Found this on the Penn State sports message board which, in turn, was taken from the Athletic. Post was written by djones@pennlive.com.

"Scott Dochterman of The Athletic inferred quite logically that FOX is not at all interested in a new B1G West Division that would impede USC and UCLA from playing Big Ten powers Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State more than once every four years. The TV folks want the big ratings splash games as often as possible."

I buy that. The whole point of this exercise is to pull in the big draws to play each other, and play the also-rans as little as possible.

(07-06-2022 08:23 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I buy that. The whole point of this exercise is to pull in the big draws to play each other, and play the also-rans as little as possible.

The only problem with that is that the more the high end teams play each other, the more losses they will take. If they don't get to play the bottom feeders as often, they don't get to pad their record with them.

If they mess around and wind up with a couple of two/three loss teams in the conference championship, both the fans and the TV people are going to be peeved.

(07-06-2022 09:05 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  

(07-06-2022 08:23 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I buy that. The whole point of this exercise is to pull in the big draws to play each other, and play the also-rans as little as possible.

The only problem with that is that the more the high end teams play each other, the more losses they will take. If they don't get to play the bottom feeders as often, they don't get to pad their record with them.

If they mess around and wind up with a couple of two/three loss teams in the conference championship, both the fans and the TV people are going to be peeved.

when you have a conference of 18 especially like the Big 10 where they are PLENTY of teams that are happy to go 6-6 make a bowl game (or do worse) and collect a check you do not need to worry about some of your top teams facing off every 4 years or so