Tag: conference championship games

Is the Big Ten about to make a big change?

One major conference took the first steps today. Are more leagues to follow?

It was back in May that we talked about the Atlantic Coastal Conference having discussions during their annual spring meeting discussing a new scheduling model that would see the conference abandon the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. The NCAA recently repealed a rule mandating conference divisions for any league that wanted to play a conference championship game. Now, divisions are no longer required for championship games. With that rule now removed, the ACC has become the first league to eliminate their conference divisions, starting in 2023.

The new model the ACC has adopted is known as the 3-5 format. That would give each of the league’s 14 full-time member schools three permanent opponents, while the other ten schools would operate on an every other season rotation for ten seasons, five years on and five years off. That would allow a four-year player to play every conference opponent at least once. 

The Big Ten has made vague interest in dropping the conference’s east and west divisions and adopting the same format. That change would not occur though until after the Big Ten and its TV partners have signed a new media rights agreement. That agreement could make the Big Ten the first conference to earn more than $1 billion per year in media rights. 

Hopefully the Big Ten can move quickly and wrap up their negotiations and begin the process of having a division free conference starting in 2024. The ACC has take the first important step and it’s time for the Big Ten to start a trend among the other three major conferences with divisions remaining (Big Ten, SEC, Pac-12) and take that important first step and eliminate divisions in order create a more engaging schedule both for fans and for the conference itself. 

Look below at list of Big Ten Championship Game participants.

Divisions in college football look like a thing of the past

The NCAA oversight committee has proposed removing divisional requirements for conferences with 12 teams or more.

Who knew that when the Big 12 only added TCU and West Virginia more than a decade ago that they’re non-divisional format would become the way of the future in college football?

The Big 12 was on to something.

Meeting this week to discuss various issues, including NIL, the NCAA oversight committee recommended the removal of the divisional format required for conferences with 12 or more teams. The provision would allow conferences to pit their top two teams from the regular season against each other in the conference championship game. It would help conferences avoid what went down in the 2021 season in the Big 10.

Because of the divisional format, the Big 10 championship game featured No. 3 Michigan and No. 12 Iowa. While Iowa was a deserving team, winning the Big 10 West, it left No. 7 Ohio State home to watch. While it could have hurt the Big 10’s chances of getting someone into the playoff if the two-loss Buckeyes had given Michigan a second loss, in other years, having Michigan and Ohio State play twice could provide an avenue where both teams make the College Football Playoff. Similar to what we saw in the SEC last season.

One-loss Alabama went into the SEC championship game and handed No. 1 Georgia its first loss of the season. The two highly-ranked teams were sitting there with one loss, and both were admitted into the College Football Playoff. Though it was played in a divisional format, removing divisions could allow a team to redeem a loss earlier in the season from a divisional foe.

Had Ohio State had just the one loss to Michigan and was able to redeem the loss in the Big 10 title game, there could have been a situation where both teams made the College Football Playoff.

Removing championship game guardrails is considered noncontroversial and will likely be rubber stamped, giving conferences additional flexibility in approving new ways to crown a champion. Most notably, the change would allow conferences to eliminate divisions, an idea that has grown in popularity in recent years. – Shehan Jeyarajah, CBS Sports

The Big 12 hasn’t had divisions since the last wave of realignment that watched Texas A&M, Missouri, Colorado, and Nebraska walk. It had its issues when there wasn’t a championship game, like the season when TCU and Baylor finished tied atop the conference and the Big 12 crowned co-champions. It kept both teams out of the College Football Playoff.

Since reinstating the conference title game, though, the Big 12 has been a fun race through the conference season. The race for the Big 12 title game has gone down to the final week of the season, creating more intrigue for the league.

The Big 12 looks to be heading to a 14-team league in 2023 before Texas and Oklahoma move to the SEC. Allowing the conferences to remain division-less makes a lot of sense for a conference that will have to figure out scheduling with a team in Orlando, Fla. and one in Provo, Utah.

When the Sooners and Longhorns move to the SEC, creating a 16-team conference, removing the divisional format could create some exciting scheduling options and will make the race for the title game even more intriguing.

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College football expert picks and predictions for conference championship week

Our writers pick all of the Power Five and important conference championship games for this weekend.

Every year (and every week of the CFB season) we have a little friendly competition among our writers for world domination when it comes to picking Big Ten and some of the bigger college football games.

We’ll bring you our expert picks and predictions on all the league games against the spread, and straight-up throughout the season. Also, as an added bonus you didn’t know you even craved, we’ll throw in six of the top games across the college football slate for the week. This week though, we’re taking a look at all of the Power Five conference championships and what we might see from Cincinnati in the AAC Championship game.

So let’s get rolling on our last picks before all the bowl games are decided. As a reminder, if there’s an asterisk next to the pick, that means the team will win, but not cover.

EXAMPLE:
– If you think Ohio State will win minus -3.5 over an opponent: OSU
– If you think Ohio State will win outright: OSU
– If you think Ohio State will win, but NOT cover: OSU*

Here are our expert picks for conference championship week, but first, our results after Week 13.

Top news leading into the conference championship games

Weighing in on the biggest news items surrounding the conference championship games Sunday — Tampa Bay at Green Bay and Buffalo at Kansas City.

Sunday is the second-to-last weekend of NFL football, and the date in which two teams will advance to Super Bowl LV (that’s Super Bowl 55 to you and me), scheduled for Feb. 7 in Tampa. The Green Bay Packers host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 3:05 p.m. ET for the NFC championship, and the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Buffalo Bills for the AFC championship at 6:40 p.m.

Our four respective team sites — Packers Wire, Bucs Wire, Chiefs Wire and Bills Wire — have you covered at a specific level, but here are the top news stories from these four teams leading into kickoff.