B1G Bowl Lineup Being Diversified

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ESPN Article

The Big Ten plays unquestionably the nation's toughest bowl lineup. The league also plays quite possibly the nation's least diverse bowl lineup.
Delany said the Big Ten met with officials from 10-12 bowl games in November at league headquarters in Park Ridge, Ill. Although Delany's top priorities are figuring out the new division alignment -- with Maryland and Rutgers set to join the league -- and revising the 2014 football schedule, but he hopes to have the bowl lineup, which likely will span the 2014-17 seasons, finalized before the summer.

The Big Ten won't compromise degree of difficulty in the lineup, but Delany understands that a lack of variety can turn off fans interested in traveling to different areas. He attributes part of the bowls' recent attendance/interest problems to a lack of diversity in participating teams.
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Of note, Delaney had mentioned the Pinstripe Bowl as a possible destination. Would frankly like to see this idea dropped and more Texas-area bowls brought in (e.g. Alamo, Cotton)...thoughts?

 
I'm glad to hear of this. The B1G gets such a bad rap come bowl season, and it's not because any of the teams are worse than other teams in the country - it's because our #20 teams are facing other #10 teams. Our unranked teams are facing other ranked teams. Almost every single matchup is usually a huge mismatch, and we wonder why we lose those games.

 
Right now, the B1G plays three games in Florida at pretty much the same time. We could probably lose the Gator Bowl or play it on a different day.

It seems like there use to be much more watchable games prior to Jan 1 than there were this year. I only watched two December bowl games this year.

And they got to get the names under control.... a sponsor name is fine, but when the sponsor is the only name, it bugs me. Why can't it be the Capital One Citrus Bowl?

 
I wanna keep the 3 January 1st SEC games.

Playing in the Bronx in December doesn't seem like fun. I'll pass. We have games in New Jersey now. Ghetto NYC isn't going to add any value for alumni in that area.

I would like the following:

Rose Bowl Game vs Pac-12, 3 SEC games, Holiday Bowl vs Pac-12, and the other 3 vs ACC/Big XII teams in Texas or the southland.

Not hot on playing bowl games in Big Ten territory. Detroit and now NYC are Big Ten cities. Dump Pinstripe and Motor City Bowls.

 
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This is one of my biggest pet peeves of CFB. The B1G has the toughest bowl match ups and most bowl games are home games for the SEC, B12 and likely PAC. The B1G has some popular teams (OSU, MIch) that are an at-large BCS favorite over more deserving teams since they fill seats and hotels rooms. This has a trickle down effect with much lower B1G teams playing higher ranked teams. For example, in 2011 Mich should have been in the Cap 1 bowl instead of the Sugar. As a result we get our #7 team Iowa vs B12 #3 in the Insight and Iowa gets spanked. All these poor match ups lead to the B1G having poor bowl records and the media ripping on the B1G.

I would say 95% of the bowl games for the B1G over the last 10 years have all been with the SEC played in florida or new orleans; B12 teams in Texas and PAC (mainly USC) in LA. All power conferences. SEC gets games vs the BE and bottom feeder ACC teams and throw in a WAC or CUSA here and there.

 
WoodyHayes1951 said:
I wanna keep the 3 January 1st SEC games.

Playing in the Bronx in December doesn't seem like fun. I'll pass. We have games in New Jersey now. Ghetto NYC isn't going to add any value for alumni in that area.

I would like the following:

Rose Bowl Game vs Pac-12, 3 SEC games, Holiday Bowl vs Pac-12, and the other 3 vs ACC/Big XII teams in Texas or the southland.

Not hot on playing bowl games in Big Ten territory. Detroit and now NYC are Big Ten cities. Dump Pinstripe and Motor City Bowls.
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I agree with your thoughts. Every other conference would LOVE to have our three New Years bowls. Don't mess that up. I also like the thought of going after the Holiday vs a PAC-12 team. Great travel destination. Let the SEC and Big12 have the Cotton. The only Bowl in Texas I want for the BIG is the Alamo, again another good travel destination. The problem with bowls is simple, there are now too many. A bowl game used to be a treat for a team, now it's a horrible season if you simply don't make one. This is why fans aren't traveling. If I was the BIG, adding two more teams, I wouldn't add any more bowls to the lineup and consider adding a 7 or 8 win season requirement to going to a bowl. It serves no purpose having a 6-6 team go to a bowl game, get destroyed and lose money in the process, see Purdue. Instead of having more bowls that pay out less, have less bowls that pay out more.

 
MichiganMan said:
pinstripe bowl? forget that. If im traveling im going to warmer weather. If i want to sit in Snow i will stay in Michigan.
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Are you sure you don't want to get shot in the south Bronx tailgating? Sounds exciting

That would actually be an interesting site. 20,000 Iowans walking around South Bronx wearing their Hawkeye gear. Better be packing heat.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
I'm glad to hear of this. The B1G gets such a bad rap come bowl season, and it's not because any of the teams are worse than other teams in the country - it's because our #20 teams are facing other #10 teams. Our unranked teams are facing other ranked teams. Almost every single matchup is usually a huge mismatch, and we wonder why we lose those games.
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This is a great point. But, I would love for us to one year beat the SEC schools and this I feel would get that annual monkey off our backs.

 
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