Big Ten/SEC Challenge?

[Megatron]

In NCAA Football, during the season there's always talk about which conference is the best. While right now it's pretty much assumed nationwide that the SEC is head and shoulders above everyone else, there are some talks here and there about the Big 10 possibly overtaking them soon with the addition of another naitonal power in Nebraska and the apparent resurgence of Michigan, along with Ohio State, Iowa, and Wisconsin already being at the top of the conference.

While it is not that important to find out who has the 'best' conference, what I believe what would be an interesting series is like that of the Big 10-ACC challenge in college basketball, where you would put every team in two conferences against each other, and that would help 'settle' the argument of the best conference, at least for a year. Not only would there be bragging rights between Big 10 and SEC fans, but you'd have 4-5 perrenial big games just between the two conferences each year.

Just to provide an example, this would be an 'outline' of sorts as to how the games would go next year, if they were to happen.

Big Ten #1 @ SEC #1
SEC #2 @ Big Ten #2
Big Ten #3 @ SEC #3
SEC #4 @ Big Ten #4
Big Ten #5 @ SEC #5
SEC #6 @ Big Ten #6
Big Ten #7 @ SEC #7
SEC #8 @ Big Ten #8
Big Ten #9 @ SEC #9
SEC #10 @ Big Ten #10
Big Ten #11 @ SEC #11
SEC #12 @ Big Ten #12

Going by these 'brackets', this would be how next years games would look to be:

Ohio State @ Alabama
Florida @ Nebraska
Iowa @ Arkansas
LSU @ Wisconsin
Penn State @ Auburn
South Carolina @ Michigan State
Michigan @ Georgia
Tennessee @ Northwestern
Purdue @ Mississippi State
Kentucky @ Indiana
Illinois @ Mississippi
Vanderbilt @ Minnesota

Looking at that, you have 4 games that could possibly have National Championship implications, along with 3 or 4 other games that could be good matchups. And this would help attempt to put an end to the 'Who's Better?' debate, at least for a year.

I know that schools plan years in advance for games, and that top teams in each conference changes every year, but, teams sometimes do still have a slot open early in the year that aren't filled until they get a scab D-2 team to come and get a nice paycheck. With these games, you could schedule a home and home and both teams would get a nice paycheck in advertisement of the games.

Now there is not any talks of a series like this happening, just a hypothetical by me. I know money and scheduling and travling is always an issue, but, just from a fans standpoint, would you be a fan of seeing a series like the one I have listed above? Or if you aren't, why not?

Personally, I'd be a great fan of this. A lot of those games could be the highlighters in the September/early October schedule.

Your thoughts?

 

[The Holy One]

I would definitely like to see this challenge if it every happens. I think the Big 10/SEC fans would welcome this for the bragging rights. It can never be a bad idea to see the best of the best in the country face each other. This can be a great way to take out some of the contenders in the national championship race.

 

[gd]

I agree with what Corso said on Gameday this morning when they talked about something similar. The SEC would probably win more or less all of these matchups. They're just better at the moment, it's a fact and it has been true for a few years now.

Of course I'd be a fan of seeing this kind of series. If you're telling me I can see a bunch of important games between some of the best teams in the country in non conference instead of having pretty shitty Saturdays like today, of course I'm gonna take it.

Not gonna happen though, at least not in the near future. Most of these teams are content with scheduling cupcakes in the non conference in order to be ready for conference play.