yes and no. It is the same as 2 divisions of 6 but it makes it easier to schedule the cross division games. In years 1 and 2 Pod a would play home and home against pod c and pod B against pod D. In years 3 and 4 pod A plays D and pod B plays C.
How about this?
Pod A: UH, TT, TCU, BU
Pod B: BYU, OSU, KU, KSU
Pod C: ISU, CINCY, WV, UCF
No need to have 4 pods with 12 teams. Play everyone in your pod annually, three teams from each other pod home and home on a rotating basis.
5 Likes
I dig it!
Iâd be fine with divisionsâUH, Tech, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma State, BYU in the West, Cincinnati, WVU, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, and UCF in the East. The reticence to return to them seems to be the fear of not having the two best teams in the championship game, but you will as often as not, and chances are #5 playing #8 would be no more impactful than #5 playing #11 or #13. With divisions all schools would get two games against Texas schools every two years.
3 Likes
Sam, you just used âimpactfulâ in a sentence. Can âphysicalityâ be far behind? 
2 Likes
You missed â the reticence to returnâ. Looking that up right now.
Nah, âreticenceâ is never used by bloggers and sports media bloviators. ESPN needs to put a limit on how many times âphysicalityâ and âimpactfulâ can be used in one program.
2 Likes
That would be great for us, but three issues:
- BYU should be with Baylor (both schools are talking rivalry)
- ISU should be with the Kansas schools (their main drivable games)
- Oklahoma State vocally wants to be with Texas schools.
-Potential fourth: Texas being its own pod may or may not be an issue for other programs.
A lot of 12 team conferences may be better with three pods, but ours breaks down best either two or four ways but not three.
That would be great for us, but three issues:
- BYU should be with Baylor (both schools are talking rivalry)
- ISU should be with the Kansas schools (their main drivable games)
- Oklahoma State vocally wants to be with Texas schools.
-Potential fourth: Texas being its own pod may or may not be an issue for other programs.
A lot of 12 team conferences may be better with three pods, but ours breaks down best either two or four ways but not three.
The main criteria, as I see it, to keep folks happy, in order of importance:
Kansas and K-State together
Eastern 3 together
TCU-Baylor together
Iowa State with Kansas schools
Oklahoma State with Texas schools
Baylor-BYU together
No âkiddie podâ
TT-oSu together? (I think they want this)
UH-TT together
â after this it gets harder to accommodate
UH-UCF together (Apparently weâre rivals!)
TCU-BYU together (history, lots of Mormons in DFW)
UH-Baylor together
UH-BYU together (lots of Mormons in Houston)
UH-TCU is complicated, because it makes sense to keep Texas schools together but fans of a lot of schools outside Texas have talked about the importance of Houston and DFW and so separating these two in particular makes sense if youâre separating the Texas schools at all. or put another way, almost everyone I know who thinks that we shouldnât put the Texas schools together believe that UH and TCU in particular should be split up. I donât know how the relevant schools feel about this, though.
1 Like
Baylorâs rivals will be the old B12 schools. I doubt very much theyâll care about BYU other than wanting a win.
1 Like
TCU is still their #1, but Baylor folks have been making some ânatural rivalryâ noise since the game was scheduled before all this began (and also. RG3 went there. Hereâs a Sports Illustrated article talking about both us and BYU.
I donât know how they feel about BYU vis-a-vis Tech (interestingly, they donât come up in the SI article at all) or other Big 12 programs, but I think itâs really important that the conference work on encouraging rivalries with the incoming schools specifically. (One of the reasons I believe Kiddie Pod would be a mistake.) And I think if you give Baylor TCU and BYU, theyâre happy enough.
ETA: Apparently BYU fans made a super impression at the homecoming game last year. (about 2:30 in) He does say he expects admin to focus on Texas rivalries over BYu though, when it comes to scheduling.
Three pods increases the complexity of scheduling unnecessarily, remember the KISS principleâŠKeep It Simple Silly.
Have to agree with this.
The break down of the Texas schools will be an interesting discussion. All 4 together is easy, but others may not like it. Then if you split them is it 3-1 or 2-2. With pairs a Tech-UH and BU-TCU works well. If it is 3-1, I think UH gets the 1. Couple reasons: 1) The other three have much more history together and not just the number of games played. 2) As mentioned, to breakup the major metropolitan areas of Houston and DFW.
I think the BU-BYU thing some BU fans are pushing is the excitement of having another very religious school besides themselves.
We have endless opportunities to reopen old wounds and start brand new hate fests. With UT and OU gone, everyone will look for new villains.
Again, would the Baylor v BYU matchup not constitute the ultimate âStone Cold Soberâ rivalry?
1 Like
If Iâm TV networks, I want as many rivalry games as possible. UH could have possible 3-4 rivalry games with Texas schools and Osu annually. Put us in in the East with UCF, UC, WV wonât do us or Tv partners any favors. Those Texas schools gonna effing hate us once we start taking their recruits and beating the s*** out of them.
2 Likes
To put a finer point on it, I think the other three Texas schools may actually view oSu as more of a Texas school than us.
That said, I think the conference probably realizes that between Texas3+oSu and KU-KSU-ISU⊠you start running a real risk of failing to incorporate the new schools. They may well choose to do that, but there are some legitimate reasons not to beyond how we Cougar fans feel about it. I would honestly consider it a signal of weak conference strategic unity. Bad omen.
Are you implying that Baptists donât drink? Au contrair mon ami. Why do you think there are those Baptist drinking jokes like Baptist donât recognize each other in a liquor store. O you always take 2 Baptists golfing with you because if you only bring one he will drink all your beer. I have been drinking with many Baptists and used to go to a Baptist church.
2 Likes
Iâm sure that you could make similar Mormon jokes!
Maybe you could, but Iâve only known a few Mormons in my life and they were all tea totalers, well actually not even that because of no caffeine also. I dated a Mormon Sunday school teacher when I was in high school and she would only drink 7Ups. I think she was all about âsaving meâ but I was all about something else and bailed.
1 Like