Latest Rumour on pairings (and alleged seedings) for creation of Big Ten Divisions
This is from a friend who usually has pretty good information coming out of Wisconsin. (Edit: this apparently came from the Wisconsin State Journal.) It is definitely in the rumour only category, but you can see the "logic" they used to build the divisions.
North Division: Mich., Neb. Wisc., MSU, NW, and Minn.
South Division: OSU, PSU, Iowa, Purd., Ill. and In.
The order in which the teams are listed is allegedly the same in which they were ranked or seeded.
The Iowa alumni hate this division. They want Wisconsin in their Division.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:05 AM ^
Yikes, North looks like a much stronger division to me. I'd gladly swap Wisconsin for Purdue or Illinois (heck, even Iowa) here.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
North Division: Mich. (3), Neb. (2) Wisc. (5), MSU (7), NW (9), and Minn. (10) = 36
South Division: OSU (1), PSU (4), Iowa (6), Purd. (8), Ill. (11) and In. (12) = 42
August 26th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
I feel like I should change to an "owned" avatar now. Thanks for alleviating my unsubstantiated fears!
August 26th, 2010 at 12:59 PM ^
Unfortunately, the numbers substantiate, not alleviate, your fears. Lower numbers = better teams.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:22 AM ^
And we've got it!
MSU keeps IU in division and their trophy, Purdue gets IU as cross-division rival, NW goes with Illinois and the numbers add up. I like it.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:05 AM ^
I don't mind it.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:08 AM ^
i like it...
August 26th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
I am suprised Wisc. and Minn. are in the same division, and likewise Ind. and Purdue. I thought they'd split all the rivals up for a rivalry week, but I guess two of the rivalry games can be in-conference games.
It also makes the North much stronger than the South (based on 20-year W-L record).
August 26th, 2010 at 11:09 AM ^
Sucks.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:10 AM ^
If they are truly doing a north-south alignment, why would Nebraska be in the North and Iowa in the South? Technically, Lincoln, NE is south of Des Moines, IA. All of the other teams fit in the technical north-south geography except these two. That said, would we prefer to have Iowa instead of Nebraska? This year I'd say no but historically, definitely yes.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
That would not be a very good balence of power, which is more of a factor than actual geography. Besides, how much further north is Iowa than Neb? A handful of miles maybe?
August 26th, 2010 at 11:23 AM ^
is in Iowa City, but you are correct, it is north of Lincoln.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^
I stand corrected. I knew Des Moines didn't seem right. The sad thing is that I've actually been on Iowa's campus for a Michigan-Iowa game.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
F Alvarez. Wisconsin is getting exactly what they wanted.
Looks like everybody is getting split from their main rival, and every school will have a protected cross-Division rivalry game.
Wisconsin though wanted badly to create a new rivalry with Nebraska and have them as their last game of the season. That looks like exactly what is going to happen.
Also, F Hollis, because it looks like MSU will now get to be our last game of the season, and they just got a prestige boost.
I hate this expansion more and more as the days go by.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
from the end of the regular season and replace it with MSU.
We will be competing with the killer match-ups of Wisc-Nebraska and OSU-PSU during "rivalry week" every year.
We go from being the headliner national game on the most important week of the season to being Vanderbilt-Tennesee.
Can you say "BTN Overflow Channel"?
August 26th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
Ugh I didn't even think of that either, I was too pissed about everything else.
Fantastic, we're now in the 3rd or 4th featured game *In The Conference* Thanksgiving weekend. Instead of being in the #1 featured game *In The Entire Country.*
If you had told us this was going to happen when expansion was proposed, we would have all told Nebraska to go husk themselves.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:45 AM ^
Don't forget that OSU will play PSU the last week of the season, becomming the new game of the year, while we play MSU. F all of this.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:11 AM ^
I like the balanced divisions. However, I would change one thing. Swap NW and Minnesota with Illinois and Indiana. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that it is geographically unbalanced. You have Minn, Wisc, and Neb in one division and Ill, Ind, and Purdue in the other. Making the swap keeps the competitive balance while fixing geographical balance.
The second is that it gives better cross-division rivals, I think. MSU-NW, Minn-Ill, and Ind-Purdue gives a better rival for MSU and Purdue.
The downside would be that Michigan doesn't get to play Minnesota every year and Illinois doesn't get to play OSU every year, but that's already the case, so I don't see it as a real loss.
If these were the divisions, I would be very happy with it.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:12 AM ^
Welcome to the Big 10, Nebraska. Where you are automatically the 3rd or 4th most prized football program.
Aka, your same standing in the Big 12.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^
Soon to be in the bottom half.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:14 AM ^
I don't like this one bit.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:25 AM ^
Did I get ya?
August 26th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^
I think I pooped myself from the sheer terror.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^
Put me in the "like it" camp. We get to play for the jug every year. We get to play in Neb every other year (Lincoln becomes the closest B10 city to me when they join). I would take these, if I had to accept being in separate divisions from OSU.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:46 PM ^
nasty Unintended Consequences... and presuming that some dividing of Michigan and OSU is a rotten idea that we cannot otherwise prevent, I like it.
"Big Ten North," such as it is anticipated here, has great historical roots. It is a kind of a reconglomeration of the Western Conference. Does "Champions of the West" mean anything to any of you guys?
The Western Conference was Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Chicago, and Northwestern.
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northwestern reuintes the core group excepting Purdue and Illinois, with the Chicago Maroons no longer playing big-time football.
I think I might be happy just to be out of any division with Penn State. And the feeling is probably mutual.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^
I think if UM and OSU are split (which I am against), this is the best option.
Crossovers - UM/OSU, PSU/Neb, Iowa/Wisc, NW/Ill, MSU/Indiana, Purdue/Minn
Last Weekend - UM/Neb, OSU/PSU, MSU/NW, Purdue/Indiana, WIsconsin/Minn, Iowa/Illinois
Last matchup in each grouping is a ltitle awkward, but this is pretty solid.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:52 AM ^
As long as we get Neb last and not MSU, I'm ok with it.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^
I'm wondering if November would be OSU, MSU, Neb. That would be brutal but it would be one HELL of a month of good football games.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^
If this is it, Iowa is getting a raw deal. They wouldn't be in the same division as Wisc., Iowa, or Nebraska; the three teams they would have the biggest games against. I would switch Purdue and Wisconsin.
I also agree that the north is stronger overall.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
Yeah it sucks that Iowa wouldn't play Iowa every year.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
insert Minnesota. Although a scrimmage against yourself every three years would be quite interesting.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
Iowa wouldn't be in the same division as Iowa, for the big game against itself?
August 26th, 2010 at 11:16 AM ^
There is no way they ranked MSU that highly.
August 26th, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^
Avoiding those 1 or 2 win seasons does a lot to put MSU ahead of the teams behind them. Everyone behind them had some utterly awful years since 1993.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^
Wisconsin and Barry Alvarez are becoming more and more annoying
August 26th, 2010 at 11:25 AM ^
Becoming more annoying? I've found Alvarez to be annoying ever since 97 when he complained that Bob Griese would report back to Brian on Wisconsin's practices before we played them in Madison.
The guy has always been a tool.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
Just out of curosity are you English or Canadian?
These divisions work for me, I have seen a lot worse.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
I think Rittenberg's guess is better. Barry Alvarez has come out and said that Iowa and Wisconsin are being split up.
Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois
OSU, Penn State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue
It's well balanced. Would lead to final week games of Michigan/Michigan State, Nebraska/Iowa, NW/ILL, OSU/PSU, Wisco/Minny, and IU/PU.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:28 AM ^
I thought he was a proponent of Wisky and Nebraska being in the same divisions (not that he has final say).
August 26th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^
Rittenberg's divisions are a near-perfect S-curve on "Records since 1993" with the only exception of flipping Northwestern and Minnesota because it sets up a better set of last week games from a rivalry standpoint. And frankly, Iowa/Nebraska makes a lot more sense as a last-week rivalry than Wisconsin/Nebraska, at least to me.
Alvarez can lobby all he wants, but if he gets his way, you get silly games the last weekend like Minnesota/Illinois and Northwestern/Iowa. Rittenberg's breakout (which was exactly my guess when I heard Alvarez say Iowa and Wisco were being split) gives you 6 meaningful games, at least to the fanbases if not nationally, in that last weekend. Well, I don't know if NW and Illinois care about each other but at least they're in the same state.
August 26th, 2010 at 4:30 PM ^
Rittenberg's divisions seem much more balanced. I don't want separate divisions from OSU, but since it sounds inevitable at this point, Rittenberg's splits make the most sense to me.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
If Umich and osu are forced to be in seperate (I still don't like it) divisions then I don't mind these pairings. I'm not sure if switching wisco for iowa would make a huge difference overall. Either one of them was going to get screwed anyways.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:21 AM ^
Greg has a new post up on likely divisions:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:52 AM ^
i like his better, in that most of the divisional opponents are a decent car drive away for michiganders, whereas trips to iowa, minnesota, nebraska and even champaign can get pretty long or require plane trips, which require rental cars, which can all get pretty pricey.
fyi
east - UM, MSU, PSU, Wisc, PU, Ind
west - OSU, IOWA, Neb, Minne, Ill, NW
August 26th, 2010 at 12:35 PM ^
I'll take the last week games of UM-PSU, MSU-Wisc, PU-Indiana, OSU-Minn, Iowa-Neb, and Ill-NW. Although that would TOTALLY screw OSU so I'm guessing it'd probably be OSU-NEB/Iowa and Iowa/Neb-Minn. I can easily see OSU making a big deal out of both Iowa and Nebraska and, hell, I'd take UM playing either PSU or Wisc over MSU.
Yeah, on second thought, definitely UM-PSU, MSU-WISC, PU-IND, OSU-NEB, IOWA-MINN and ILL-NW. OSU and Neb can battle it out for the "Oversized, annoying, red clothed mascot" tropy. That'd leave cross division games at OSU-UM, MSU-MINN, PSU-NEB, IOWA-WISC, PU-NW and IND-ILL.
Don't get me wrong, I still absolutely, completely, 100% hate putting us in a different division as OSU but if it has to happen then I want 1) a dedicated rivalry week during the season for the entire league and 2) a decent team to go against in the final game. Just trying to be a glass 1/10th full kind of guy (intentionally not "half")
August 26th, 2010 at 11:54 AM ^
then I would rather have our final game be against PSU and not MSU.
Likewise, if we are put in the same division as Nebraska instead of PSU, then I'd rather have our final game be against Nebraska and not MSU.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:22 AM ^
Greg has a new post up on likely divisions:
August 26th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^
We'll know for sure in less than a month. Until then it seems like the only sure bets are that the pairs of Wisc/ Iowa, OSU/ Michigan will be separated.
August 26th, 2010 at 11:49 AM ^
PSU / Nebraska