Big Ten Conference Divisions

[MililaniBuckeye]

In JXC's defense, his post was in another thread that I moved over here.

At least he and I think alike...which probably scares the shit out of him.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Geography's a bitch for the B16 but assuming a Big Ten of the following sixteen schools

Ohio State
Penn State
Michigan
MSU
Purdue
Indiana
Illinois
NW
Wisconsin
Minny
Iowa
*Notre Dame
*Rutgers
*Nebraska
*Missouri
*Syracuse

Now ignoring geography and basing things upon maintaining rivalries.

Maintain existing rivalries by putting those teams in the same division to place the last game of the regular season

Ohio State-Michigan
Indiana-Purdue
Minnesota-Wiscy

Penn State and Iowa really don't have a true geographic or historical rivalry, and no one cares about IL-NW so the new creations would be:

Penn State-Syracuse
Nebraska-Iowa
Missouri-Illinois
Notre Dame-Rutgers---Assuming both Rugters and ND get in, you have to have them in the same division for two reasons. Give the domers their bi-annual game in the New York metro area because it will strengthen the BTN's hand.
Sparty-Northwestern becomes, by default, an end of the regular season game.

Other games that would need to be maintained on an annual basis might--but don't have to--include UM-ND, PSU-OSU, ND-MSU and Syracuse-Rutgers

Based on that, and making several compromises and a couple of balances for competitive reasons, I have in the same division:

OSU, UM, MSU, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rutgers, IU and Purdue

Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wiscy, Minny, Syracuse, Penn State

All of which makes no frickin' sense geographically. Perhaps, the Big Ten should let the guys at the non-athletic member in Hyde Park take on this challenge.

Pac 10 has it so simple with their Surf & Turf divisions.

 

[toby34a]

While splitting up the conference into divisions matters, I think that we also have to look into scheduling issues. Does the new Big Ten adopt the Big XII schedule (5 division games + 3 home-and-home other division games) or does it adopt the SEC schedule (5 division games + 2 home-and-home other division games + 1 cross-division protected yearly rivalry)?

The positive aspect of the 5+3 model is that you cycle through home-and-homes with every team in 4 years. The 5+2+1 cycles through every team in 6. However, in the 5+2+1, protecting old-school rivalries would greatly help things out.

In that approach, if you adopted geographic divisions, you'd have this:

East: Penn State, tOSU, Michigan, Michigan St, Indiana, Purdue
West: Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska

Protected rivalries:

PSU - Nebraska (great new rivalry, several times met in Fiesta Bowl)
tOSU - Illinois (now yearly Illibuck)
Michigan - Minnesota (now yearly Little Brown Jug)
Purdue - Northwestern
Michigan State - Wisconsin
Indiana - Iowa

The only change that this would do with the current protected rivalries is swap out Indiana-Illinois for tOSU - Illinois. I can tell you that Illinois would definitely be happy with that swap. Plus it takes the Little Brown Jug and Illibuck back into yearly games, which I'm pretty sure is a positive aspect. And while people don't necessarily agree with the tOSU-PSU-UM bloc, I think that Nebraska-Iowa-Wisconsin over the past 5 years have been just as good and will continue to be good in the future to balance out the divisions.

If you go with the alternate setup suggested by several people already, you'd have:

Black Division: tOSU, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern
Blue Division: Penn State, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa

Cross-Divisional Rivalries:

tOSU - Nebraska (created rivalry, or sub with Penn State)
Michigan - Minnesota
Northwestern - Illinois
Michigan State - Penn State (could sub Nebraska in here as well)
Indiana - Iowa
Purdue - Wisconsin

I seriously prefer the geographic setup for presevation of rivalries, and doing the 5+2+1 setup akin the SEC to add more punch to the schedule.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

...Pac 10 has it so simple with their Surf & Turf divisions.

With the way things have changed since your post, it will more likely be the North & South divisions.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

While splitting up the conference into divisions matters, I think that we also have to look into scheduling issues. Does the new Big Ten adopt the Big XII schedule (5 division games + 3 home-and-away other division games) or does it adopt the SEC schedule (5 division games + 2 home-and-away other division games + 1 cross-division protected yearly rivalry)?

The positive aspect of the 5+3 model is that you cycle through home-and-aways with every team in 4 years. The 5+2+1 cycles through every team in 6. However, in the 5+2+1, protecting old-school rivalries would greatly help things out.

fify

 

[kn1f3party]

If you go with traditional competitiveness, not just recent, Penn State will end up in the western division. That is what I foresee.

If they look at recent competitiveness, there will be no problem with a strictly geographical split.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

Is it a foregone conclusion that we're even going to divisions and a CCG?

Just curious...

 

[Poe McKnoe]

Is it a foregone conclusion that we're even going to divisions and a CCG?

Just curious...

Someone addressed that CURRENTLY one may not have to happen with the other. Divisions? No. CCG? Yes. Required for leagues with 12 teams.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

CCG? Yes. Required for leagues with 12 teams.

I thought is was the other way around - 12 teams (min) req'd to hold a CCG...

 

[IronBuckI]

I thought is was the other way around - 12 teams (min) req'd to hold a CCG...

It is. No conference is required to hold a CCG. A minimum of 12 teams divided into a minimum of 6 team divisions are required in order hold a CCG outside of the allowed 12 regular season games.

 

[zincfinger]

Wetted States:
OSU
UM
MSU
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Northwestern*

(Nearly) Landlocked States:
Nebraska
Iowa
PSU
Illinois
IU
Purdue

I'd go with this one, or really anything reasonable that puts OSU and UM in one division, and PSU and Nebraska in the other. If history is even remotely accurate at predicting the future here, it's virtually certain that over any longish time frame, the elite teams in the conference will be exactly 4: OSU-UM-PSU-UNL. There will be considerably more fluctuation over time as to who comprises the second tier. Competitively, it's best to split up the four elites, 2x2, and work out the rest in some way that seems reasonably even. OSU and UM have to be in the same division, for reasons many of you mentioned. And, while less important, I think it would be good for PSU and UNL to be annual primary roadblocks to one another.

 

[Psalty]

I think if Delany is thinking about maximizing ratings ($), there is no way that PSU and tOSU don't play each other every year. They either need to be in the same division or setup as a protected rivalry game. That is usually one of the best games in the Big Ten inventory each year.

 

[Huskerrat]

I thought is was the other way around - 12 teams (min) req'd to hold a CCG...

1st post here so lets hope us Huskers don't ruffle any feathers. You are not required to have a CCG but in order to have one, you must have at least 12 teams.

One thing I have to get used to....You guys call Michigan scUM and we call Colorado sCUm so that shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

As for the breakdown, I see a West and an East for travel concerns only. That way if you add Texas or Notre Dame you push them to the West to strengthen that a little bit and maybe add Rutgers or Syracuse to the East.

 

[toby34a]

As for the breakdown, I see a West and an East for travel concerns only. That way if you add Texas or Notre Dame you push them to the West to strengthen that a little bit and maybe add Rutgers or Syracuse to the East.

See, the way I see it is that you'd do geographic balance (which isn't too far off in competitive, as you'd have Ohio State - Michigan - Penn State fighting for the East, and Nebraska - Iowa - Wisconsin fighting for the West) and then if Texas and Notre Dame are added, you'd put Texas in the West and ND in the East. Then if you added Mizzou and Maryland/Rutgers/Syracuse/Boston College, you'd put Mizzou in the West and Maryland/Rutgers/Syracuse/BC in the East. Still have good balance.

 

[kn1f3party]

In the end I think it is going to be the logical East/West geographical and time-zone faithful split. There is a lot of concern about putting scUM, Ohio State, and Penn State in the same division because of what happened in the Big XII. While traditionally, this would seem to load that division. But if we're honest, scUM is abysmal and it is hard to say when and if they will be decent again. It seems Nebraska fans aren't too worried about putting us all in the same division. Maybe the problems that the Big XII experienced were more of an issue with the participants. We're starting to see this. In a newly modeled Big Ten, I couldn't see our fan bases and university presidents bickering about where the power is.

Honestly, does anyone think that specific school presidents are more powerful than others in this conference? I've never really felt that.