In Defense of Hodgepodge Of Ass

1. That possibility already exists if a team has clinched the Rose Bowl. Has it ever stopped either team from caring? (As to getting hurt late in the game with a sizable lead, why are you leaving the starters in at that point anyway?)

2. A Michigan-OSU title game, with the teams at their current level of animosity, would be spectacular. Problem is, an OSU-Iowa title game, or Michigan-Wisconsin, or PSU-Nebraska, or any other combination thereof, would be pretty impressive. When every likely matchup is huge, having one be apocalyptic instead is of minimal gain. And that’s before considering the damage that would be done to the rivalry by playing it earlier.

3. Doesn’t seem to bother Alabama playing against Auburn, or Florida against Florida State (I know, non-conference, but the point stands), or Georgia-GT (same), or Texas-A&M, or Nebraska-Colorado. An immediate rematch is a problem, but a big rivalry game followed by a title game is par for the course in the two conferences that have had them the longest.

4. OSU-Michigan in hockey pales compared to MSU-Michigan. OSU-Michigan in basketball packs a little extra punch but not much (and no more so than MSU-Michigan does). Rivalries become big not merely through hate, but also through high stakes (something rarely the case in basketball or hockey) and timing (also rarely the case in other sports). Playing at the end of the season, with everything on the line and no chance for redemption for the loser, is the difference between a decent rivalry and an earth-shaking rivalry. (This is why no rivalry in other American sports compares to the best college football rivalries. Duke-UNC comes close in basketball only because the campuses are so close together, and even then their regular season matchups aren’t all that important in the grand scheme unless it’s in the last week for the conference title.)

5. Going from a de facto conference title game to a de facto division title game is a downgrade, yes. But going from a de facto conference title game to a random midseason cross-division game is a much larger downgrade. Unless they meet in the conference title game nearly every year (in which case you’ve got a dysfunctional conference no matter how the divisions are arranged; if they’re together the conference title game is a virtual formality, and if they’re separate the regular season becomes an eight-game warm-up for the Real Game), the rivalry will inevitably be much more severely damaged by moving it earlier and making it so they are not directly competing with each other in the regular-season standings.

6. This is only true because Nebraska is not included – throw them in and they’re #2, very close behind OSU and more than a full season’s worth of wins ahead of both Michigan and Penn State. Aside from that, it is a mistake to assume that the competitive balance will never shift and they will remain three of the top four year in and year out. For one, they aren’t now – and in fact, there are only two years since PSU joined the Big Ten in which they were the top three, and in both of those years Nebraska finished undefeated and would have therefore broken that up. To the degree that balance is important (which, IMO, is minimal – the pundits consistently get it wrong two weeks before the season, why do we think we can get it right two decades in advance?), the important thing is to make sure you don’t have all the best teams in one division such that third place in one division would have run away with the other. Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin are plenty sufficient to avoid that – one will often be down, two occasionally, but all three almost never.

7a) How convenient of you to leave Nebraska (a King) out – and again, you assume that it will stay this way forever. “Prestige” builds up and declines over time.

7b) I don’t much care for such a split either. But that’s not necessary to keep Michigan and OSU together.

8) All of those have other major rivalries in the final week (Texas-A&M, which until A&M completely fell off the map was a much bigger rivalry – and some will tell you it still is; Georgia-GT, which being a non-conference game is easier to schedule at the end; Florida-Tennessee wasn’t even played more than 1/3 of the time until the SEC formed divisions; USC-UCLA during the Pac-10’s rivalry week; Alabama-Auburn, which is a significantly bigger rivalry than Bama-UT ever was). OSU doesn’t have another major rival to schedule in that spot, and the Michigan-MSU rivalry, while bigger than most Michigan fans will admit, doesn’t have nearly the significance of Michigan-OSU.

because OSU and UM fans need to realize that there are some very valid reasons for splitting them up

No. No, a Wisconsin fan can’t even think of a valid reason for splitting them up. Why? ’Cause Michigan SUCKS!

7. The conference cannot have an equitable balance of cache in the East/West split.
Even if you believe that Wisconsin and Iowa have been on-the-field competitive with Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan (despite their collective 30-45 record against the big three since ‘93), they simply do not carry the same level of media coverage. As a proxy, just look at attendance. For 2009, the top 3 and 4 of the top 5 would be in the East. ESPN’s (admittedly flawed) prestige rankings reach a similar conclusion. The big 3 in the east are all top 11, Wisconsin and Iowa aren’t top 25. Want a more colorful data point? SI’s Stewart Mandel ran a column where he divided all BCS programs into Kings, Barons, Knights, and Peasants. Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State were all Kings, while Wisconsin was a Baron and Iowa was a Knight.
Imbalanced divisions, especially easily remembered imbalanced divisions, inevitable leads to a “The Good Division” and “The Other Division” national discourse, hurting not only the lesser side but also the conference as a whole (“Sure the Big Ten East is okay, but that’s only because they get to beat up on the laggards in the Big Ten West”-ESPN).

ESPN – Sensationalism, 21st Century style… With a good mix of blatant SEC and Big Twelve South pandering mixed in.

Let’s see how well the Blue Devils play at home this season with that stinking up the place…

Also, the Michigan-OSU split isn’t necessarily the reason I’m voting for Hodgepodge O. Ass to be drawn and quartered by the Iowa defensive line. I really think if Wisconsin goes east and Michigan goes west, there are some sizable problems created. A much better trade would be, say, Michigan for Illinois, and Illinois can have Northwestern as their permanent rival. God knows we don’t want Zook and his boys. We don’t play this year, anyway.

game being so freakin’ awesome is flawed. It really only matters to 2 of the 12 schools. OSU and Michigan. Most other fans of the Big Ten would rather see their own team in the game. Most fans of another conference do not really care unless the outcome of the championship determines their bowl opponent.

You have an overblown perception on how most fans feel that OSU/Michigan is so damn important. IMO. To try and set up a conference title game with your pre-determined preferred participants is a slap in the face to every other school and their fans. It is a way to diminish overall fan interest in the long run. And it smacks of a U of Texas-type superiority complex.