Crisis Averted - Big Ten Gets Division Splits Right

I think the Big Ten could have switched either Illinois and Wisconsin with Michigan, but that’s just a small nitpick. From what I heard, Ohio State and Michigan will still play each other each year.

They didn’t even get in the same time zone of “right”.

Eleven protected rivalries already existed. At best, nine could be preserved in-division. This didn’t even keep nine of them with a cross-over game (three break entirely, and three are cross-division rivalries). Geographically, the divisions are nonsense. Competitively, they’re decent short term … but so are half a dozen other arrangements which preserve rivalries and geography better. (And don’t talk about long term competitiveness – nobody has a clue who’ll be good two years from now, let alone 20.)

Penn St. did not have to go west if you kept Mich. & Ohio St. together. An east/west split would have kept Penn St. in the east. As for competitive balance; the west would be stronger than the east this year. (based upon preseason rankings)

But the Big Ten chose otherwise; so time to move on.

I still think OSU-UM in the same division was the best, but I thought that because any other setup might affect the placement of The Game.

My kneejerk reaction is that Wisconsin got the short end of the stick, as they are in separate divisions from Minnesota and Iowa.

Minnesota also got the shaft, as they have a tough road to hoe every year, at least on a competitive basis.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, I’ll give this an 8. It was about as good as could be expected.

Oh, keep this in mind. On the Division Alignment Show on the BTN, Commissioner Delany said they will re-look the alignments in two years, and if something needs to be addressed, it will. I like that Delany can allow the conference to evolve and still look to improve if they don’t get something correct right out of the gate.

OSU and UM still play the last game every year, but they should be doing it in the same division. I’m still not sure what exactly is wrong with OSU, Mich, PSU, MSU, Illi, Ind as one division and Neb, Iowa, Wisc, N’western, Pur, Minn as the other

Congratulations. You have protected a game, which was obviously the most important thing in the entire conference. My sincere hope is that we never see a rematch in the CCG.

Big Ten did very well. I found the rotating games to be odd choices, but it seems that everyone got one team with a ‘93-’09 winning record and one team with a losing record.

Would have prefered NU.

I know hoops is a distant second in this conversation, but the difference is significant.

Final KenPom rankings…..
Division 1: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State #23, Northwestern, Minnesota #32

Division 2: Ohio State #5, Penn State , Wisconsin #9, Purdue #16, Indiana, Illinois #53

It was not going to be perfect. We all knew that going in.

Basketball is a non-factor, these are football-only divisions.

Inter-divisional games count in divisional standings. Much like they do in the SEC, BigXII, and ACC.

What’s good for the game is good for the rest of the conference?

What about Wisconsin getting thrown out like yesterday’s newspaper? What about the OSU division being incredibly top heavy? How about the fact that Iowa get’s to renew the long lost rivalry with Purdue? Is replacing Flyod with Herbie in the last game of the season good or bad for the Hawkeyes? How should Penn State feel about losing more appropriate geographic rivals from the state of Michigan?

Come on guys.

They screwed up Rivalry Week. MSU-PSU was always kind of the odd man out, but Mich-OSU, Indy-Purdue, Ill-NW, MSU-PSU, and some combination of Iowa-Minn-Wisc was always the final week (with the other one of that triumvirate having a bye and playing one of the other two the week before). They kept Mich-OSU and Indy-Purdue, switched Iowa over to Nebraska (which is fine) … but the rest are a Hodgepodge of Ass. Minn and Wisc aren’t playing the final week. Ill and NW aren’t. MSU and PSU aren’t playing, period.

FAIL.