Ohio & Penn State Eligible to Win Division Title
The Big Ten determined that both Ohio and Penn State are eligible to be Leaders division champions, despite the fact that they would not appear in the Big Ten Championship game per Rittenberg.
September 5th, 2012 at 5:16 PM ^
I don't really mind this. I think it's ridiculous that Wisconsin gets a free ride to the championship. Maybe they should mix divisions around. Or even just waive the game because we don't have 12 eligible teams anyway.
Ehh fuck it, it's still stupid.
September 5th, 2012 at 6:13 PM ^
of Double Secret Probation, does it not ?
On a minor note it was also announced that
the Divisions will henceforth be known as
Pretentious & Pedantic.
September 5th, 2012 at 6:31 PM ^
Me thinks this is a "tremendous"ly bad use of the beauty that is the new B1G division set up.
Realignment COMING ANY TIME SOON there Jim?
September 5th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
Also on thus note new divisions with the 10 year PSU team.
East (cross over) West
UM. NEB
OSU. WIS
MSU. PSU
PUR. NW
Ill. Iowa
IND. MIN
We lose the Jug game but it hasn't bothered UM in the past when they were off the schedule.
September 5th, 2012 at 7:19 PM ^
September 5th, 2012 at 8:46 PM ^
Who would hang a "2012 Legends Division Champions" banner from any self-respecting rafters? Gross.
September 5th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
if Urban had a little temper tantrum on the phone with the B1G office. After all he does have quite the reputation for "whining" to get what he wants. Now he can say he won the biggest prize available in his first year. Delaney then added PSU because ... well there is NO chance they win anything for a while ....
Go Blue!
September 5th, 2012 at 9:49 PM ^
This is on a coworkers cabinet in the office. This is why I as a person born and raised in Ohio, became a Michigan fan.
September 5th, 2012 at 10:17 PM ^
What a JOKE the people in those offices are.
September 6th, 2012 at 1:18 AM ^
I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what the problem here is. I've seen a lot of people use the argument that because of this, if Ohio or Penn State wins the division title but the second place team goes to Indy and wins the conference, it means a team will win the conference without winning the division...but that's true either way, obviously.
If Ohio is 7-1 and Wisconsin is 6-2, Wisconsin is the 2nd place team in the division. If they win the conference championship game, that means a 2nd place team won the conference championship game. Why is this acceptable if Wisconsin is given a phony division title, but not acceptable is Ohio is given the division title? The standings will remain the same - Ohio one, Wisconsin two. (At least until Ohio inevitably vacates all wins.)
I mean, who got the Pac 12 South Division Title last year? USC or UCLA? Does anybody care? I know I don't. It's not going to change the fact that the second best team in that division played in the conference championship game, even if UCLA was given a paper division title. Does the Pac 12 even award "Division Titles"? Why does the B1G award Division Titles?
Either way, to me it makes the most sense that the Division Title is given to the team that has the best record in the regular season. It's a regular season thing. The Conference Championship is a postseason game, so they're ineligible for that. When the Division Champion is ineligible, they send the second place team instead. Miami (YTM) was given a Big East Co-Championship despite being ineligible for postseason play(I looked up the first banned team winning a conference that I could think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are others, and it's entirely possible that others were not given an official Conference Championship).
This is just my opinion, but if you have the best record, you're the Division Champion, even if you're ineligible to play in the postseason. That's not "rewarding" them for cheating any more than allowing them to win games when they score more points than their opponent, even though they're ineligible to play in the postseason.
September 6th, 2012 at 9:02 AM ^
But you seem to be missing two key issues.
1.) They are under sanctions. Why even bring any attention to it and make it appear that you are not 100% behind the punishment of those teams.
2.) What is the rationale for making this point? Being in Ohio, I have to listen to those around me stating that Ohio will run the table this year and finish 12-0. They honestly believe that there is a chance that they could get enough votes to split a title. We've all seen Delaney make exceptions for Ohio in the past when he allowed ineligible players to participate in a bowl game so that his beloved flagship, at the time, would not lose once again to an SEC program. It is almost as if he is stoking a fire early in order to feed the machine for some grand scheme in the end.
September 6th, 2012 at 6:22 AM ^