Evaluating how newly expanded Big Ten can best adapt to division-less conference format

The Big Ten finally expands to 18 teams in the 2024 season, adding the four new schools from the Pac-12. With that, the conference’s scheduling model, based on divisions, has also gone away as one of the changes coming to the conference moving forward.

With the new teams coming into the Big Ten and a division-less format for the conference schedule, teams are going to have to adapt to changes. Those changes are something that On3’s JD PicKell evaluated while making an appearance on Andy Staples On3.

“I think you have to either lean into more of who you are from an identity standpoint,” PicKell said. “Like, you just said it, Wisconsin they were that ground and pound. Now they’ve got Phil Longo, a little bit more modern for lack of a better term. If you’re Minnesota, can you out-bully a Michigan? Can you out-bully an Ohio State and their new brand of defensive football they’re playing? I have a harder time believing that. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but I have a harder time believing that that can be your path to winning a conference title, which I have to imagine is their ultimate goal.”

Basically, a Big Ten West team that used to be able to make the conference title game a certain way isn’t going to be able to do that anymore. There’s too many good teams with different styles of play on the schedule now.

“So, I do think you have to adapt, whether it’s philosophically, whether it’s the kind of player you recruit, you’ve got to kind of be more versatile today in modern college football because of who you have to play, and it’s not just in conference. It’s also from a College Football Playoff perspective as well, and I think that’s a whole other conversation but it’s never been more important to be able to play in different styles, whether ground and pound one week, and being able to throw the ball the next week,” PicKell said.

“I keep ending every single segment of what I’m saying here with, it’s gonna weird because that’s exactly right, it’s going to be weird. It’s going to be weird for a lot of folks both at Minnesota and Iowa.”

Then, Andy Staples jumped in, explaining that this is going to be a challenge across the Big Ten. He used Penn State as an example. The goal used to be the beat Ohio State and while that’s still a goal, it’s no longer the only goal that a team can focus on.

“I was talking to Sean Fitz who works with us at On3, and he made the point that for years Penn State has been trying to build to beat Ohio State. That’s not how it’s going to work now. Yeah, you’ve got to be able to compete with Ohio State, but you’ve also got to compete with what Michigan is now, which is a very ground and pound type team,” Staples said.

“You’ve also got to compete with what Oregon is, which is just an athletically loaded team that’s gonna spread you out and try to score a bunch of points on you, but also is gonna have a bunch of freaks on defense. Then, whatever USC‘s gonna be in the new era of Lincoln Riley hiring a new defensive coordinator, perhaps they have an adequate defense, we’ll see, but we know they’re gonna be good on offense because they’re always good on offense when Lincoln Riley’s the head coach. So, that is going to be a fascinating thing to watch.”