This discussion pretty much proves my point.
No matter how you attempt to manage it, scheduling for a conference with 16 teams is going to leave a large group of fans unhappy. It's a bad number. It's just too big. So is 14. 12 isn't quite as bad but 8,9,10 is ideal.
Fundamentally, I agree. With a nine game schedule like we have now, I think that a 10-team conference would be best. Then you'd play each of your nine conference-mates once each.
I thought that 12 teams with eight or nine conference games was not too bad. You have five division-mates that you play every year and either three or four crossovers. Three on an eight-game schedule works nicely because it is half so you play the non-divisional teams twice every four years. With nine games you can either add fixed cross-overs or balance schedules or both and still play every team twice in four years.
I really don't like the 14 team model. Even with nine games, you only have two three cross-overs each year which means it takes longer to rotate through the non-divisional teams. Then, on top of that, we decided to do this schedule balancing thing so that it just "feels like" my team never plays certain B1G-W teams anymore. Here are tOSU's most recent and next games against each B1G-W team:
- Northwestern: Last was 2016 Home, scheduled in 2019 Away
- Nebraska: Last was 2018 Home, scheduled in 2019 Away, 2020 Home, 2021 Away
- Wisconsin: Last was 2016 Away, scheduled in 2019 Home
- Illinois: Last was 2017 Home, scheduled in 2020 Away
- Iowa: Last was 2017 Away, scheduled in 2020 Home
- Minnesota: Last was 2018 Home, scheduled in 2021 Away
- Purdue: Last was 2018 Away, scheduled in 2021 Home
So the gaps now are two years, for Ohio State:
- Missed NU and UW in 2017 and 2018
- Will miss IL and IA in 2018 and 2019
- Will miss PU and MN in 2019 and 2020
With my 16-team, 4-pod, 4-group model we'd have the exact same gaps but we'd play, I think, a better group of six every-year opponents.
It isn't perfect. Like you, I prefer a 10-team conference with nine games or a nine-team conference with eight games (like the ACC used to be). That said, I'm trying to be realistic about two things:
- We aren't going back to the pre-Penn State 10-team BigTen of 1953-1992. It just isn't happening.
- As @847badgerfan and I noted above, the fact that the "1G" in the current B1G logo looks a lot like a "16" can't be coincidental.
Basically, I'm operating under the assumption that we ARE going to 16 teams whether I like it or not. Taking that as a given, I think that the best scheduling model with a 16-team conference is a 4-pod, 4-group model where you play your three pod-mates and your three group-mates every year. I'd also add that I would make all or most of those six teams your twice-a-year basketball rivals as well. I want it to "feel like" a team is in a conference with those six every-year football opponents.