Big Ten/Pac 12 to start interleague games in all sports

bearsfan_51 · 12-28-2011, 10:45 PM

I'm surprised this wasn't posted already.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post?id=42302

Quote:

The significance for football, and it is big, is this: Starting in 2017, the Pac-12 and Big Ten plan to have a full 12-game schedule between the leagues, meaning each Big Ten team would have one Pac-12 team on its schedule every year.

"Rather than go down the road of just trying to add members, we thought this was a way to keep who we were and an increase value for everybody," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany told ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski. "It doesn't mean you can't expand one day. It seems to us this is an intelligent way to get stronger and do so with zero collateral damage."

bearsfan_51 · 12-28-2011, 10:49 PM

A more thorough article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/sp...r=4&ref=sports

JoeJoeBrown · 12-28-2011, 11:49 PM

Wonder if this is the first step towards the rumored b1G/pac12 television station.

Probably the first step to a true super conference.

Smooth Criminal · 12-29-2011, 10:19 AM

I love it. Should help make both conferences out of conference schedules a little better. I'd love OSU to play a strong PAC 12 team and have another good ooc game every year.

JoeJoeBrown · 12-29-2011, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smooth Criminal

I love it. Should help make both conferences out of conference schedules a little better. I'd love OSU to play a strong PAC 12 team and have another good ooc game every year.

Plus the B1G and PAC12 can make the best matchups in the offseason before the new season starts instead of scheduling games years in advance. That concept is huge. Real time schedule balancing for the best matchups.

Really think we notre dame join in some sort of b1G pac12 alliance now as well

Smooth Criminal · 12-29-2011, 03:07 PM

Only problem is gonna be potential rose bowl repeats. Not a big deal, but I know I'd be less excited for the matchup if we'd already seen it.

But getting to see Ohio State matched up with USC or Oregon on a yearly basis does sound awesome.

I always liked the Big Ten/ ACC challenge in basketball, not having th PAC 12 play full schedules in football and basketball brings in even more matchups. I love it.