Another reason to realign? Increasing the chances for a B1G beef

A pair of seismic events shook the college football landscape this week. One involved a rule change that paves the path to eliminate conference divisions. The other involves a widening division between a pair of high-profile coaches who were once allies.

Naturally, I’ve figured out a way to marry these events together.

The demise of divisions?

First, the item that actually matters: The NCAA approved changes in the structure of conference championship games in football. Division champions are no longer required to reach the title game if a conference rewrites its rules in such a manner.

The Pac-12 wasted no time in changing its title format.

For scheduling purposes, at least for the time being, the league will still maintain North and South Divisions. But effective this December, the top 2 teams in the Pac-12 will face each other in the championship game. So if the top 2 teams in the South are, say, 8-1 and 7-2 in conference play, the runner-up would get the nod over a 6-3 North Division champ.

The ACC is expected to move away from divisions as well, albeit not as immediately. ACC leaders are discussing a schedule model where every team would have 3 permanent opponents, then cycle through the other 10 teams every 2 seasons. This 3-5-5 model might come into play effective in 2023.

A similar model has been bandied about in the B1G, though a consensus has not been reached. Unsurprisingly, schools in the Big Ten West are aware of how good they have it. They’ll need to be convinced of the benefits of voting against their own best interests.

“We would be perfectly OK with continuing the divisional structure,” Purdue AD Mike Bobinski stated obviously in an interview with Gold and Black, “but also willing to keep an open mind if someone could make a coherent argument as to why getting rid of divisions would benefit the league overall.

“At some point, you got to put your Big Ten hat on, too, and make sure that we’re protecting the overall brand and power of the league.”

The Jimbo-Saban War

As long as divisions still exist, the SEC West is college football’s most competitive. And down there, things have reached DEFCON 2 between Alabama coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher.

The West Virginia natives are engaged in a modern Hatfield-McCoy feud.

“We were 2nd in recruiting last year,” Saban told a Birmingham audience Wednesday night. “A&M was 1st. A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for name, image and likeness.

“We didn’t buy one player. A’ight? But I don’t know if we’re going to be able to sustain that in the future, because more and more people are doing it. It’s tough.”

Fisher was ready with a cannon blast of his own Thursday morning, calling Saban a “narcissist” making “despicable” accusations.

“Go dig into wherever he’s been. You can find out everything. It’s a shame,” Fisher continued. “Some people think they’re God. Go dig into how God did his deal.”

Fisher would know.

Though he’s a generation younger than Saban, their hometowns are just 20 miles apart. And in West Virginia, 20 miles can mean plenty of people in the same circles. Fisher was Saban’s offensive coordinator at LSU from 2000-04, and apparently quite pleased that era of his life is over.

Fisher said there was a reason he didn’t want to work with Saban again when he went to Alabama from the NFL, further saying “I don’t want to be associated with him.”

Last season, Fisher became the first former assistant to beat Saban, after saying last preseason that’s exactly what the Aggies were going to do. It’ll only get juicier until the Crimson Tide and Aggies play each other on Oct. 8. But the escalation also makes me kind of sad. Because it’s a reminder that the Big Ten needs more hatred.

And I have a notion that realignment can bring us a rivalry that will deliver.

Jim Harbaugh vs. PJ Fleck: The beef the B1G needs

As always, hostility already exists between the head coaches at Michigan and Ohio State.

Jim Harbaugh and Ryan Day have been involved in a few dustups stemming from a disagreement on a Big Ten coaches teleconference in 2020. Day told his team they would “hang 100″ on the Wolverines after that incident.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know if it was hyperbole or truth — The Game was canceled in 2020 due to COVID cases at Michigan.

But it was still on Harbaugh’s mind when Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time in 10 years. Even in the fog of victory, he took a moment to jab at Day.

“There’s definitely stuff people said that spurred us on,” Harbaugh said in his postgame press conference. “Sometimes people that are standing on third base think they hit a triple, but they didn’t.”

As much fuel as there is to work with here, Day gives off a decidedly more chill vibe than Harbaugh. He seems more likely to care about beating Michigan’s coach, regardless of who it is, because it’s Michigan’s coach.

It would be a different story if Urban Meyer were still there. But Day hasn’t been at this long enough to do a deep ego dive.

There is only 1 current Big Ten coach who seems naturally built to be Harbaugh’s foil: Minnesota’s PJ Fleck.

All coaches are Type-A personalities, but Harbaugh and Fleck are closer to Type-AAA. Some might even describe both as weirdos.

Harbaugh once had a sleepover at Quinn Nordin’s house while recruiting the kicker. He climbed a tree at David Long’s house. And that was just 1 recruiting cycle.

Fleck is known to bombard recruits’ phones with text messages every 30 minutes. He’s also very aggressive in offering more scholarships than a team can hold. Minnesota made 235 offers for its 2022 recruiting class. In comparison, Iowa offered 107 players and Wisconsin 98.

But that’s child’s play compared to Harbaugh, who offered 359 players a spot with the Wolverines.

And that’s exactly why these guys would make great natural enemies. The next time Harbaugh climbs a tree to grab an errant football, Fleck is capable of showing up with a chainsaw to cut it down.

“No harm intended, Jimmy! Just wanted to show this recruit the Gophers have a more effective way! Row the Boat! Ski-U-Mah!”

But that won’t happen as long Minnesota and Michigan are separated.

They have only played twice since Fleck arrived in the Twin Cities in 2017. There’s no reason for Harbaugh and Fleck to have any bad blood. All we have to work with is imagination and potential.

But if the Big Ten elects the so-called 3-5-5 model — 3 protected opponents while playing the other 10 teams every 2 years — that will change. At worst, Fleck and Harbaugh would cross paths every other year. But given the historic value of the Little Brown Jug, there’s a chance this could end up as a protected rivalry.

Behind Ohio State and Michigan State, there’s no obvious must-play annual opponent for the Wolverines. It’s the same story for Minnesota, which has no clear 3rd partner after Iowa and Wisconsin.

To me, it’s a natural rivalry ready to rekindle. And with Harbaugh and Fleck in charge, there would be plenty of kindling for a potential Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher caliber bonfire in the Big Ten.

Alex Hickey

Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.