would’ve been led by Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska with Minnesota, Northwestern and Illinois. The traditional year-end matchups would’ve be retained without fear of a rematch a week later. All important trophy games, with the exception of the Little Brown Jug between Minnesota and Michigan, would’ve remained intact. In short, it made too much sense.
So why did the Big Ten make such a horrific decision to split the conference along some sort of competition line? Because, like the ACC, it’s blinded by the hope of having a Michigan/Ohio State title game. Did Fox fork over a ton of money for the Big Ten championship game to get Michigan/Ohio State? Wouldn’t Nebraska/Ohio State have been just as appealing? Wouldn’t Iowa/Penn State for the title get people going?
The line from the Big Ten was how they wanted Michigan and Ohio State to keep playing for the Rose Bowl, even though it’s not 1960 and it’s not the Big Two anymore. And how would playing for a divisional title lessen the rivalry’s impact at all? Quite the opposite, wouldn’t it increase it? Has Auburn/Alabama suffered? Florida/Tennessee? Texas/Oklahoma?
Look to the NFL, does the Pats/Colts rivalry mean any less because they don’t play in the Super Bowl. Did the 49ers/Cowboys playoff games in the 1990s somehow lose something because it wasn’t the Super Bowl? Of course not.
If the stupidity ended there, that would’ve been one thing. The Big Ten decided to actually compound its errors by naming its divisions the Leaders and the Legends. Sometimes, even a wordsmith such as I has no words. What do you say when confronting with tremendous stupidity?
The Big Ten will defend their divisions to death, much like the ACC has unsuccessfully. Though the ACC must be thrilled – their punch line gets replaced by poor souls trying to name the members of the Legends Division.
When the Big Ten convenes next December for its conference title game – indoors, not even at Solider Field where it should’ve been played – the conference will complete its journey toward big bucks and football domination.
The problem is, the SEC already did that and they figured it out 18 years ago. Yet again, the Big Ten is hopelessly chasing its enemy to the south.
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How the heck do we split these teams up?
I don’t know how it happened or what else they came up with but the SEC came up with the absolutely perfect solution. They split their conference along geographically lines, setting up an East and West division. To maintain the football rivalries that had defined the conference for a century, they allowed each team to have one rival from the other division that they would play every year. It preserved rivals like Alabama/Tennessee, Auburn/Georgia and LSU/Florida that would have infuriated locals if they had been destroyed.As we stand here in 2010, the SEC is the gold standard in college football and I don’t think you give enough credit to the brilliance of the division splits. Every college football fan knows which teams are in which divisions. They know that Tennessee, Florida and Georgia battle in the East while Auburn, Alabama and LSU battle it out in the West. It makes sense. It’s easy to follow. There’s no confusion.
In fact, the NFL realized the error of their own divisions following expansion – Atlanta in the NFC West, Tampa Bay in the NFC Central, etc. – and realigned the divisions so they made sense geographically. Despite the current atrocity that is the NFC West, no one has ever complained that the NFL’s division didn’t make sense.
The SEC, nearly two decades ago without a map to follow, stumbled upon the key to a divisional setup – geographic concerns meshed with the traditional rivalries. The SEC got it right. And no one since has.
The Big XII came to closest, by splitting its conference between the North, the old Big 8 schools, and the South, the former SWC schools with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Unfortunately, they erred from the beginning but not mandating Oklahoma and Nebraska play every year. In doing so, they destroyed the rivalry that had built the Big 8 and made the Texas/Oklahoma game the conference’s defining rivalry. The constant rotation of the three inter-divisional matchups only further split the divisions apart, creating such a divide that Nebraska and Colorado eventually took their ball and left.
The next super conference to step up to the plate was the ACC, which managed to mess up the divisional split even worse. Those in charge of the ACC, blinded by money, divided the divisions with literally one goal in mind – get Miami to play Florida State in the conference championship game. They ignored rivalries, geography and, quite frankly, common sense.
It’s now the common punch line – try to name who plays in the ACC Coastal division. Or the Atlantic division. It’s practically impossible unless you’re a fan of an ACC school. It made no sense considering the North/South split would’ve been perfect. You have four southern schools – Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech – that have all enjoyed solid rivalries with each other. You have four northern schools – Virginia, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Maryland – that are very similar in nature. Split up the four North Carolina schools however you want and, volia, two divisions.
Did that happen? Of course not. Along with the conference’s brain dead decision to have the first few title games in Florida, the title game devolved into a joke. Will anyone forget the painful blimp shots of empty stadiums as Virginia Tech and Boston College – two schools hundreds upon hundreds of miles from Florida – playing what looked like a high school game? This year’s ACC title game in Charlotte finally felt like a real title game – a southern Florida State team playing a northern Virginia Tech team somewhere in the middle. I have to admit I was hoping for the first Florida State/Miami title game to take place in Charlotte but there’s still time.This brings us to the next conference to come up with divisional splits, and the Pac-12 came close to getting it right. They tried to go north/south but Utah and Colorado, in the South division, are further north on the map than Stanford and California, in the North division. It actually led to a pretty funny Pac-12 map showing Utah and Colorado about 300 miles to the south of where they’re actually located.
The California schools needed to be kept together but commissioner Larry Scott, receiving a lesson in university politics, caved in and gave the Oregon and Washington schools Stanford and Cal. But it’s only created another political issue – namely that the California schools need to play each other every year in football. The nine-game conference schedule will help and it may end up only being a minor issue down the line. Still, it wasn’t perfect.
Of course, nothing compares to the incredible epic fail the Big Ten dropped on the college football world earlier this week. The conference did literally everything wrong – splitting up traditional rivals, coming up with nonsensical names and putting far too much weight on the past success of the programs.
The worst part is that the Big Ten had its divisions perfectly laid out for them thanks to the United States map. The East would’ve been led by Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State with Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue rounding it out. The West would’ve been led by Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska with Minnesota, Northwestern and Illinois. The traditional year-end matchups would’ve be retained without fear of a rematch a week later. All important trophy games, with the exception of the Little Brown Jug between Minnesota and Michigan, would’ve remained intact. In short, it made too much sense.
So why did the Big Ten make such a horrific decision to split the conference along some sort of competition line? Because, like the ACC, it’s blinded by the hope of having a Michigan/Ohio State title game. Did Fox fork over a ton of money for the Big Ten championship game to get Michigan/Ohio State? Wouldn’t Nebraska/Ohio State have been just as appealing? Wouldn’t Iowa/Penn State for the title get people going?
The line from the Big Ten was how they wanted Michigan and Ohio State to keep playing for the Rose Bowl, even though it’s not 1960 and it’s not the Big Two anymore. And how would playing for a divisional title lessen the rivalry’s impact at all? Quite the opposite, wouldn’t it increase it? Has Auburn/Alabama suffered? Florida/Tennessee? Texas/Oklahoma?
Look to the NFL, does the Pats/Colts rivalry mean any less because they don’t play in the Super Bowl. Did the 49ers/Cowboys playoff games in the 1990s somehow lose something because it wasn’t the Super Bowl? Of course not.
If the stupidity ended there, that would’ve been one thing. The Big Ten decided to actually compound its errors by naming its divisions the Leaders and the Legends. Sometimes, even a wordsmith such as I has no words. What do you say when confronting with tremendous stupidity?
The Big Ten will defend their divisions to death, much like the ACC has unsuccessfully. Though the ACC must be thrilled – their punch line gets replaced by poor souls trying to name the members of the Legends Division.
When the Big Ten convenes next December for its conference title game – indoors, not even at Solider Field where it should’ve been played – the conference will complete its journey toward big bucks and football domination.
The problem is, the SEC already did that and they figured it out 18 years ago. Yet again, the Big Ten is hopelessly chasing its enemy to the south.
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