B10 Division Alignment Focused On Cross-Division Rivals

The Big Ten will announce its two-division alignment for the 2011-2012 season later tonight. As Michigan fans or fans of the Big Ten altogether, many people have speculated how they would break up the twelve schools. It was assumed that they would try to follow some sort of regional alignment in order to rope in travel costs for schools. Nope. The Big Ten has instead, set up the two divisions to focus on cross-division rivals.

The divisions break down like this. Michigan sits in a division with Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota. Ohio State is placed in a division with Wisconsin, Penn State, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue.

Obviously, Michigan and Ohio State, who will be put into separate divisions, will highlight, what I am guessing will be a “rivalry week”. To avoid interdivision scheduling conflicts, the Big Ten can play each of its cross-division rivalry games during the same week.

The primary rivalries are fairly obvious. My guesstimation for rivalry week looks a little something like this. Michigan gets Ohio State, Wisconsin gets Minnesota for Paul Bunyan’s Axe and Northwestern gets Illinois for the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk.

The question marks pop up after those three match ups. Does the Big Ten try to continue and build the manufactured rivalry between Michigan State and Penn State? We also have newcomer Nebraska left floating in the mix. I don’t know where Nebraska fits into this mix. Wisconsin already has a clear cut rivalry game with Minnesota and Iowa is in the same division. Do they move the battle for Paul Bunyan’s axe in order to plug the Badgers and Huskers into that rivalry week? Where does that leave Minnesota? Indiana and Purdue are each other’s biggest rivals. Perhaps they let Indiana and Purdue play during rivalry week while Iowa and Minnesota play for the Floyd of Rosedale. (Who has ever heard of the Floyd of Rosedale?)

From a football perspective, the divisions (currently) are fairly even when it comes to competitive balance. Sort of. The divisions have yet to be been given a proper moniker, so I’ll refer to them as the Michigan and Ohio State divisions. Currently, the Michigan division is tougher. Five of the six teams could easily win eight games this year (Michigan included). In the Ohio State division, the Buckeyes, Wisconsin and Penn State will likely be eight win teams, but Illinois, Indiana and Purdue will have to overachieve to hit the eight-win mark.

From a basketball perspective, these divisions are horrendous. Michigan State gets to beat up on the bottom of the barrel in Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern. Seriously, Minnesota is the second best team in the division and they struggled to make the tournament last year. Meanwhile, OSU gets solid tournament teams in Wisconsin and Purdue and Illinois and Indiana are improving teams.

Whether you like the changes that come with adding a twelfth team and conference divisions, it was completely necessary to add a conference championship game and make the Big Ten more relevant in the national college football landscape. It will be interesting to see how these divisions shake out and effect the Big Ten.