Divisional Alignment with Focus on Rivalries
With the words of Commissioner Delaney in mind (#1 competitive fairness, #2 rivalries, #3 geography), I believe the conference would be best split into the following two divisions.
NORTH DIVISION
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan St.
Ohio St.
Purdue
Penn St.
MIDWEST DIVISION
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Michigan
Nebraska
Northwestern
That would keep most of the rivalries in division, while still allowing for "competitive fairness" in both football and basketball. I'm sure Ohio St. and Michigan could still play their last game of the season against each other in football prior to the Championship Game.
With the addition of Notre Dame and Missouri, the division strength becomes more even with a swap of Ohio St. and Northwestern. This would continue to play into the rivalries well:
NORTH - (divisional rivals) [conference rivals in other division] {out of conference rivals}:
Illinois - (Northwestern and Purdue) [Ohio St. and Missouri]
Indiana - (Purdue and Michigan St) {Kentucky}
Northwestern - (Illinois and Notre Dame)
Purdue – (Notre Dame, Indiana, and Illinois)
Penn St. – (Notre Dame and Michigan St) [Minnesota and Ohio St.] {Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse, Maryland, Temple, and Rutgers}
Michigan St. – (Indiana, Notre Dame, and Penn St.) [Michigan]
**Notre Dame – (Michigan St., Northwestern, Penn St., and Purdue) [Michigan and Nebraska] {USC, Navy, Boston College, Stanford, Air Force, Army, Pitt, and GT}
MIDWEST - (divisional rivals) [conference rivals in other division] {out of conference rivals}:
Iowa – (Minnesota and Wisconsin) {Iowa St.}
Minnesota – (Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin) [Penn St.]
Wisconsin – (Iowa, Minnesota) {Marquette}
Michigan – (Minnesota and Ohio St.) [Michigan St. and Notre Dame]
Nebraska – (Missouri) {Oklahoma and Colorado}
Ohio St. – (Michigan) [Illinois, Penn St.]
**Missouri – (Nebraska) [Illinois] {Kansas}
Sure the Midwest Division might be slightly better in football. Although, the North Division might be slightly better in basketball. If they truly care about rivalries being maintained, I believe this is the best way to go.
Origionionally I felt that the name of the conference would need to change. I've changed my mind about this now. Currently the Big Ten Conference is comprised of schools from nine states. They could easily add another school from an existing state and one from a new state to bring the total to 10 states. I'm hoping that Notre Dame and Missouri are eventually added. Calling the conference the Midwest Conference or something similar doesn't fit since Pennsylvania isn't normally considered part of the Midwest.
I think your post is better titled with NO focus on rivalries.
In the current league reality, Michigan would have two protected rivalries with the other division? Basically never playing anyone else from the other division? Gross.
Swap Michigan for Penn State and jump on the bandwagon with (almost) everybody else.
It puts four of the assumed top six (Mich, OSU, PSU, Iowa, Wisc, Neb) in the same division. So it gets the competitve balance wrong too.
We all interpret this to mean balance, but, to my way of thinking, the best step toward competitive "fairness" would be to play a nine-game conference schedule.
Balance between any divisional alignment will come and go as programs wax and wane, but the most inherently unfair situation is when one team in a division is playing three weaklings from the other division while another team is playing its strength. You can at least mitigate this somewhat by reducing the number of missed teams each year from 3 to 2.
I think you missed the boat on this one. Any conference division alignment that does not have Michigan and Ohio State on the same side is brutal, terrible, stupid, dumb, idiotic, wrong, and should be crumpled up and thrown away.
...keeping the Big Ten name is ok because it's possible that it could come to refer to the number of states in the conference footprint?
Origionionally [sic] I felt that the name of the conference would need to change. I've changed my mind about this now. Currently the Big Ten Conference is comprised of schools from nine states. They could easily add another school from an existing state and one from a new state to bring the total to 10 states.
Stop with the conference name change stuff. The reason the conference name will stay the same is because it's a strong brand. Successful branding requires consistent, simple messages that permeate the audience's consciousness and the Big Ten has achieved this.