The Big Ten definitely needs some changes to its structure for the football season. Purdue played its last game on Nov. 25.

Besides that, the last Big Ten games were on Nov. 18. How can they stop playing football before we even reach Thanksgiving?

While Big Ten play is over, the other conferences were still playing on with their schedule for a couple more weeks. And what about a conference championship?

Sure, this year we just happened to have one happen toward the end of the season anyway between Michigan and Ohio State. However, we don’t get that lucky most of the time.

Even though there are only 11 teams in the Big Ten, there are several solutions to this problem. One would be to add another team. Notre Dame or Iowa State would be good candidates.

Notre Dame would probably never happen because the Big Ten has tried that option in the past, but it would definitely help make the Big Ten one of the top conferences in the nation.

Iowa State would be an even better decision. They could leave the Big 12, and the Big 12 could bring in Colorado State. Then the Big Ten would have both Iowa and Iowa State, while the Big 12 would have Colorado and Colorado State. Makes sense to me.

By adding another team to the conference, it could be split into two divisions with a conference championship at the end of the season. However, it would be quite a challenge to add another team to the conference.

This brings me to another idea.

The Big Ten could have a position week. It could be run like it is run in many bowling leagues. The No. 1 team would play the No. 2 team, No. 3 versus No. 4, No. 5 versus No. 6, etc. The last-place team would just have a bye, or could try to find another non-conference game.

A position week may even work out better than having two divisions like the other big conferences. This would always allow the top two teams in the conference to play each other. There would be no conflict with the top teams being from the same division.

Every team in the conference would benefit from the extra games. Otherwise, other teams will be out winning ball games and moving up in the polls, while the Big Ten teams will be stuck at home without any say about it.

It happened this year to the Badgers. Louisville played Connecticut, which isn’t very good at all, and moved up while the Badgers just sat still.

The Big Ten needs to change something if they want to be the top football conference in the nation.

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