Division alignment idea

[dpodoll68]

You can't go just by recent history and claim that Wisconsin or Iowa is in the same stratosphere as Penn State.

Why on earth not? What's more likely to indicate future results - the past 10 years or the past 20? Does a bigger number make it more indicative? In that case, people should be worried about where to put the Gophers. Over the last 80 years (which is a bigger number than 10 or 20), Minnesota has more national championships than all except Ohio St. How is the East going to compete with the West if it's so stacked with Minnesota?

 

[wait!what?]

It is possible that the Big Ten could be split into many ways regardless of geo. or old trophy games. Never know, someone might decide to split a 20 team Big Ten on revenue alone. UM or OSU could pull TX on us. Anyways, for those who enjoyed the annual trophy games - those days are gone.

 

[MrGopher]

Currently, my favorite model is the following:

East-West as outlined above. (Min,wisc,Ia,Neb,Ill,NU----Mich,MSU,PSU,OSU,Pur,IU)

9 conference games (5 in division + 2 permanent cross-division + rotating 2 of the 4 remaining schools)

Min and wisc play Mich and MSU every year
Iowa and Neb play OSU and PSU every year
Ill and NU play Pur and Ind every year

I don't really care if Iowa's schedule is brutal. They think they are God's gift to college football, they can take it.

 

[RodentRampage]

I can't get behind a Great Plains division. For one, only Nebraska is considered a Great Plains state. Secondly, all of the states, except for Iowa and Nebraska have at least some great lakes shoreline. I can't imagine Minnesota and Wisconsin agreeing not to be in the Great Lakes division, there is marketing to be considered. Indiana, Wisconsin and Illinois don't even border a Great Plains state.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Time zones

Though ultimately I don't think it's the way the Big Ten will go (I can't envision Michigan, Ohio State & Penn State all being placed in the same division), the "East/West" clearly makes the most sense in so many ways.

Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin are in the same time zone.

As are Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Purdue.

Penn State is the one most likely to get moved. ... haven't been around the Big Ten long enough to establish any tried-and-true rivalries. The Land Grant Trophy and the Governor's Bell (is that what it's called?) are "let's pretend we have a rivalry" trophies.

 

[Mick Turition]

Let NW or Illinois have Michigan and Michigan State every year, we'll take Indiana and Purdue. Not getting the Little Brown Jug every other year is not really much worse than not getting the Little Brown Jug every year.

 

[dpodoll68]

Why is everyone giving so much credence to Michigan in these scenarios? Sure, they're a helmet school and an all-time great program, but there are no guarantees that they will ever be good again. They will probably get back there, but again, it is far from guaranteed. If they're going to line it up for money's sake, then fine, go ahead - but be honest and say so. Don't feed me "competitive balance" under the guise of squeezing out as much money as possible. No one can know the competitiveness of any of these teams 10, 20, even five years from now.

 

[Unregistered User]

I prefer the East/West scenario, but if people are still all caught up with the "we've got a Michigan problem" I don't mind the (somewhat) North /South arrangement below:

North: Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan & Michigan State.
South: Illinois, N’Western, osu, Purdue, Indiana & Penn State.

Retains most rivalries, with the exception of osu/michigan which could be a protected game.

 

[Mick Turition]

I agree, East/West is the only way. No way can you move Michigan and Michigan State to the West, that makes it way to easy for Ohio State every year and absolute murder for the Gophers.

This 'competitive balance' thing is a load of crap. Moving any of the tOSU/Mich/PSU trio into the West in exchange for NW results in the the West immediatley turning into the tougher division by far.

 

[#2Gopher]

Ok so if you go East West. I'm assuming that it is the same for all sports. Wrestling with Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota would be a tough division. If you moved Penn state over, then for Volleyball you've got Minnesota, Penn State and Nebraska, three of the top schools in the nation in one division. Bottom line is this. Some sports it may be even but others could be deep with talent. Never ending trying to figure out what would be fair.

 

[mplsbadger]

I prefer the East/West scenario, but if people are still all caught up with the "we've got a Michigan problem" I don't mind the (somewhat) North /South arrangement below:

North: Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan & Michigan State.
South: Illinois, N’Western, osu, Purdue, Indiana & Penn State.

Retains most rivalries, with the exception of osu/michigan which could be a protected game.

My research of big ten records since 93 says that this just flips the problem west. The only way I found to 'balance' both conference champs and division strenghth while splitting the big four was to swap penn state and either Illinois or northwestern.

 

[EG#9]

Why on earth not? What's more likely to indicate future results - the past 10 years or the past 20? Does a bigger number make it more indicative? In that case, people should be worried about where to put the Gophers. Over the last 80 years (which is a bigger number than 10 or 20), Minnesota has more national championships than all except Ohio St. How is the East going to compete with the West if it's so stacked with Minnesota?

I don't know why I bother, but here you go: Penn State and Michigan have much better recruiting bases than Iowa and Wisconsin. Penn State and Michigan have much greater history than Iowa and Wisconsin, do you really not understand that? Minnesota has been a better program than Iowa and Wisconsin in the past (and should be again) that's why I love the East/West alignment. That said, I can't argue with a straight face that I expect Iowa or Wisconsin to continue what they've done recently or for Minnesota to become a national power again. I can expect schools like Penn State and Michigan who recruit at the top of the Big Ten, have tons of players in the NFL, and can pay coaches whatever they want to be back on top.

 

[WilliamsArenaGuy]

I don't know why I bother, but here you go: Penn State and Michigan have much better recruiting bases than Iowa and Wisconsin. Penn State and Michigan have much greater history than Iowa and Wisconsin, do you really not understand that? Minnesota has been a better program than Iowa and Wisconsin in the past (and should be again) that's why I love the East/West alignment. That said, I can't argue with a straight face that I expect Iowa or Wisconsin to continue what they've done recently or for Minnesota to become a national power again. I can expect schools like Penn State and Michigan who recruit at the top of the Big Ten, have tons of players in the NFL, and can pay coaches whatever they want to be back on top.

Your hatred of Iowa and Wisconsin, while understandable and appreciated as a Gopher fan, clouds your judgment. Wisconsin has been good for nearly 20 years and two coaches and has won three Rose Bowls. You really can't expect them to maintain that? Iowa has been more up and down, but for most of my lifetime have been a good to very good Big Ten team. They also have one of the most respected college coaches out there. Why on earth will these schools not continue to be every bit as good or better than Michigan and Penn State? Penn State was below the Gophers for much of the 2000's. Without Paterno, who knows what happens?

On top of that, Nebraska has every bit the history and ability to be big time as Michigan and PSU.

The East-West alignment makes sense in every way: geography, time zones, rivalries, travel and I guarantee will be more than competitive with each other. Coming up with some other random alignment will definitely lead to bitching before long.