Lansing Area Radio Reporting

Submitted by KyleMac on

Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, MSU, NU, Minnesota

Biggest News?  The Game will remain at the end of the regular season.

Njia

September 1st, 2010 at 11:43 AM ^

We get to make sure the Little Brown Jug is up for grabs every year. That, and the Paul Bunyan Trophy. I really like how the B10 is paying homage to tradition.

/SARCASM

TSWC

September 1st, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^

The Jug will never again truly be up for grabs. From this point forward (well, from 2006 forward, actually), Minnesota will never have even the slightest chance of beating Michigan. 

Or so I hope.

Pea-Tear Gryphon

September 1st, 2010 at 11:56 AM ^

I look at the teams in 3 groups:

  • Upper: OSU, UM, Neb, PSU
  • Middle: Wis, Iowa, MSU, NW
  • Lower: Pur, ILL, IU, Minn

By that grouping, the upper is split evenly, but we have 3/4 of the middle and only 1/4 of the lower. I guess if you switch Pur and MSU it would even out. I really don't care that much as long as The Game is the last week of the season. Ideally we'd be in the same division, but I'll take this as a second-best option.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

September 1st, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^

Seriously?  If the report is correct, we get to keep the Game intact, the Brown Jug game returns to every year status ... in short, expansion actually improves the rivalry status, and you're complaining about wanting Indiana instead of Northwestern?

If this report turns out right I will be ecstatic.  Who gives a shit about Indiana?

Captain

September 1st, 2010 at 11:46 AM ^

Please let this news be accurate.  I will take a division comprised of any B10 teams stitched together like Frankenstein's monster as long as the Game remains at the end of the season.

Screw New Coke, this Classic tastes great!

Rashman

September 1st, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^

Man, oh man, do I hope this is true.  Added bonus for us Chicago guys is that we won't have Northwestern rolling off the schedule so we'll get a guaranteed "home" game every two years.  Plus, as already stated, a yearly battle for the Jug.  I'm sure MVictors will be pleased.

Nick

September 1st, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^

That may happen on occasion.  In 8-gm conference format, we play six teams every year (MSU, NEB,MINN,IOWA,NW and OSU) and then we play the other teams in the other division twice every 5 years 

Going to a nine-gm schedule gives us 3 games with each Non-OSU team out of the other division every 5 yrs.  This sucks not being able to play teams as often as normal, but its not that BAD nor is it too unfair from a scheduling stanpoint.

Every so often, a team will get a bad draw and possibly play the 9 toughest teams in the conference exclluding itself ( say if we play OSU, PSU, WISC and PUR in a year with Illinois and IU being terrible).  But it is likely possible that they can stagger the years in which we play PSU and Wisky.

Clarence Beeks

September 1st, 2010 at 12:57 PM ^

Well, to be fair, A LOT of the people who post here never even look at the sidebar.  Ever.  They look at the MGoBoard page, which lists posts by most recent post.  So, the decision to post in this one versus the other one probably results from the fact that this one was further toward the top of the page than the other one (which it was when I clicked on it).

Shalom Lansky

September 1st, 2010 at 11:54 AM ^

Obviously Michigan and OSU same division, last game of season is the #1 choice but if we're thrown into separate divisions, playing an out of division game in the last week is a major con.  If those are the divisions as listed above I think a serious argument could be made for having Michigan v. Nebraska as the last game to potentially decide who goes to the B10 championship game.  Part of what makes Michigan OSU great are the high stakes involved, if the game is the last of the season but Michigan and OSU are in separate divisions the high stakes are removed, somewhat limiting the power of the rivalry. 

Tater

September 1st, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^

Counting the protected OSU game, this gives Michigan one of the toughest schedules in the conference on a regular basis, while OSU gets off easy.  To elaborate on what Gryphon wrote, OSU plays Indiana, Illinois, and Purdue at the bottom of their division while Michigan plays MSU, NU, and Minny.   

Even though I fully expect Michigan to reassert their superiority over MSU, an inferior MSU still averages three wins per decade against Michigan because of the nature of the rivalry.  Also, NU has a way of producing unexpectedly good teams from time to time, and Minnesota has flirted with being a decent team on occasion.

I don't like this.

Rashman

September 1st, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^

It's far from perfect from our perspective, but it's still a hell of a lot better than it was when I went to sleep last night.

I see the point about having a tougher schedule, but I'm looking forward to the days when we'll have teams that will *WANT* to play a tougher schedule because we're the leaders and best.  Let's take on all comers and show them who THE VICTORS are!

BraveWolverine730

September 1st, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^

I said this on another post a while ago but the whole "Michigan is gonna have a tougher schedule" is BS.  OSU has protected games right now against PSU and us, if you were to line that up against everyone else's protected games, you would consider that the toughest of the bunch and they have owned the Big Ten this decade.

M-Wolverine

September 1st, 2010 at 12:34 PM ^

Isn't that tough?

I don't know that the bottom is that much tougher. Yeah, NW might make it so, a little. But we were going to play MSU anyway. That wasn't going to change. And really, if you look at it, of the groups of 3-

In ours, only Northwestern has won a Big Ten title in most of our lifetimes. In theirs, Illinois and Purdue have. I don't know than other those couple of years that they played us tough that Minnesota has been any better than Indiana has. I think our teams are more consistent....theirs have bigger ups and downs.

And Wisconsin has been better than Iowa, and Nebraska probably better than PSU...so, it evens out.

smwilliams

September 1st, 2010 at 12:09 PM ^

I broke it down historically in my first post here, but the tiers are essentially...

TIER 1: Michigan, OSU, PSU, Nebraska

TIER 2: Wisconsin, Iowa

TIER 3: Purdue, Michigan State, Northwestern

TIER 4: Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana

We do end up in a tougher division. Wisconsin gets the short end of the stick as far as rivalries though. Lose Minnesota and don't get Nebraska. What did Barry Alvarez do at that meeting?

M-Wolverine

September 1st, 2010 at 12:36 PM ^

..they don't get Nebraska?  Does that mean we don't get OSU? Most of the "rivalry" games are cross conference. That might be their reward for leaving Iowa and Minn.

And with their history, it wouldn't really be that hard to move Illinois up to Tier 3. They were co-champs just a couple of years ago. That would even it out.

smwilliams

September 1st, 2010 at 1:09 PM ^

I said in the very first sentence that this was historically since Penn St joined the league in 1993 (which is something Delany had mentioned).

I'd be in favor of Wisky getting Nebraska and not Iowa because it frees up the ability to keep some other rivalry games. You could go...

Michigan-OSU
Nebraska-Wisky
Little Bro-Penn St
NW-Illinois
Minn-Purdue
Iowa-Indiana

I still think there was a better way to do align these divisions, keep a lot of rivalries, and maintain competitive balance. But oh well, this is what we'll get.

Wolverine96

September 1st, 2010 at 12:06 PM ^

and "The Game" remains the last game of the season, this is the best news to come out of East Lansing since they...

...what good news has ever come out of East Lansing?

Moleskyn

September 1st, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^

If this is from a reliable source (which, to this point, has not been proven) I like it. We get the game at the end of the season (check), our other rivalries remain intact on an annual basis (check) and we have the opportunity to crap on Nebraska every year and remind them that it was OUR national championship in '97 (bonus).

No matter how you slice it, there are going to be pros and cons; that's just the nature of major changes. But keep in mind that Illinois and Purdue have are about on par with Northwestern and Minnesota.

If this is true and we actually do keep The Game at the end of the season, I can live with this alignment.

Nick Sparks

September 1st, 2010 at 12:11 PM ^

Or does this still kind of suck for the rivalry even though it's still the last game of the season?

I mean... let's say that M and OSU both have their divisions won at that point in the season - or, either one of them for that matter...

Then they know they have a Big 10 championship game in a couple weeks to prep for that could give them a berth in the MNC game, so what's the point of risking injury in a game the may not matter as much?

Of course, The Game will always matter, however if both teams know they're going to meet each other again for all the marbles what's keeping them from only going half throttle in the end of the season classic?

The only way I could see around this is if this out-of-division game actually counted toward their division standings. Is there any possibility of this happening?

Mgobowl

September 1st, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^

I see the incentive to not show everything or bck off a little, however 1 loss can ruin your chances of a MNC especially if that loss is to a UM or OSU. There is no way you can bank on the Big Ten Championship game getting you into the BCS championship game with the amount of parity in the game today.

Needs

September 1st, 2010 at 12:31 PM ^

I have to imagine they'll count toward division standings. Otherwise, there's not really a Big 10 conference, there are two conferences that have an agreement to play a championship game and to hold a series of non-conference games.

In-division records will likely be a key tie-breaker (right after head-to-head, I'd imagine), but all Big 10 games should/will count toward the divisional standings.

winterblue75

September 1st, 2010 at 12:32 PM ^

I wonder why the city of the school that is getting the worst of the deal (not playing UM on last Saturday, losing the last Saturday rilvarly with PSU) is breaking the divisional alignment news. Have fun with the Hoosiers or whoever else you call a rival Sparty

DesHow21

September 1st, 2010 at 12:52 PM ^

 

We are Michigan. 

Act like you've been there before. I say bring it on.

The day Michigan is scared of MSU and NU, we might as well disband the team and use the Big House for competitive dancing. 

Jablueski

September 1st, 2010 at 12:53 PM ^

OSU wins again. That's the problem with breaking up based on past performance. The team with the best performance gets the easiest in division schedule because they don't have to play themselves.

Before long we will have six rivalry games: Iowa, OSU, MSU, ND, Minn, Neb. Our players will be even more beaten up and burned out.

And our bean counter AD will not blame himself. This is not how you turn around a struggling program.