How would YOU set up the divisions?

[NUance]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

[74Hunter]

Call me weird, but I say do it geographically.

 

West

Illinois

Iowa

Minnesota

Nebraska

Northwestern

Wisconsin

 

East

Indiana

Michigan State

Michigan

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

 

As of this year, the West Division would be tougher at the top, but historically, there would be a huge imbalance. If they want to swap a couple of teams out, I guess swap Wisconsin for Michigan, even though I would really like to play Wisconsin every year.

[GoBigRedHead]

We already know a few things and based on those its obvious what they are doing to a point. Its already been stated by Delaney and Alvarez that the divisions are done but schedules are only 80%. Geography is important but equal competition and rivalries take precedence. What we do know is that Ohio State and Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin are going to be in different divisions. They are going to create a scenario where each team has a rival in the other division that they play every year. Ours is going to be Penn State as slipped by Delaney.

 

Nebraska Penn State

Iowa Wisconsin

Michigan Ohio State

 

 

The rest I nor anyone really gives a Sh!t about unless you are an alum but here is my guess. these bottom three are not lined up with who I think their cross division rival will be.

 

Michigan State Minnesota

Illinois Purdue

Northwestern Indiana

 

 

The only one I think may be wrong is Minnesota but then they would have to split up either Illinois and Northwestern or Mich Mich St. which I suppose they may do. The only negative with this is that they will have to move a few games traditionally played the last week of the year into October.

[gratefullred]

Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan St, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern

 

Ohio St, Penn St, Purdue, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota

 

I believe its already been decided with the already mentioned cross division rivals. Id like to be playing Wisconsin more. I think its a mistake to move Michigan Ohio St to October, but both ADs seem OK with it. Its all over but the crying.

[sd'sker]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

although these divisions are slightly "nuanced", you nailed it in my book. as long as NU plays Iowa, Minn., Wisc., and PSU every year, i'll be happy. for the foreseeable future, OSU will have an easy road to the championship. hopefully they would have to play PSU in their cross-divisional rivalry and NU could play indiana as theirs.

 

the other thing, i would not mind switching PSU with a team from the other division, if they would be our cross-divisional rival. that way the divisions would be a little more even, but we would still have a pretty exciting, entertaining schedule.

 

the problem is that right now there will be 5 pretty strong teams, and that is hard to split evenly, they would be; NU, Iowa, Wisc., PSU, and OSU.

[GoBigRedHead]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

although these divisions are slightly "nuanced", you nailed it in my book. as long as NU plays Iowa, Minn., Wisc., and PSU every year, i'll be happy. for the foreseeable future, OSU will have an easy road to the championship. hopefully they would have to play PSU in their cross-divisional rivalry and NU could play indiana as theirs.

 

the other thing, i would not mind switching PSU with a team from the other division, if they would be our cross-divisional rival. that way the divisions would be a little more even, but we would still have a pretty exciting, entertaining schedule.

 

the problem is that right now there will be 5 pretty strong teams, and that is hard to split evenly, they would be; NU, Iowa, Wisc., PSU, and OSU.

 

 

Thats terrible...honestly. Simple math that everyone has agreed to. There are 6 powerhouses in the Big Ten...3 will be in each division. And if it was going to be 4 in one and 2 in the other why would you want the Huskers to be with the 4 and have the far east and west teams in the same division? Hoping you were joking

[sd'sker]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

although these divisions are slightly "nuanced", you nailed it in my book. as long as NU plays Iowa, Minn., Wisc., and PSU every year, i'll be happy. for the foreseeable future, OSU will have an easy road to the championship. hopefully they would have to play PSU in their cross-divisional rivalry and NU could play indiana as theirs.

 

the other thing, i would not mind switching PSU with a team from the other division, if they would be our cross-divisional rival. that way the divisions would be a little more even, but we would still have a pretty exciting, entertaining schedule.

 

the problem is that right now there will be 5 pretty strong teams, and that is hard to split evenly, they would be; NU, Iowa, Wisc., PSU, and OSU.

 

 

Thats terrible...honestly. Simple math that everyone has agreed to. There are 6 powerhouses in the Big Ten...3 will be in each division. And if it was going to be 4 in one and 2 in the other why would you want the Huskers to be with the 4 and have the far east and west teams in the same division? Hoping you were joking

i was not. osu is stable and strong (top 5 team). iowa, psu, and wisconsin are strong, but top 15-25 teams on average. who knows what will happen to psu when jopa leaves. hopefully from now on NU will be perennially 5-15, if not higher. michigan is way down and who knows when they will get back up. the cross-divisional game will help keep it even.

 

what is this simple math that everyone has agreed to? i do not think i have agreed to it.

 

also, you must really hate cu, it is too bad we may never play them again.

[GoBigRedHead]

yes yes I do hate those Buffs...born and raised in Omaha and went to Colorado State for my undergrad.

 

Really all I was saying was the there are 6 power teams based on all levels of statistics you look at (michigan, penn state, nebraska, ohio state, wisconsin and Iowa). Delaney already said those 6 teams will be split up evenly. And how can you say Michigan is not a perennial powerhouse still? They are going through the same changes and difficulties that we had just 3 years ago. In 2005 if the same scenario was taking place when michigan was still dominating and we were struggling would you of put Nebraska in the same conversation as Ohio State and Penn State or with Indiana and northwestern as you are saying we should do with Michigan? Michigan will be back as we are now.

 

Recent Conference Records of Big Ten Teams and Nebraska

TEAM RECORD TEAM RECORD

1. Ohio State 106-29-1 (.779) 7. Purdue 63-70-3 (.463)

2. Michigan 94-42 (.691) 8. Michigan State 63-72-1 (.463)

3. Nebraska 75-37 (.669) 9. Northwestern 59-77 (.434)

4. Penn State 86-50 (.632) 10. Illinois 45-90-1 (.331)

5. Wisconsin 79-54-3 (.581) 11. Minnesota 44-92 (.324)

6. Iowa 71-64-1 (.522) 12. Indiana 33-103 (.243)

[NUance]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

although these divisions are slightly "nuanced", you nailed it in my book. as long as NU plays Iowa, Minn., Wisc., and PSU every year, i'll be happy. for the foreseeable future, OSU will have an easy road to the championship. hopefully they would have to play PSU in their cross-divisional rivalry and NU could play indiana as theirs.

 

the other thing, i would not mind switching PSU with a team from the other division, if they would be our cross-divisional rival. that way the divisions would be a little more even, but we would still have a pretty exciting, entertaining schedule.

 

the problem is that right now there will be 5 pretty strong teams, and that is hard to split evenly, they would be; NU, Iowa, Wisc., PSU, and OSU.

 

 

Thats terrible...honestly. Simple math that everyone has agreed to. There are 6 powerhouses in the Big Ten...3 will be in each division. And if it was going to be 4 in one and 2 in the other why would you want the Huskers to be with the 4 and have the far east and west teams in the same division? Hoping you were joking

i was not. osu is stable and strong (top 5 team). iowa, psu, and wisconsin are strong, but top 15-25 teams on average. who knows what will happen to psu when jopa leaves. hopefully from now on NU will be perennially 5-15, if not higher. michigan is way down and who knows when they will get back up. the cross-divisional game will help keep it even.

 

what is this simple math that everyone has agreed to? i do not think i have agreed to it.

 

also, you must really hate cu, it is too bad we may never play them again.

Here is my rational.

 

I would say there are four powerhouse teams crucial to balancing the divisions: Ohio State, Nebraska, Penn State and Michigan. Sure, Michigan is down right now. But they’ll be back. Someday. Of these four, I think you need two in each division. And the tOSU/MU rivalry should be preserved just as it is. Or we'll be hearing sob stories for the next 50 years.

 

As for Iowa and Wisconsin, I’d say these two are rock solid programs on the verge of being powerhouses. But maybe just a notch below powerhouses. And I think Iowa/Wisconsin need to stay in the same division if possible. They been playing each other for over 100 years.

 

As for the other six, I don’t think it will affect the strength of the divisions much to mix and match them in any particular manner. Minnesota, Michigan State, Illinois and possibly Purdue all show glimmers of greatness, mixed with streaks of football sucktitude. Northwestern appears to be headed up under Fitzgerald, just as they were under Barnett. This too will pass. Indiana football, well, they pretty much suck.

 

 

 

although these divisions are slightly "nuanced", you nailed it in my book.

Nicely played sd'sker. Ha ha!

[sd'sker]

yes yes I do hate those Buffs...born and raised in Omaha and went to Colorado State for my undergrad.

 

Really all I was saying was the there are 6 power teams based on all levels of statistics you look at (michigan, penn state, nebraska, ohio state, wisconsin and Iowa). Delaney already said those 6 teams will be split up evenly. And how can you say Michigan is not a perennial powerhouse still? They are going through the same changes and difficulties that we had just 3 years ago. In 2005 if the same scenario was taking place when michigan was still dominating and we were struggling would you of put Nebraska in the same conversation as Ohio State and Penn State or with Indiana and northwestern as you are saying we should do with Michigan? Michigan will be back as we are now.

 

Recent Conference Records of Big Ten Teams and Nebraska

TEAM RECORD TEAM RECORD

1. Ohio State 106-29-1 (.779) 7. Purdue 63-70-3 (.463)

2. Michigan 94-42 (.691) 8. Michigan State 63-72-1 (.463)

3. Nebraska 75-37 (.669) 9. Northwestern 59-77 (.434)

4. Penn State 86-50 (.632) 10. Illinois 45-90-1 (.331)

5. Wisconsin 79-54-3 (.581) 11. Minnesota 44-92 (.324)

6. Iowa 71-64-1 (.522) 12. Indiana 33-103 (.243)

that is kind of what i am saying. teams go up and down. it is impossible to predict how any team will be in 5 years. it might take michigan much longer to get back. also, wisc. and iowa are good this year, but i think they are usually mediocre to good, but not often great. i do not know. i am more concerned with an entertaining NU schedule. so we are really arguing about what is more valuable; parity within divisions or me seeing NU play all the teams i want them to: iowa, wisc, minnesota, and hopefully psu (but the first three are the most important).

[n.e.husker]

Division 1

Ohio State

Penn State

Illinois

Michigan State

Iowa

Indiana

 

Division 2

Nebraska

Michigan

Wisconsin

Purdue

Northwestern

Minnesota

 

Looks like ive split up all the rivalries. Idk how it will end up.

[blue_hawaii]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

 

Ohio State would love that this year. It might be more balanced next year.

 

Here's mine for what it's worth:

 

you pair up each team with a local rival who will be in the same division, thus

 

psu-msu

osu-um

iu-pu

ui-nw

wis-minn

neb-iowa

 

then you put the neb-iowa pair with the psu-msu pair and for the sake of psu's geography the iu-pu pair (the eastern division or the southern division)

 

that leaves um-osu, ui-nw and wis-minn as the other division (the western division or the northern division).

 

i had then considered two protected crossover games among the three 'pods' as follows:

 

um-osu-msu-psu

iu-pu-ui-nw

wis-minn-neb-iowa

 

that might be a little hard on psu and msu but i think it really meets delany's three criteria very well

 

competitive balance, rivalry preservation and geography.

 

the final week matchups would be as follows:

 

um-osu

psu-neb

iu-pu

ui-nw

wis-minn

neb-psu

 

it seems to me that iowa would be sort of a mini-rival of yours sort of like colorado. psu is more in your league more like oklahoma (although a little further away).

[corncraze]

I’m waiting by the phone for Delany to call me. This is what I am going to tell him.

 

 

Nebraska

Penn State

Iowa

Wisconsin

Minnesota

Purdue

 

Ohio State

Michigan

Michigan State

Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

 

 

Fairly balanced, and keeps quite a few rivalries intact: tOSU/Michigan; Mich/Mich State; Iowa/Wisc; Wisc/Minn

 

Switch Northwestern w Purdue and I think you have it down this works too though

[Huskertone14]

The East-West split split makes the most sense to me.

 

West Div. Protected X-div East Div.

 

Nebraska --------------->Penn State

Iowa------------------->Ohio State

Wisconsin--------------->Michigan

Minnisota--------------->Michigan State

Illinois----------------->Purdue

Northwestern------------>Indiana

 

*It geographically fits.

*The Most important rivalries are saved.

*The 6 best teams in the Conference are split. The competitive balance is there....

[Manhattan]

The East-West split split makes the most sense to me.

 

West Div. Protected X-div East Div.

 

Nebraska --------------->Penn State

Iowa------------------->Ohio State

Wisconsin--------------->Michigan

Minnisota--------------->Michigan State

Illinois----------------->Purdue

Northwestern------------>Indiana

 

*It geographically fits.

*The Most important rivalries are saved.

*The 6 best teams in the Conference are split. The competitive balance is there....

 

Agreed, except the protected rivalries are not even needed in this case. I don't understand what the point would be... Most of those rivalries don't really exist anyway.