Proposal for the PAC12 and B1G

A few years ago there was an arraignment proposed for these two conferences to schedule inter-conference games on an annual basis. While the Utah/Michigan pairing happened, the idea never took off. This needs to be revisited.

My suggestion is to make this a formal agreement between the 2 conferences, with the conferences working jointly on schedules. Ideally, they would take the national rankings for the schools from the prior year and pair the teams up the following year accordingly (i.e. 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, etc.). These games would be scheduled throughout the season instead of just at the beginning of the season.

Scheduling these games at neutral sites (Las Vegas and Chicago or New York) would take care of any concerns about a team being shorted on a home game. Perhaps you could pair these games up as double headers, one early game in the East and a later game in the West, and offer them as a package deal to the media outlets. This package would be separate from either conference’s individual media deals. This will provide an inventory of interesting inter-regional games and the conferences could split the proceeds. Having the games in fixed neutral locations will reduce production costs and perhaps even get incentives from the participating venues.

The PAC would need to add 2 more teams, but with the value-add of this new media package, they could focus more on the overall value to the conference vs the value add of an individual team. This would make it viable to look at a pairing like Kansas and Kansas St or an Iowa St…all schools that would meet the academic and cultural profile of PAC schools, but may not be football powerhouses. Having grown up in Wisconsin, I certainly would have tuned into a Ohio St vs USC game before watching an Alabama vs Texas game, and I think that would hold true for most fans in these regions.

What do you think? Shoot holes in the idea!

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I won’t shoot holes in your scenario. I’d rather present my own. If you throw out conference affiliation and just look at a formation of a higher classification.

Just create a four division league that spans the country. Each division would consist of 11 teams which would guarantee balanced home/road schedules. Allow two “preseason” games to allow for bodybag or historic rivalry games.

An eight team playoff at the end of the regular season.