Big 10 a model for new Pac 12 Zipper with "protected rivalry games"
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Sep 1, 2010 5:13 PM PDT
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PrintAccording to the Sporting News, here is the way the new Big 10 with 12 members will schedule:
"For now, each team will play all five teams in its division once as well as its protected rival every year. The other two games will be a rotation of the other five teams in the opposite division that is not the protected rival. Delany did say the league is looking into adding a ninth conference game, but that change wouldn't come until 2015 so teams can satisfy existing non-conference agreements. "
Michigan will play its protected rival, Ohio State, the last game of the regular season.
Seems like it might work for a model for the expanded Pac12 with a "zipper" plan and protected rivals.
Here is the link.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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Not good enough
The “protected rival” system in such a format still doesn’t guarantee we play Cal and Stanford every year, which in my opinion, is a deal-breaker.
in a 9 game schedule
there could be 2 protected rival games.
But then again – there may still be a South division with all CA teams according to Wilner
I should be working right now...
Yep, and it should be a deal breaker for the norcal schools as well
I have an partially completed draft of a post looking at this in more depth,. but basically the UCLA and $c games are significant attendance (and therefore $$) boosters for Cal and Stanford athletics.
formerly bruinhoo
No surprise
Given the fact that the only place you’ll find more UCLA and U$C alums outside of Southern California is the Bay Area.
Yep
It is a pretty big jump though (~12,000/game boost for Cal, independent of the overall average attendance or Cal’s own performance).
formerly bruinhoo
I'm sure both NorCal schools are on board
I know both schools are aware that many of us go to games and buy tickets through their schools (hello CTO, get on this so we can send our ticket orders through you and not them), since both Cal and Stanford have contacted me about buying tickets to both football and basketball games when UCLA is in town. At the least, their ticketing people know that NorCal Bruins are willing to show up regardless and will boost attendance (and revenue).
If all the California schools form a block on this issue, we should be able to name our terms, especially since we are the ones in control of the Southern California media market.
Certainly enough of a financial interest for the Cali schools to come up with something
Something as simple as putting all the CA schools together, or even allowing for two protected rivalry games/year would take care of this particular issue.
No kidding re. the Cal and Stanford ticketing emails. In fact, I got an email from Stanford’s athletic department yesterday informing me that I needed to update my contact preferences. Seriously, I hear from them more often than I do from UCLA.
formerly bruinhoo
Best Case
Is zipper with everyone plays people in their division with a guarantee rival game along with 3 other games from the other division.
I still think it is dumb to have a rematch one week later.
Unless they set up some controversial moment each year where the referee somehow gets knocked out and a fan runs in and uses the steel chair to prevent a potential gamewinning touchdown and the referee doesn’t see it…
Sorry
Late season battle (especially season ending) between the Yanks and Redsox (if playoff spots are on the line) doesn’t get diminished by eventual matchups in playoffs. And as a Yankee fan I follow this rivalry closely enough.
I would be strongly against a mid-season matchup because it would create huge possibilities of letdowns. A mid-season matchup between UCLA and Southern Cal would be ridiculous and it would be insulting to the game.
I agree with Nestor's Answer not his Logic
Nestor, you’re a Yankee Fan?!?!?
But BB, I think rivals need that game at the end of the year. It makes the last game important even if the season is over or the game is meaningless for standings. I think that is the most important thing to preserve and agree 100% with Nestor.
I don’t think playing $UC back to back is bad. Playing for the title and beating them would make it even better, if that is possible.
I wasn't being absolute about it
as I intimated, WWE seems to manage rematches ok…
But a couple of things on your example – the game would never have ‘playoff implications’ on the line as such if we are in separate divisions. Late season Red Sox – Yankees games have continued to have importance even when they are both locked into the playoffs as AL East winner and Wildcard because of home field, right to play the weaker opponent, choose preferred schedule etc. There would be no conference championship game implications of us against them. But in fairness there could be BCS implications if either of us was a national title contender.
To be honest, [in a change from my previously stated opinion] I’m leaning towards having them in our division, beating them on the last day of the season to decide which of us goes to the conference championship game, and beating down some Northern team to win the conference. Beating them twice would be great, losing twice would suck, and splitting the games would be unsatisfying. Playing them on the last game of the season as an elimination game would be good, I think. Win for a chance at further glory, or lose and lick your wounds (while rooting for someone from the North to beat $C the following week).
The other thing is – there was always something I couldn’t work out about our online interactions, but the fact that you are a Yankees fan suddenly makes everything clear – I come from Old England but I happen to support that baseball team from New England…
by britishbruin on Sep 2, 2010 10:58 AM PDT up reply actions
The UCLA-Southern Cal game needs to be our last game
It is our tradition and we are not going to be happy if that changes. Anyone who has a problem don’t understand or appreciate the history of this rivalry and what this game means for us.
I think a fair compromise on this issue
Would be to move the UCLA-SC game back to it’s former home on the weekend of my birthday (November 17), since it used to always be right around there. Both teams would agree to take Thanksgiving weekend off and this way it’s the last regular season game for both teams, but the week off makes it so we can’t possibly play on consecutive weekends.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 2, 2010 11:47 AM PDT up reply actions
Actually that's even better
That’s when we had the games when we were in college. The 3rd Saturday of every November. It was perfect chance to rub it in their faces when we used to go home for Thanksgiving.
Is that still feasible
with the 12-game schedule? It might mean no byes in the middle of the season, which could be tough.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Call it a hunch
but I think we’re going to see the season extended by a week. One, teams are going to be hard-pressed for bye weeks with more and more conference title games, and also it will allow for a greater spread of games, meaning more big time TV games and the revenue that comes with it. Some weeks there might be three big games from one conference and while one can be during the day and one at night, one gets left out, but if you add a week you spread those games out a bit more. If they don’t do it, they should.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 2, 2010 2:26 PM PDT up reply actions
Eh, I doubt it
You’d have to negotiate pretty heavily with the NFL at that point, since a lot of the NFL contracts have been written to give out Thursday/Saturday TV rights to various stations based on the end of the college football season (and thus, those games not having competition with anything).
Not saying it’s impossible, but it wouldn’t be as simple as the NCAA extending the season by a week.
Two things
1) I think they would add the week on at the front end and start the weekend before Labor Day.
2) I know that it used to be the law and I’m not sure if it is, but I think that the NFL cannot play Saturday games when the NCAA is and that the ball is 100% in the NCAA’s court. Back in the 70’s when the NFL went to congress and courts about their blackout rule that used to blackout all home games and ended up with their current rule of blacking out non-sold out home games, there were some stipulations that the NFL could not play Fridays and Saturdays during the high school and NCAA seasons. I don’t know if that rule stuck like the blackout one did, but I’d be curious about it.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Sep 2, 2010 6:57 PM PDT up reply actions
Yeah, except
We only had an 11 game schedule back then. Now we have 12. Hence the need for the extra week. Would be great if the game could get moved back to that point but it would necessitate an even earlier start to the season, which would be bad considering UCLA’s on the quarter system and students basically miss two games already.
Hey, my birthday's on Nov. 15...
If we get the rivalry game that weekend, my family can restart the tradition of celebrating my birthday on the day of the UCLA-$C game in the odd years.
"The true athlete should have character, not be a character."- John Wooden
wait...
are you saying that you would be opposed to a same division format, that has a championship game against someone else as our last game? Or are you fine with playing them last game of the regular season and then playing someone else in a championship game?
and on the positive side, from your perspective
the Big 10 precedent is that the commissioner wants one thing, and the alumni pressure caused another outcome.
I have no problem having a championship game against someone else
But the last regular season game either late November or early December needs to be against the school over there.
Yes
I am not as concerned about the zipper, championship game or other division formats as I am about playing $UC the last weekend and the last weekend remaining rivalry weekend for the PAC-XX. I think that is priority number one and any moving of that is unacceptable.
There are other priorities as well, but this is number 1.
Agreed DC
The PAC 10 has a rich set of real rivalries. I think that everyone should end their season (last conference game) against their natural rival (assuming Utah and Colorado become rivals).
I was at the “The Game”….5 laterals and all…when I was in grad school at CAL. The Bay Area, Washington and Oregon rivalry games are just as intense as UCLA-the evil empire.
I would love to keep the Bay Area schools every year as well as a number have suggested.
So maybe Zipper plus rivalry and we add region priority! Doubt the northern schools would be happy with playing a Southern CA team only every so often.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Sep 3, 2010 10:17 AM PDT up reply actions
regular season baseball battles aren't diminished
due to playoff games because no one cares about regular season baseball games anyway (sorry, couldn’t resist).
I think that baseball is a fundamentally different animal than college football,and to be honest I do think that CFB rivalry games get diminished in these scenarios (as a LOT of people have said they think will happen for Michigan-Ohio St).
I would presume that it’d be last week no matter what, just like the Big Ten did with Michigan-Ohio St, though you never know what decision-makers suddenly decide they think is wise.
I'm a little surprised that no one has taken the easy shot at the "zipper" schedule
The “zipper” business is a joke, but no one has made any remarks about Scott’s zipper being down or his fly open or whatever. Don’t forget, Bruins, when the Emperor (or Commissioner) has no clothes, having a zipper doesn’t change the absurdity of the situation.
interestingly (to me, and likely no-one else)
In English English (as opposed to some of the common post-colonial dialects of the language), you refer to a “zip” not a “zipper”, and to someone having their “flies” undone in the plural, not their “fly” in the singular.
by britishbruin on Sep 3, 2010 10:31 AM PDT up reply actions
one other zipper issue
is figuring out who goes in which division. As one example, I’m guessing whichever LA or AZ team is in the Wazzu division will be pissed, given how unpleasant November games in Pullman can be (unless you get a “no November road games” guarantee), though then again, by adding Colorado and Utah snow games may start to become a regular occurrence for everyone. Fun times…
Not sure how it is in Boulder, but I wouldn't worry too much about snow games in SLC.
They happen, but not regularly.
Mostly, it’s just flurries or a mix of rain and snow. The worst month for snow in Salt Lake is January and regular season football is far over by then.
In fact, the last major snow game I remember came in 2007 and it wasn’t in November. It was in September and the Utes played Utah State at Rice-Eccles Stadium. It was extremely cold and probably the worst experiences of my life. But again, that’s rare.
The worst is the cold. It does get cold here in November. I remember in 2008, when we went undefeated, we played TCU the Thursday after that presidential election. It was a blackout game and it was one of the coldest games I’ve ever attended.
So I think you’ll mostly be okay.
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