Big Ten coaches favor 8 conference games
An informal poll of Big Ten coaches on their weekly teleconference revealed one unsurprising fact — all of them would like to stick with an eight-game schedule.
“I’d probably stick with eight,” Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.
“I like having eight conference games, balanced four and four,” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said.
“Do I have a vote?” Illinois coach Ron Zook said. “I think most of us would probably prefer to stay at eight. I think they already said we’re going to nine.”
Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said before the season that conference athletic directors are looking at going to a 9-game conference schedule, maybe in 2015.
The move gives fans more of what they want — conference showdowns — and gives the league an even more marketable TV package.
“The trend to go towards nine has been out there because of the difficulty of getting some non-conference games,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know where we’re headed yet.”
The Big Ten was chastised a bit in the media last week for having a “cupcake” week with matchups against teams from the MAC and FCS schools.
A lot of coaches like those “cupcake” games to prepare for the conference schedule.
“I think an 8-game league schedule is tough enough, especially when so many of our football teams are playing tough out-of-conference games,” Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. “I think you want to grow your football teams and some of the games early in the season give you an opportunity to grow.”
Plus, the seasons when a team has five league road games, it will be forced to have three home games to get enough ticket revenue to run its athletic department. And it’s hard to bring a BCS-conference team into town if you don’t offer a home-and-home deal.
“I know fans want to see us play somebody every single weekend,” Dantonio said. “You just play the cards that you’re dealt with.”
Regardless of their opinions, most coaches said they think the nine-game conference schedule is inevitable.
“It keeps the money in the league; keeps from spending outrageous sums to bring teams in,” Zook said. “I think that’s the direction we’re going, and I don’t think there’s anything us coaches can do about it.”
“It’d be different if coaches had the say,” Penn State coach Joe Paterno said. “But we don’t have anything to say about it. It’s the a.d.’s and Delany and college presidents. They are going to make the decision.”
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