With 18 teams and no divisions / unbalanced schedules, this should probably be bookmarked as I have a feeling we’ll be going deep down the list every year! 
What’ll be interesting is whether some teams benefit from skipping the title game. It’s big for the winner obviously to get the bye, but let’s say this year OSU wins the league and gets a bye … would you rather be Oregon and lose a tough title game vs. the Buckeyes in Indy and then play again right away … or say, PSU, who will get in the playoff and get a bye week to prepare?
Interesting! Just part of the reason I LOVE this playoff! The conference championship games will truly mean something, the regular season will be bigger than ever in determining those at-large bids and EVERYONE has an equal chance to play their way into the tournament by winning their league. It’s a tough road in the super-leagues, obviously, but there’s a pathway for schools like Northwestern to be in the semifinals. That wasn’t necessarily guaranteed before.
GO CATS!!!
-SjT
I suspect 8-1 in conference play will get at least one team to the conference championship game most years, 9-0 is likely to be a rare beast, and having a pair of 9-0 teams seems even less likely.
But if the Big Ten reverts to its traditional cannibalistic ways, will 7-2 be a path to the conference championship? It’d take a strange alignment of the planets and stars for 6-3 to get a team there.
I wouldn’t count out some weird end of the season scenarios going forward. Depending upon the scheduling,
I suspect there will be 5 teams every year with decent possibilities for finishing 1st or 2nd ( Oregon, SC, PSU , OSU , and Michigan) and in random years another team that gives everyone a run for their money.
The tie breaker(s)will mostly come into play between 2nd and 3rd —-Though at some point the conference may decide to award the first place team hosting rights for the title game similar to the new CFP rules
Harry
I thought the Big Ten Championship game was still going to be at a pre-set location, Indianapolis for the next several years and then maybe somewhere else.
Mike
Is that set in stone?
Could they move it to regular season champs venue? I’m thinking if 2 West Coast teams happen to be playing for the conference title, would they want to have the game played in Indy?
Harry
Harry
I couldn’t find anything official, but I seem to recall some talk about having the Big Ten Football Championship game in Las Vegas in a few years. Or maybe that was the basketball tournament?
I see zero chance of the championship game being moved to the campus of one of the schools, though the 5-8 seeds in the playoffs will apparently have the option to host a game or choose a neutral location. Not much chance a neutral location will prevail, I suspect, and finding an available neutral site on short notice wouldn’t be easy.
When NU said they wouldn’t have any more games at the lakefront after October, some wag asked where would they play a CFP game if NU was slated to host one?
Harry
That’d be a hoot, wouldn’t it. My guess is there would be incredible pressure on NU to move the game to a larger venue.