Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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BEHIND THE DESK B A R RY A LVA R EZ ��� UW DIREC TOR OF AT H L ET IC S Football fans will benefit from changes W hether the Big Ten goes with nine games or 10, the fans are going to benefit from the scheduling. Playing eight conference games was not even in the discussion. There are pros and cons to both proposals. Nine games will allow you a little more flexibility with your nonconference scheduling. But some years you���re going to have four Big Ten home games and five on the road. Some might not feel that���s equitable if you have a really good team returning. It���s reversed, of course, in those years you���re playing five Big Ten home games and four on the road. I really like the idea of 10 league games so you���re playing five at home and five away. But it makes scheduling nonconference games even more difficult. If we���re going to play BCS schools ��� not FCS schools ��� you���re looking at scheduling home-andhome series. That means some years you���re not going to have seven home games overall. That���s the biggest problem. Everybody wants and needs those seven home games. If we go to 10, we���re all going to have to get more creative with our scheduling. I���m probably more comfortable with nine. The last time we got together as athletic directors, we talked about strengthening our schedules. Very few nonconference games were against FCS schools between 1989 18 �� VARSITY FEB R UA RY 14, 2013 and 1999. Now a lot of them are. Nobody wants that inventory for TV. And the fans don���t like it. One of the things that we���ve tried to address is improving our in-game experience. Declining attendance is a national trend, especially since fans can get comfortable today watching a game on HD television without We have put our thoughts out there nationally as a conference, and it will be interesting to see what kind of feedback we get. It should be positive from the fans. leaving their homes. We need to brainstorm and come up with some things that make fans want to be part of that Saturday experience at our stadiums. That���s something we���re all trying to work on. The coaches have been asking for more primetime night games in November to sell their programs. But there are some logistical concerns that have to be ironed out. In eliminating those FCS games ��� and hopefully we���re all able to do it ��� you will strengthen your schedule, which you have to do if you want to be a player in the semifinals of the new NCAA format. Our Big Ten meetings were very productive last weekend. The athletic directors met on Sunday from 4 to 9 at night. We met again on Monday and sat in with the football coaches for a couple of hours. We had some NCAA representatives explaining the different recruiting policies that are pending. As a conference, we expressed concern about the impact and the timeliness of the proposals. We���re essentially saying as a league that we don���t agree, and we���re hoping that some other conferences step up and say the same thing. Making a statement will hopefully open up the discussion. We also talked about the possibilities that exist for realigning the conference divisions with the additions of Rutgers and Maryland. There seems to be a consensus to do so along geographical lines. I know that we would like to protect some of our natural rivalries, including Nebraska. We didn���t talk about renaming the divisions. And there was no talk of more expansion. We���ll have more meetings in March during the Big Ten men���s basketball tournament in Chicago. Once we decide on either nine or 10 games, we���ll take it to the presidents for a vote. We have put our thoughts out there nationally as a conference, and it will be interesting to see what kind of feedback we get. It should be positive from the fans.