It’s time for the Big 10 to change tradition. It used to be that no Big 10 team played after the Ohio State-Michigan game just before Thanksgiving. However, this concept has been slowly changing as more teams are breaking tradition. During the Big Ten media day on Monday, there was chatter about adding an open date during the season to allow for an additional game to be played after Thanksgiving to help reduce the long layoff between the conference’s regular season and the BCS bowl games.
There are two ways to handle this–either you add a team to the conference or just play another team after Thanksgiving. Some teams have already elected the latter. Illinois is playing two games after Thanksgiving (Cincinnati the day after & Fresno State on December 5th) while Wisconsin added Hawaii on December 5th.
Coach Brewster wants to see an expansion to 12 teams with a conference championship game in December (similar to the other major conferences).
Until now, only time will tell.
Last season the Big 10 went 1-6 in bowl games due, in part, to the lag time between the regular season and the bowl games, and due to the bowl games being road games. The Big 10 teams traveled the longest distance for their bowl games.
Ohio State played Texas in Glendale, Arizona
Penn State played USC in Pasadena, California
Michigan State played Georgia in Orlando, Florida
Iowa played South Carolina in Tampa, Florida
Minnesota played Kansas in Tempe, Arizona
Northwestern played Missouri in San Antonio, Texas
Wisconsin played Florida State in Orlando, Florida
Now this isn’t to suggest that playing these games on the road is the reason the Big 10 played poorly, but it certainly was a factor coupled with the long delay between the regular season and the bowl season. To play strong and competitive, the Big 10 must play at least one game in December. For some teams, there was a 6 week layoff. That is too long to keep up the intensity before a major bowl game.
