With a 14-team conference, the urge to expand the conference basketball schedule has been in constant motion for the Big Ten. Now, it looks as though the conference is heading in the direction of expanding the conference schedule to 20 games from the current 18-game format.
“I personally see us going to a 20-game schedule,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo told ESPN on Monday. “I don’t think there’s any question it’s going to happen — and I’m not overly against it.”
There are a number of benefits to expanding the conference schedule to 20 games for the Big Ten. First and foremost, it satisfies the television partners by providing more important game sin the early parts of the regular season. If the Big Ten expanded to 20 games, it would likely mean playing conference games in December instead of waiting for January. At a time when the value of the regular season is shrunk, giving some importance to games in December seems like a logical move that would be pleasing to FOX and ESPN, not to mention give a boost to the Big Ten Network.
But there are some drawbacks to the move as well. For starters, it opens the door for the Big Ten to pick itself apart more frequently. This is why Izzo says he wants to see the conference schedule expanded to 20 games only if other power conferences do the same.
“If everyone doesn’t go to 20 games in the power five, someone will have a major advantage in terms of wins and losses,” Izzo added. “When you are only talking about a difference of one game in wins, it’s not a big deal. But when you start talking two or three wins, a lot of time they will take the team with the better record.”
The good news for Izzo is the ACC is already on board. The ACC, which also consists of 15 members thanks to the inclusion of Notre Dame, will expand its conference schedule to 20 games beginning in the 2019-2020 season. The bad news is he doesn’t have the power to convince the SEC, Big 12 or Pac-12 to follow suit, and those conferences may not have the same interest in doing so either.
The Big 12 only has 10 members, so the need to add conference games is not as dire. The SEC has 14 members, but has shown in football it does not see the importance of adding conference games to the schedule at the risk of jeopardizing its own standing. The Pac-12 has 12 members as well, which decreases the potential need to add more conference games to the schedule.
As is the case with football scheduling, there is no one solution that works best for every conference due to different ideologies and objectives. For a conference with 14 teams, having 20 conference games in basketball seems to make the most sense.
[ESPN]
