East-West not necessarily best for NU

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Tom Osborne chuckled as he thought back to a Big Ten meeting he attended after Nebraska first became part of the conference.
The topic of discussion was division alignment.

"They said their No. 1 principle — they always had principle — was competitive balance," the former Husker athletic director said Wednesday.

Big Ten officials analyzed team records over a period of several years and determined the big dogs were Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and Nebraska.

"They wanted to make sure those four teams played a maximum number of times," Osborne said.

So much for principles.
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http://journalstar.c...e4cfdf8b1a.html

 
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While it does look unbalanced now, it's pretty tough to predict the future. (example....Penn St's situation).

For time zone, logic, recognition and travel purposes it's an improvement.

 
While I think this is a temporary division split until we go to 16 teams, Why not keep MSU in our division and protect the MSU-Mich game instead of Ind/Pur.

Read the article and then read this comment from a poster. He makes some good points

  1. UNL_Fan - 52 minutes ago This divisional alignment is absolute trash. I know that a lot of the local media is going to spin this as being a positive, because Nebraska will have an easier road to the conference championship game and the shorter travel distance for fans. That is flat out wrong. This is a very bad thing for Nebraska from almost any vantage point it is looked at from.
     
    Welcome back to the Big 12 north. The Big 12 north was a laughing stock within the conference and even nationally. How many times did Nebraska fans have to listen to ESPN analysts on national TV talk about how the Big 12 north was such a joke. How many times did they say things like "Nebraska will represent the north in the conference championship game, but there are really 3-4 teams (ie Oklahoma St, Oklahoma, Texas, even Texas Tech and Texas A&M some years) in the Big ...12 south better than the #1 team from the north."
     
    There is going to be a huge tv network bias / big ten bias / national media bias / fan bias towards the Eastern Division. What games would Nebraska play every year that can compete with Ohio St vs Michigan / Michigan vs Michigan St / Ohio St vs Michigan St / Penn St vs Michigan St / Penn St vs Ohio St / Penn St vs Michigan? Nebraska vs Wisconsin is the only one and that still isn't even on the same level as these other games. And that's only considering the Big Ten Network programming. There is no game vs a team in Nebraska's division that will mean anything in the national picture. All of the games I listed have more national appeal than any of Nebraska's divisional matchups.
     
    Literally no divisional game that Nebraska has will ever be a candidate for ESPN College Gameday. Maybe Wisconsin, but that will be few and far between, so there goes that recruiting opportunity. And which of Nebraska's divisional games will even be a candidate for a prime time national TV slot? None. Again, maybe Wisconsin, but not every year.
     
    This is flat out terrible for teams in the West Division when it comes to recruiting. The East division will be home to teams within the high population states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Indiana. The West Division will be home to teams within the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, (very very few high level prospects from each of those states). The only state within the Western Division with any significant amount high level talent is Illinois, which Ohio St and Michigan already have a leg up on the rest of the schools in the conference in Illinois.
     
    When Nebraska joined the Big Ten, all of the talk in support of the move was how Nebraska was going to be playing the "big boys" like Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St, Michigan St, but now Nebraska plays none of these teams on an annual basis and has zero divisional matchups that will draw national attention.
     
    Welcome back to the Big 12 north Nebraska. Welcome back being a second class citizen in the second class division. At least in the Big 12 north Nebraska had decades of history with the teams on their lack luster divisional schedule. Now in the Big Ten west, Nebraska has no history with these teams...they just have a lack luster divisional schedule that will be subject to mocking from all of the teams in the eastern division along with national media. And don't think this won't be a consistent point of discussion on ESPN to a national audience, because it will be.
     
    It’s clear that all it took was Michigan and Ohio St to say what they wanted in the divisional realignment and surprise…Jim Delany popped out of his magic lantern saying “Your wish is my command!”.
     
    And let's not forget that strength of schedule is said to be one of the factors for the selection committee when determining the new 4-team playoff...
     
    This divisional alignment is not good for Nebraska from almost any vantage point you look at it from. I could not be more disappointed that I am now with this alignment. Disappointed with the Big Ten conference. Disappointed with Jim Delany. Disappointed that Nebraska left the Big 12 for this.






[x] CLOSE

 
Good read. As I stated in another post, the way they split this (Tentatively) is not a good thing for Nebraska Sports and if the B1G continues down this road we will see the supposed (Stable Conference) become un-stable. The only thing that may help in the future with adding more teams (since they are pushing going East and South), is if they bring in enough teams from further East that it forces them to put Michigan, Ohio State and Mich State into the West with us and Wisconsin.

Oh well, what do the fans know, we are just blind cattle :cowbell: who follow the guy in front of us! <_<

 
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I don't like the split, but it is tough to predict the future. We'll have cross divisional games still. But this is tentative, and the B1G is pretty open to change.

 
I feel like MSU to the West would be the most fair move. If you take Michigan or Ohio, the East becomes much easier for someone to win.

So have Nebraska, Wisconsin, and MSU in West and Michigan, Ohio, and Penn St. in the East. Keep the Michigan/MSU rivalry. Reevaluate in a few years when we pick up more teams.

There is not much you can do for recruiting. We are far away from Ohio, the hotbed of the conference.

 
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As long as we play 3 out of the following 4 every year, I'll be content:

Michigan

Wisconsin

Penn State

Ohio State

That would work with the East/West. Wisconsin in division, Penn State (hopefully) protected crossover game, and alternate Mich/OSU every two years.

Right? Or am I not thinking this through properly.

 
Agree with Q many. If it holds, here's to hoping Iowa can REALLY improve it's brand over the next 2 - 3 years. Wisconsin stays / grows into a higher power.

 
Keep the divisions the same and just give us either of these 2 Indiana/Purdue/Illinois. The Leaders division can just get Maryland and Rutgers.

 
QMany said:
Rittenberg/Bennett ‏@ESPN_BigTen2m

… we heard so many complaints about current divisions, which were based on competitive balance. People wanted geography. Can't have it all
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This is my view on the whole situation. The masses will never be pleased. All I know is, the Big 10 hasnt become what it is by Delaney being an idiot. I'm gonna sit back and see what develops and not worry about it. I'm gonna put my worrying energy towards our Dline and turnover issues.

 
Tennessee was one of the two best SEC programs back in the 90's and the SEC East was way better than the West.

Now Tennesse is considered by many a mid tier SEC program well behind South Carolina(if you said that in 2000 they would say you've lost your mind)

In terms of keeping it central to the Big Ten I will take Wisky over Penn State over the past 20 years.Wisky never had a National Title calibur team but they were much more consistent than the Lions.

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
QMany said:
Rittenberg/Bennett ‏@ESPN_BigTen2m

… we heard so many complaints about current divisions, which were based on competitive balance. People wanted geography. Can't have it all
Click to expand...

How many of those complaints were actually directed towards the teams in each division and not the stupid a$$ names?
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There were a lot of complaints on the names yes, but it usually resulted in a "why cant we just divide it east-west/north-south?" type of thing.

 
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