Big Division

Gotta take a break from the NFL preview extravaganza to talk about yesterday's announcement of the new Big Ten. The Big Ten took a huge leap and instead of splitting the divisions geographically they instead looked for competitive balance when making them. On the Big Ten Network they call the divisions X and O, names are coming in the next 90 days or so, but for today we'll use them. Division X consists of Illinois, Indiana, Penn St., Purdue, and Ohio St., while division Y has Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St., Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern. The glaring thing is OSU and Michigan are in separate divisions, how does that work, well the Big Ten is gonna have a cross over rival for each team from the other division and that breaks down like this, OSU-Mich, Mich St.-Indiana, Wis-Minn, Iowa-Pur, and PSU-Neb. So, each year you have 6 guaranteed games, and you'll also play the remaining 5 schools 4 times every 10 years. I almost forgot the divisions are ONLY FOR FOOTBALL, this has nothing to do with basketball, or the olympic sports. Big Ten Commish Jim Delaney said the AD's will look at how to break them other sports down, if they need to be.

Now, I love how they did this, instead of going geographic they looked at competitive balance first and foremost. They looked at records for every team dating back to 1993, when Penn St. joined the conference. This is how I see it, they ranked the teams and went down the line and split them accordingly, here is how I think the rankings shook down. 1 OSU-Michigan, 2 Penn St-Nebraska, 3 Iowa-Wisconsin, 4 Michigan St.-Purdue 5.Northwestern-Illinois, 6 Minnesota-Indiana. Historically those are how it breaks down most of the time, each school has off years but Michigan's has only been for two years and once Rich Rod is fired they'll be back. Another thing to look at is, these are only set for the next 2 years, if they feel the divisions need a tweak they can do it, these aren't set in stone and the Big Ten has been by far the most pro-active conference in the nation when it comes to change. They scared everyone into expansion this year, they were also the first conference to have league wide replay. So, in two years they feel it's not working they'll shake things up. The new divisions also work out for when Pittsburgh and Rutgers join the league, they'll just move Wisconsin over to division O, b/c their gonna have to guarantee them games against Penn St. every year.

Next they looked at rivalries, people are clamoring b/c some rivals won't play every year, hate to break it to you but all rivalries haven't played in a few years. In the old Big Ten you were only given two teams every year, now you have 6. Last year of the 12 trophy games played in the Big Ten 10 were played, next year 9 will be. The only rivalry that's not renewed from what I can see is Iowa-Wisconsin. Wisconsin instead gets to keep Minnesota and renew an every year rivalry with Illinois. In the old Big Ten you weren't guaranteed that game now you are. Iowa gets to start a new rivalry with Nebraska, and at least for the next two years end the season playing each other, I love this and can't wait. Iowa was the natural decision to get the first crack for a rivalry with Nebraska, as states we border each other, and we have about the same economy, CORN. I'm guessing a Corn Cup is in the works, just sayin.

I'm excited about the new Big Ten, and I think the conference left the door open for more expansion. The new rivalries are gonna be great and I can't wait for that first championship game to be played in Indianapolis, which is crap by the way, you have how many great cities in the midwest and you keep giving Indy all the championships, they host the basketball tourney as well. I for one wanted Lambeau to get it, and maybe even set up a rotation within the conference, you know Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Green Bay, Indy, Chicago, and Minneapolis. But screw everywhere else Indiana needs it, I guess.