Divisions Leaking Like Whoah

Creates the least fuss this way.  People will quickly move on to real football and not complain all offseason.

which therefore justifies it as, um, something.

As opposed to the Iowa-Purdue "rivalry", which really seems more like an argument over which shade of yellow goes better with black.

"Money"

Heck of a job, FA.

That's not good enough.  The famous Texas-Texas Tech-Oklahoma 3-way tie wouldn't be decided with those tiebreakers.

If all 3 teams are in the same division and only have 1 loss each where: A beat B, B beat C, C beat A then you can't just go on head-to-head.  And since their division record is the same you can't just go to that.  The next logical tiebreaker is conference record.  But if that's the same, then you need something else.

I had this discussion with a friend of mine.  He convinced me that if there's a 3-way tie in a division, you shouldn't look at overall conference record, instead you should go right to strength-of-schedule.  Whoever has the stronger strength of schedule of the 3 is the "winner".  Then, whoever beat them is second place and the team that lost to the team with the best SOS is in last place.

Regardless, you need more tiebreakers than what you've currently listed.

It was sacrificed for the Paul Bunyan trophy, clearly the most important trophy in the land.

goes to the championship game, and the loser is eliminated from playing in the championship game, how is the game "stripped of all meaning"?

That's exactly how it would be if they were in the same division.

The logic on this board is all over the place

Mark, how is any conference game ever meaningless?  How does it mean any less in this scenario than it does currently?  Both teams will have played their entire schedules before The Game.  If one team has the championship on the line, the other can ruin it for them (just like now).  If both teams have the championship on the line, the loser is likely out (just like now).  If neither team has anything on the line, it's just for bragging rights and a better bowl (just like now).  The only way it's different is if a 2006 scenario happens where, after The Game is played, UM and OSU are still the top 2 teams.  In that case, they get a rematch.  This will make the first game rather meaningless, but it will make the second one even bigger.  This will rarely happen, but it will be epic if/when it does. 

However, in almost every instance, this game is still very meaningful. 

If a 2-loss UM team that has clinched its division meets Ohio State, why would they risk injuries to key players if the bigger game the following week is for the championship?

This holds true whether Ohio State has zero losses or zero wins.  Either way, the big game is the week after The Game.

Whats at stake besides pride?  And what risk are you willing to take to play for it.  You can argue about the meaning of The Game all you want, if Michigan loses its MVP QB and has to bring in a true frosh QB into the B10 championship game, we'd all be irate... and attitudes would quickly change.

Expansion and the B10 title game forever killed off the meaning of The Game.  We've been quibbling over the details of just how much less important it will be.  I guess its good that its still outside and in November, but it'll never be the same.

It's all about that old brass spittoon.

Probably replace Wisky, Illinois, or IU with Nebraska and the rest of the schedule remains intact as our other two non-division game.

Overall, this result works.  Keep OSU in the last weekend.  The other teams can play their non-division rivalries earlier.  OSU and UM could know more about where they stand in their half of the division going into their final non-division game.  But that does not seem like that big a deal.

It could happen that UM and OSU both know they have a spot in the Big10 Championship locked up before the final regular season game, but that seems a likelihood so rare that it doesn't bother me nearly as much as the idea of moving the game.

I care less about the effect of one of them having a spot locked up because that is possible right now (ie, OSU or UM might know they are a lock for the Rose Bowl).

If either OSU or Michigan have a chance to get into the Big 10 Championship or caught in the standings by a third team, the other one will be happy to play spoiler.  This game will still matter nearly every year.  As long as 95% of the games are relevant, the rare "meaningless" game will still be hard fought because the character of the rivalry is preserved and winning will still matter to the players.

I was more worried about a change that would alter the character of the rivalry that resulted in meaningless games that occurred with regularity.

Making it so conference record is all that matters (before tiebreakers) to getting into the championship should help, too (ala the SEC).

Do we know if this even applies to basketball? Or might it be football only?

7-6 PSU leads the series.  Is that a big rivalry?  I don't know?