As comedian George Carlin once said, more"" is an interesting word.
It can be a good thing. Few would turn down ""more"" money. Ask college students and most will tell you ""more"" beer is certainly preferred over less beer. Often people wish they had ""more"" time to have ""more"" fun.
Yet ""more"" can also be a bad thing.
There's ""more"" homework to do, ""more"" exams to take and ""more"" trips to the dentist to have them fill ""more"" cavities so they can send you ""more"" bills.
A significant other might say he or she needs ""more"" from you and not define exactly what that ""more"" is or means, making the relationship all the ""more"" complicated and confusing.
Driving back in the dark from beautiful State College, Pa., somewhere between Gary, Ind., and my fifth can of Red Bull, I was contemplating ""more.""
Not how many ""more"" rest stops I could pass before I had to relieve my crying bladder or how many ""more"" impersonations I could do with my fellow travelers before our voices became hoarse, but ""more"" football. Or maybe it was less football.
Ever since Penn State joined the Big Ten conference in 1993, the Badgers have had one more team to play. Yet the addition has also meant Wisconsin does not play two of the 11 teams in the conference each year. This season and next season, for example, UW will not tangle with Northwestern or Purdue.
Before the Nittany Lions came aboard, Big Ten teams only had one conference foe off of their schedules.
With this nugget o' knowledge resting on my mind and my eyes growing more bloodshot by the minute, I delved deeper into the concept of ""more"" football.
In recent years, the Badgers and teams across the country have played 12 regular season games instead of the traditional 11. This accounts for UW's break in the conference schedule this week to take on their ""bitter rival"" Northern Illinois.
Other major conferences, particularly the SEC and ACC, intersperse non-conference games within their conference seasons, but Big Ten teams traditionally do not. Scheduling a non-conference game during the middle of the Big Ten season is like encouraging your 95-year-old grandfather to enter a break dancing contest. It's just not right and nobody wants to pay money to see it.
Wisconsin is not the only Big Ten team to follow the trend of scheduling weak sisters of the poor during what would be a bye week in an 11-game season. Ohio State pounded Kent State last Saturday. Minnesota takes on North Dakota State this weekend.
Maybe my brain was fried from calculating ways to make exact change at all the tollway stops or maybe I knew playing Northern Illinois would in no way measure if the Badgers were improving after consecutive conference losses, but a crazy idea soon formulated in my head.
Instead of playing a meaningless non-conference opponent during the middle of the season, why not play nine Big Ten games?
Such a system would force teams to earn their bowl bids and would prevent them from beefing up their resumes with easy non-conference wins.
The conference would be less likely to encounter situations like it did in 2002 when both Iowa and Ohio State finished 8-0 and did not play each other.
Playing nine conference games would not set a new precedent in college football. The Pac-10 currently follows such a scheduling format and from 1981-1984, the Big Ten did as well.
Perhaps most importantly, all the coaches could stop whining about not having a bye week during the season.
Sure the nine conference games would extend the schedule by a week, but judging from recent history, Big Ten teams haven't been benefiting from the monstrous layoff between the end of the regular season and their bowl games.
If you think a nine-game conference schedule is the worst idea since the XFL, think back to the end of last season. Who would you have rather seen the Badgers play - the train wreck known as the Buffalo Bulls in a game that meant absolutely nothing or the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes in a game that could have decided the Big Ten championship?
A nine-game conference schedule might not be perfect, but it would ensure teams with 2-6 Big Ten records don't make it to bowl games. It would make the champions earn their crown by playing an additional, meaningful game and it would allow fans to see Big Ten rivals battle on fall Saturdays in October.
With all of these benefits, who could possibly ask for more?
If you'd like to join Ryan for a 15-hour road trip to Pennsylvania, e-mail him at reszel@dailycardinal.com.
