If B12 goes to a three-pod system ...

Mods, please provide a puke Emoji for the word "Pods".
 
I am all in for protected rivalries. Each team could have its own three rivalries and play the other teams on a rotating basis.

Here is one option and how an eight-year schedule would look for the clones.

1652971974654.png
 
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Obviously should be...

OLD BIG EIGHT
---
ISU
KU
KSU
OSU

TEXAS
---
Baylor
Houston
TCU
Tech

NEW FRIENDS
---
BYU
Cinci
UCF
WVU

Always play the other three in your pod = 3
Play 3/4 on rotation from the other two = 6
(This would guarantee at least one road game per year in Texas for everybody.)
= 9 conference games

Big 12 championship game are the top two in the conference.
 
Pods won't happen. The new Big 12 will have to all scheduling options available to try to balance schedules every year. This conference will already have an asterisk next to it and pods would be a disaster to try to overcome.
 
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No. I meant that every B12 team gets their own pod except for KU and KSU, who would share one pod.
I was joking. Your statement seemed like it was mocking the pod system which I found funny…..everyone has their own pod. I find the whole realignment era nauseating and detrimental to college sports. The original Big 12 was a great conference for the long haul but ego and greed ****** it up. Now we’re all jaded.
 
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Obviously should be...

OLD BIG EIGHT
---
ISU
KU
KSU
OSU

TEXAS
---
Baylor
Houston
TCU
Tech

NEW FRIENDS
---
BYU
Cinci
UCF
WVU

Always play the other three in your pod = 3
Play 3/4 on rotation from the other two = 6
(This would guarantee at least one road game per year in Texas for everybody.)
= 9 conference games

Big 12 championship game are the top two in the conference.

Not exactly. OSU has been pretty adament they want to have A LOT of Texas exposure for recruiting. I REALLY don't like grouping all the Texas schools together. Putting BYU with Eastern time zone schools make 0.0 sense...

ISU, KSU, KU
OSU, Tech, UH
Cincy, WV, UCF
BYU, TCU, BU

10000% better
 
The end game should be protecting rivalries (ISU and Ku in K-State's case) and having the best two teams in the championship game. How they get there really doesn't matter to me.
 
Last edited:
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How about this:

No out of conference games. Everyone plays everyone = 11 regular season games

Then top 4 go to a conference tournament to decide ultimate conference champ.

8 teams end up with 11 games, 2 play 12, and 2 play 13. Then bowls of course.

I would just love to see the Big 12 say "F--- everyone else. We are only going to play each other. Bedlam be damned, Cy-Hawk be damned. WVU and KU have already sacrificed their rivalry games. All we need is each other."
 
I put together a potential protected rivalry arrangement for a 5-team format. This would be best in an 8 game conference schedule where the other 6 teams are rotated (play everyone else 2 times in 4 years). I have ISU keeping rivalries against the old Big 8 teams, along with the Riot Bros, and Cinci.

Some of these can definitely be shifted around. I had an especially hard time with BYU, WVU, and UCF.

Big 12 5-Rivals Grid.png
 
Looks neat, got a key? I don't follow it...
No real key.

The top part is the "protected rivalry" pairings,
In my scenario our "protected rivalries" are K-State, Kansas and Okie State. (Midwest schools)
Okie State has us, K-State and Houston. (Ag-based and a mini-red river shootout)
BYU has TCU, Baylor and Texas Tech (West and religion)
And so on. These can be changed but the key is each team gets three and they are not in pods.

The bottom part is our conference schedule.
In year one we play everyone except UCF and Houston.
The next year we play everyone except Texas Tech and TCU.
Eight conference games work best for the rotation (assuming we have 12 teams) and opens the door for another non-conference game.
 
I had an especially hard time with BYU, WVU, and UCF.
That is why I stopped at three protected rivalries. For some schools it was easy. For others, I felt like I was forcing rivalries.

By stopping at three and having each team play the remaining schools six times every eight years, it kept mini-rivalries available. Keeping at three protected rivalries also enables back-to-back years for the non-rivalry games to help with some revenge narratives.
 

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