Coaches Hot Seat In Yosemite National Park – Yes, You Must Go to Yosemite If You Have Never Been… – Big Ten + Nebraska Conference Alignment and Championship Game Proposal – We Would Go Conventional…As In the Way the SEC Divided Itself Up…Geographically With A Line Drawn Right Down the Middle
With Conference Media Days underway that means it is time for Coaches Hot Seat to go on vacation and often to the backcountry and this year several of us here at CHS are/have been in Yosemite National Park and in the Sierra-Nevada Mountains.
Yes, there are some people in Yosemite that walk by the Coaches Hot Seat RV with a large-screen TV sticking out the side with it tuned into SEC Media Days and mutter something under their breath about “John Muir would not be thrilled with us” watching conference media days in the backcountry but we say the Hell with them! One particular granola-eating, Prius-driving. Tofu-eating Candy Ass walked by the CHS RV and popped off with something about watching college football (a replay of a game for 30 years ago) with all of the “beauty around you” to which we could only say…
“Did you see the way that QB ran that option play? Now that is a thing of beauty! Would you like us to get you a beer, because we have 6 different kinds in the 3 refrigerators in the RV and if you like you can go inside and watch Brideshead Revisited on one of the 4 TVs inside the RV!”
No, that comment wasn’t received well either!
Yes, if you have never been to Yosemite National Park and the surrounding Sierra-Nevada Mountains you MUST GO in your lifetime. Here are some videos about Yosemite National Park from our good friend Doug McConnell of Open Road TV:
Big Ten + Nebraska Conference Alignment
With the Big Ten set to meet how to divvy up their conference and talk about a site for the Big Ten Championship Game (Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis Jimmy and keep it there) it looks to us that the Big Ten might be considering some “different” type plans to try and weight the conference based upon the historical play of schools, but we believe the Big Ten would be better served long-term to just divide their conference the same way the SEC does. The Big Ten does not have the issues that the Pac-10 is now facing with all the Pac-10 schools wanting to play in the Southern California area each year and thus we believe the Big Ten should draw a line down through the conference’s area and go with it.
If Jimmy Delany and the Big Ten folks gave Coaches Hot Seat a call (not going to happen!) we would recommend the following to divide up the Big Ten Conference:
Eastern
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Western
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Northwestern
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Some folks might say that with the above set-up the Big Ten’s Eastern Division would thus be heavily weighted over the Western Division, but if one looks at the past 25 years Big Ten champions, not just recent history, that is not the case…
2009 – Ohio State
2008 – Ohio State, Penn State
2007 – Ohio State
2006 – Ohio State
2005 – Ohio State, Penn State
2004 – Iowa, Michigan
2003 – Michigan
2002 – Iowa, Ohio State
2001 – Illinois
2000 – Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue
1999 – Wisconsin
1998 – Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin
1997 – Michigan
1996 – Northwestern, Ohio State
1995 – Northwestern
1994 – Penn State
1993 – Ohio State, Wisconsin
1992 – Michigan
1991 – Michigan
1990 – Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State
1989 – Michigan
1988 – Michigan
1987 – Michigan State
1986 – Michigan, Ohio State
1985 – Iowa
Big Ten Champions/Co-Champions Last 25 Years
Eastern Division
Outright Conference Championships – 10
Co-Conference Championships – 10
Western Division
Outright Conference Championships – 4
Co-Conference Championships – 7
With Nebraska being added to the Big Ten and to the new Western Division the Huskers add a lot of firepower to that side of the conference and if Nebraska had been playing in the Big Ten in recent years they would have won their share of conference titles that would have added to the above conference championship numbers.
Besides dividing the Big Ten Conference geographically we would also have….
Each team would play 8 conference games each year playing against the 5 teams in their division and 3 teams in the other division although we wouldn’t be opposed to moving to a 9-game conference schedule if that would generate more $$$$$$ for the schools.
It really is too bad that the Big Ten didn’t go ahead and move to a 14-team conference by adding Missouri and Rutgers which would have been in the Western and Eastern Divisions of the Big Ten respectfully. With Missouri and Rutgers added to the Big Ten, the conference could have moved to a 9 game conference schedule and have had an ever stronger conference than they have now. Still, the Big Ten has a very nice collection of teams right now and adding Nebraska in the west will make the Big Ten regular season great entertainment and will set-up some great Big Ten Championship Games in the future (at Lucas Oil Stadium!)
Now that we are back at work in our days jobs we will back to the Analysis of the 2010 Head Coaching Changes soon…..
