They surprised everyone at the B1G Media days with their agreement about conference scheduling.... (From a John Canzano article)

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Rob Mullens:

“The hard thing about college football is there’s a whole difference in that some leagues play eight (conference games), some leagues play nine. There is not a ton of head-to-head. You’re left at the end to try to figure out seeding. Those last few spots with 6-7 (teams) in the end, it’s really difficult.”

Mullens continued, “There was one year when I was chair, we had Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio State, and one spot. We went ALL… NIGHT… LONG. It was really hard to differentiate.”

James Franklin:

“Everybody has to play the same number of conference games,” Franklin said. “This ain’t this hard. Everybody should be playing eight, or everybody should be playing nine.”

“You’re asking a group of people to get into a room and give us the best 12 or 16 teams, and you’re not comparing apples to apples,” Franklin said. “… then you get these media members that we know are not true national media members, they’re homers to certain conferences, we have them in the Big Ten, other people have them as well. And then they get on and pound the table about people’s schedules, you’re not comparing the same thing.”

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It is great to see the conference commissioner, a major AD, and a HC in the conference coming out strong about this, and it is crucial that we are united with this issue.

James Franklin

And it appears that the bombastic Indiana HC chimed in--as he can do....

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Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, known for making splashes with a microphone in his face, leaned into the controversy at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday. Asked why cancelling the home-and-home with Virginia is good for Indiana, Cignetti took it as an invitation to fire off a shot at a rival conference.

“We figured we would just adopt the SEC scheduling philosophy, you know,” Cignetti said. “Some people don’t like it. I’m more focused on those nine conference games. Not only do we want to play nine conference games and have the 4-4 Playoff format. We want to have play-in games to decide who plays in those playoffs.”

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Curt Cignetti

39 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

"and you’re not comparing apples to apples,”

How many people say that, and not. "it's apples to oranges"/

According to Canzano, the B1G Media Days statements from the coaches and the ADs were all 'scripted.' Of course, this wasn't the case in the ACC, B12, and the SEC, where everyone supported a 5-11 format on their own volition, right?

As to 8 versus 9 conference games, before the SEC get together, Brian Kelly spoke out in favor of nine games and a B1G/SEC football challenge. You did not hear this from Brian in Atlanta.

The reporting on a new PO format, including Canzano's takes, has been big-time biased and not in favor of the B1G.

Sankey and other SEC honks, complaining about not wanting the SEC to be limited to 4 PO spots, is horse hockey! Look at the top 16 in the committee's 2024 final and decisive poll, the SEC would have had 4 AQs and 2 at-large teams in a B1G-format 16-team PO field.

The B12's Brett Yormark wants a 5-11 format if the ACC and the SEC play nine conference games. How often have you seen this reported?

Petitti has said that the B1G will seriously consider the 5-11 format if everyone plays nine conference games and the committee process is changed to be far more objective.

Tony Petitti will not be humiliated and hounded into changing the B1G's preferred PO format. Hats off to Tony!

Terrific comments from Rob, who has been in the arena. Franklin was spot on, including calling out Notre Dame. Every PO contender should be in a conference, playing the same number of conference games, and either all contenders play a conference champ game if they so qualify, or no one plays a conference champ game.

Coming into the semifinal game against Notre Dame, Penn State had played 15 games, 12 versus P4 opponents, 13 if PO contender Boise State counts as a quality opponent. Notre Dame had played 14 games, 10 against P4 opponents. Unlike Notre Dame, in 2024 Penn State could not schedule four G5 opponents.

Having everyone play the same number of conference games is not radical; it's the norm.