BuckeyeSoldier;1757050; said:
This proposal makes absolutely zero sense to me.
Why would you break up not only UM and OSU but what seems like a perfect rivalry BLOCK in NU, Wiscy, Iowa, and Minny?
This division this should be so easy an amoeba can do it.
OSU
scUM
MSU
PU
IU
Ill
PSU
NU
UW
NW
Minn
Iowa
NW and Illinois can be protected
PSU and OSU can be protected
Scum and MInn can be protected
am I missing any other rivalries that would need protected? I guess you lose MSU/PSU but does either school even care?
Hey, I agree that it makes no sense, but read the tea leaves:
--Clearly, there have been a number of conference officials that have said that OSU and UM won't be in the same division.
--Both Iowa and Wisconsin officials have verified that those two teams will not be in the same division.
--There is also Barry Alvarez who said within the past 24 hours that one long-standing rivalry will be protected within a division. The most obvious rivalry would be that with Minnesota (the oldest continuing running FBS rivalry, IRC).
--Iowa officials claiming that they are extremely happy with the outcome of the divisions. This has to be a result of being in the same division as Nebraska, as it will create an instant rivalry that will grab the attention of people outside the Midwest in a way that their game vs. Wisky doesn't. Nothing else makes sense. It probably also means that one or both of Illinois and NW are in the division, since Illinois provides about a third of U. Iowa's enrollment.
--I assume MSU and UM will be in the same division, since there would already be one cross-divisional protected rivalry for UM (OSU). I know UM doesn't consider their game with MSU to be much of a rivalry, but MSU sure does. As such, it seems unlikely that UM will have two cross-divisional protected rivalries.
--It is possible, I suppose, that OSU and Nebraska would be in the same division, but it's more likely that OSU and PSU will be paired, for much the same reason as why MSU and UM would be in the same division. Plus, I cannot imagine OSU being too happy with being separated from its two biggest rivals, while Um would be able to keep two of their three biggest rivals in their division. As such, OSU and PSU in the same division makes the most sense.
Put all this together, and you have Nebraska-Iowa-UM-MSU in one division and OSU-PSU-Wisconsin-Minnesota in another. I'd guess Illinois and NW would be in the first division, whereas Indiana and Purdue would be in the second, but that's just a guess.
Something else to keep in mind is that apparently the Big Ten is not yet done examining expansion. It seems to me that the only school the Big Ten would consider from west of Ohio at this point would be Notre Dame. Texas seems out now and none of the other possible Big XII schools have the necessary academic/athletic chops to get invited. Considering Notre Dame seems disinterested, that would leave eastern teams as the most likely additions in any future Big Ten expansion. If that ends up being the case, I suspect Minnesota would be the first to be shifted to the westernmost conference with an expansion to 14 teams, and with an expansion to 16 teams (again, all being from the east), Wisconsin could get shifted back as well. The result? A more of less even east-west split (yeah, I know Michigan lies mostly east of Indiana) that protects every rivalry game, save one. Unfortunately, that game is THE Game, but would it really surprise anyone if the Big Ten was thinking this way long-term?
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