I think one of the problems is that the Big 10 has clear front-runners as the two all time best teams, historically.  No one in their right mind can say that, from a historical perspective, OSU and Michigan are anything but the best teams.  I just looked this up: all time Big 10 standings in terms of winning percentage (overall, not just against Big 10 teams) has OSU and Michigan at the top, obviously.  Then Penn State at .707 winning percentage, then Chicago (weird), then Michigan State.  So, the problem is that Penn State hasn't really been around in the Big 10 all that long.  The gap in winning percentage between Michigan (2nd overall) and Michigan State (4th active, after PSU) is .168 (.739 vs. .571).  That is a HUGE gap.  The moral of the story: your championship game will never have your two most storied programs face off if they are in the same conference.  I think this would be detrimental to the game overall, which is what Jim Delaney seems concerned about.

 

Compare that with the SEC (again, historical perspective).  All time records: Alabama: .703; Tenn: .694; Georgia: .646; LSU: .621; Florida: .612; Auburn: .606; Arkansas: .575; Mississippi: .552.  That's eight teams all within .151 percentage points on the winning percentage.  Essentially you have eight SEC teams sandwiched in the gap separating the Big 10's #2 with the Big 10's #4.  This isn't to say the SEC is even better overall -- it just doesn't have two teams that are so clearly and unequivocally the best programs in the conference.  Sure you could make an argument that Alabama is the most storied program, but the difference in terms of success between them and TN is negligible.  When the SEC started a championship game, I don't think there was anyone saying "man Georgia is never going to play Florida in this game, that's too bad" because there were as many people saying "man it'll be cool to see Florida/GA/TN v. Alabama/Auburn/LSU.  I think putting OSU and Michigan in the same conference carries with it the same peril that OSU and Texas being in the same conference does: the Red River Shootout generally overshadows the championship game.  Maybe you don't mind if you're a Michigan or OSU guy, but every other team is shortchanged and the conference on the whole suffers.