Is ‘Flexible Symmetry’ the Answer to Big-10 Scheduling?

Recently on the FishDuck Forum there was a thread started by iubhounds titled “Having To Fly East For Games”. In the thread, I poked the bear and said, in effect, “there’s no evidence that travel and unbalanced schedules with random bye weeks impact the results of the games. OBD wins regardless of travel.”

Jon Joseph wrote an outstanding reply that was really a rejoinder with his thoughts. But, he provided no real evidence that I was wrong. Just a feeling, an opinion with no facts to back it up. In legal writing we follow a three-part format in briefs; “Facts, Issue and Conclusion.” Facts need to be documented. The Issue is always formed as a question. The conclusion is almost always an opinion.

(From  Mr. FishDuck: I had to pause from my fun studying NRL betting tips to note that most articles on FishDuck.com, and posts on the Our Beloved Ducks Forum are simply opinions expressed, which generates highly interesting discussions. A factual presentation is welcomed, but never required as we learn so much from all the perspectives of our OBD forum members.)

This article is about why the concept of “flexible symmetry” should be applied to sports in general, and in the B1G Conference specifically.

Just What Is “Flexible Symmetry”?
The short answer is that “Flexible Symmetry” is a term that I thought I made up about an hour ago. Then I googled it and got this:

“Flexible symmetry refers to structural configurations that maintain specific symmetry properties (such as rotational or reflectional) while allowing for continuous deformation, motion, or structural adaptation. This concept applies to rigid body frameworks, engineered protein cages, and molecular structures that exhibit flexibility while retaining structural integrity.”

Did Dan Lanning know what he taking on with the travel in the Big-10? (Screenshot from ESPN GameDay Video)

But first, just why is Michael Whitty, aka, Grampa Duck and the Original Grampa Duck, writing for FishDuck at all? Two reasons. First, Charles asked me to write a few articles during the off-season for football. Second, I’ve done a lot of legal brief writing, and wrote a textbook for a class I taught about landlord/tenant law.

I see writing as an “art” and enjoy practicing it. It’s a form of creation not greatly different from putting paint on a canvass or playing a piano concert. When you’re engaged in writing your mind is totally focused, as it is in painting a work of art or performing on the piano for an audience.

After the above-mentioned thread about long-distance travel, FishDuck carried a related thread with an attached article titled: “Ducks Are Big Winners of B1G Schedule Release. Eh”. The article was written by someone listed as Caden Handwork and the thread posted by Smith72. Many of OBD’s insightful regular posters weighed in on those topics.

So, I’m thinking just what is a fair answer to the B1G travel and scheduling dilemma, if there is one? I believe “Flexible Symmetry” just may be a great place to start.

Like many teachers are willing to admit, when I was teaching my class as an income supplement after I retired from full-time lawyering, I discovered that I learned a lot from my students. So, I will present my initial thoughts to you about a solution to the travel/scheduling issue below. Please keep in mind that it is as if I am giving you a class, and as the students I want to hear back from you with your thoughts.

Noah Whittington and the Ducks had their hands full playing at Iowa. (Photo By: Brad Repplinger)

In later articles I will compile your thoughts, and some from the two threads mentioned above into my concept of “Flexible Symmetry” for the reading enjoyment of all. Maybe even the people responsible for the structure of the B1G will discover our ideas and find them helpful. Who knows where this endeavor could finish?

I was introduced to real structure in sports in 1948 at the Oregon High School Basketball Tournament in MAC Court at Eugene. I was eight years old and my Dad, an avid Marshfield (Coos Bay) high school sports fan, took me and Mom with him to the tournament. They were season ticket holders to Marshfield football and basketball, and as a child, I went with them to all the games. Dad spoke with me often, explaining a lot about sports.

On first entering MAC Court for the 1948 tournament, Dad walked me to a large poster board with a bracket listing all the sixteen teams, who and when they would play in the first round and where they would go depending upon whether they won or lost. I was fascinated with the symmetry of the bracket. Sixteen teams each playing up to four games. If they lost two games they were out. Very symmetrical.

Dad took me to every OSAA basketball tournament thereafter until I graduated from high school and every year I spent a lot of time contemplating the bracket in the hallway of MAC Court. I have played in more than 80 match-play-golf tournaments and never saw a reason to doubt the fairness of a bracket for determining your next opponent. I believe the bracket symmetry has a lot to do with why it is fair. Now the original placement of teams in the bracket may sometimes be unfair, but once they’re on there, it’s fair.

Oregon is already developing intense feelings from opposing fans when playing on the road. (Screenshot from CBS Sports Video)

Since I first posted on eDuck, probably 30 years ago, I have written about symmetry in college football conferences more than once. My belief, then and now, is that every conference should have ten (10) teams. When we had the PAC-10 we reached scheduling fairness. In the conference season of nine games, every team played every other team. No disputes like those that Oregon has to play Indiana, Penn State and Michigan in the same year and some other school doesn’t play those good teams.

So how do we reform B1G scheduling, and maintain the outright joy of playing against some of the best teams in the country with so-called “Blue-Blood” history, in a conference with 18 teams? Hint: that is the ISSUE.

1. Expand the conference to 20 teams. Not 18, 19 or 21; Twenty. No other number that keeps all of the present teams in the conference will work.
2. Divide the twenty teams, at first as much by geography as possible, into two divisions of 10 each. Where possible, put teams with traditional rivalries, i.e. OBD and the school in Seattle, in the same division.
3. Schedule home and home games within each division for two years in succession. Over two years, everybody plays everybody in their house. That’s symmetry. Call the divisions “West and East”.

Now for the “Flexible” part.
4. Every two years reorganize the divisions, bringing five of the teams from the West to the East and vice versa. The reorganization should be based in part upon how teams were ranked at the end of the season over the last two years. That way each division will have about the same number of lower ranked teams and higher ranked teams. Add to this a geographical element so that teams in the West play in the eastern time zone only once a year, and vice versa.

For your homework, please post what two schools would best round out the B1G with twenty teams. Please state your reasons for choosing those schools. Include your own ideas on solutions to scheduling issues.

I look forward to reading your responses. I have an ego well calloused from criticism by Judges and Justices in black robes, so you need not hold back.

Mike Whitty
Eugene, Oregon
Top Screenshot from CBS Sports Video

Share your thoughts about this team in the only free, “polite and respectful” Oregon Sports message board, the Our Beloved Ducks forum!

Mike Whitty

The senior Mike Whitty, age 86, is not the commissioner for Lane County football and basketball officials, as that is his son, Mike Whitty. A retired attorney, Mike Whitty, Sr., grew up in Coos Bay, and played football four years for Pete Susick at Marshfield High, during the time of the then Big “A” school’s three successive state championships, 1954-56.

A serious golfer, Mike has been the medalist in three divisions of the Oregon Coast Invitational at Astoria G & CC. He qualified and played in the USGA Sr. Amateur at Prairie Dunes, KS in 1995. His education: two years at USAF Academy, 1961-63. Oregon degrees, BS ’65, JD ’68.