What Big Ten and Pac 10 Should Look Like

There are literally hundreds of articles about Big Ten Expansion on line today. It is important to ask the question what will the Big Ten look like and mean in two years? First off lets get serious the southern conferences,  ACC, SEC and Big 12 South will continue to have a strong presence and nothing the Big Ten or Pac 10 do will change that calculus. 

There are too many schools in those conferences that have low academic standards for the Big Ten and Pac 10 to compete with. The result is that the two conferences need to see how they continue to play big time football while retaining their academic and athletic traditions.  These are most important. 

Much has been made of Notre Dame entering the Big Ten but in actuality Notre Dame academically and athletically is no where near the level of Michigan, Wisconsin or Northwestern.  It is akin to the PAC 10 admitting BYU which is not as good a school as Stanford or Cal.  So what should the two old conference do? 

The Big Ten should go whole casino.  In the Big East there are three programs that are head an shoulders above the rest; Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.  All three of these schools are academically strong and they have great sports programs including Basketball, and Women's Sports.  The Big Ten ought to add all three of these teams and then create the following divisions;

ALIGNMENT

Big Ten North

Syracuse

Michigan

MSU

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Northwestern

Big Ten South

Ohio State

Penn State

Indiana

Illinois

Purdue

Pittsburgh

Rutgers

This would allow the traditional games to be played and also putting both OSU and Michigan in different divisions would allow them to play twice a year some years.

CHAMPIONSHIP

The Championship game should shift each year from New Jersey's new Meadowlands Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field thus getting the two largest markets in the conference into the game each year. 

PAC 10 Expansion

In tandem with this Big Ten expansion the PAC 10 Ought to approach Texas and Texas A & M to enter the PAC 10.  These two schools fit the PAC 10 in every way and you could then align the PAC 12 in this fashion;

ALIGNMENT

Pac 12 North

Oregon

OSU

Washington

WSU

Stanford

CAL

Pac 12 South

Texas

Texas A&M

USC

UCLA

Arizona

ASU

The new Big Ten and New Pac 12 should then approach the NCAA and propose the following playoff structure;

NEW BOWL STRUCTURE

Each conference has a championship game which serves as a first round of playoffs. Then you have the following bowls as part of a championship round;

Rose- Pac 12 Versus Big Ten

Sugar-SEC Versus Big 12

Orange-ACC Versus Big East

Fiesta-At Large Versus At Large

Cotton-At Large versus at large

After the Bowl Games the two best teams play two weeks later for the national championship.  This would shake things up....