New Divisions: ESPN We are in the West of course.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Besides UW lost to quality opponents too, and in much better ways than we lost. Oregon St by 3, NU by 3, PSU by 3, MSU by 3, tOSU by 7, Stanford by 6.

UW was real close to being 10-2, 11-1, or even undefeated. They were a lot better than their record suggested.

Did I also mention they beat us by 39? Now I don't know how much of this Wisconsin team will be there for Andersen, but we shouldn't credit ourselves with winning the division more often than Wisconsin, because the results can't lead us to that conclusion.

 

[The Dude]

I'm noticing a lot of relegating UW to 2nd fiddle in this new division. I might point out 48-17, 30-27 (with a 17 point lead blown), 70-31. One team has been clearly ahead of the other but its not Nebraska. Traditionally UW doesn't hold a candle to NU but on the field recently UW is clearly in the drivers seat in this new alignment.

Wisconsin clearly ahead of Nebraska?? LOL wow. How many games did Wisconsin lose last year? How many of them being quality opponents? Nebraska lost to UCLA, tOSU, UW and UGA. All quality teams. At least we can say we made it there because we were the BEST in our division, and we didn't make it there by default.

Its going to be interesting to see how Wisconsin does with no Monte Ball and no Jared Abbrederis.

Also, with the talent WI is losing, defensively and offensively, and changing the defense and offense, with a new coach, how do you figure they are in the drivers seat? I would say Northwestern would be in the drivers seat before Wisconsin at this point.

 

[tschu]

Wisconsin may have been the better team last year but our program is the stronger program over the course of say the next 10 years.

 

[Comish]

I'm noticing a lot of relegating UW to 2nd fiddle in this new division. I might point out 48-17, 30-27 (with a 17 point lead blown), 70-31. One team has been clearly ahead of the other but its not Nebraska. Traditionally UW doesn't hold a candle to NU but on the field recently UW is clearly in the drivers seat in this new alignment.

Wisconsin clearly ahead of Nebraska?? LOL wow. How many games did Wisconsin lose last year? How many of them being quality opponents? Nebraska lost to UCLA, tOSU, UW and UGA. All quality teams. At least we can say we made it there because we were the BEST in our division, and we didn't make it there by default.

Its going to be interesting to see how Wisconsin does with no Monte Ball and no Jared Abbrederis.

Also, with the talent WI is losing, defensively and offensively, and changing the defense and offense, with a new coach, how do you figure they are in the drivers seat? I would say Northwestern would be in the drivers seat before Wisconsin at this point.

For whatever it adds to the discussion..........I believe Beliema has commented before that this years senior class (and by extension......this years team) was going to be his most talented with at least 12 nfl prospects.

 

[B.B. Hemingway]

I'm noticing a lot of relegating UW to 2nd fiddle in this new division. I might point out 48-17, 30-27 (with a 17 point lead blown), 70-31. One team has been clearly ahead of the other but its not Nebraska. Traditionally UW doesn't hold a candle to NU but on the field recently UW is clearly in the drivers seat in this new alignment.

Wisconsin clearly ahead of Nebraska?? LOL wow. How many games did Wisconsin lose last year? How many of them being quality opponents? Nebraska lost to UCLA, tOSU, UW and UGA. All quality teams. At least we can say we made it there because we were the BEST in our division, and we didn't make it there by default.

Its going to be interesting to see how Wisconsin does with no Monte Ball and no Jared Abbrederis.

Also, with the talent WI is losing, defensively and offensively, and changing the defense and offense, with a new coach, how do you figure they are in the drivers seat? I would say Northwestern would be in the drivers seat before Wisconsin at this point.

For whatever it adds to the discussion..........I believe Beliema has commented before that this years senior class (and by extension......this years team) was going to be his most talented with at least 12 nfl prospects.

I didn't see that on the roster....

 

[Hercules]

I feel like Nebraska and Wisconsin are on pretty even ground right now, as far as divisional play goes. Remember, if they had been in the same division last year, there wouldn't have been any rematch.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

Wisconsin also had a big advantage in really knowing all the teams in the Big 10, that is kind of gone now since they have a new staff.

 

[Junior]

Well it appears we should make it to the B1G championship game 7/10 years with Wisconsin making it a few and maybe northwestern sneaking in once. No excuse for not dominating this division

Yep, just like we dominated the Big XII North.

 

[Husker from Kansas]

Well it appears we should make it to the B1G championship game 7/10 years with Wisconsin making it a few and maybe northwestern sneaking in once. No excuse for not dominating this division

Yep, just like we dominated the Big XII North.

We would have really dominated the Big XII North if we wouldnt of had Callahan as a coach for 5 of them and totally ran the program into the ground, and even he won it once.

 

[zoogs]

We would have really dominated the Big XII North if we wouldnt of had Callahan as a coach for 5 of them and totally ran the program into the ground, and even he won it once.

We didn't win the North in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003.

Frank went 1/6.

 

[Husker from Kansas]

I somehow seem to always think that Frank was more successful than that. It really is surprising he didnt do better than that considering the state of the program when he inherited it

 

[Mavric]

I somehow seem to always think that Frank was more successful than that. It really is surprising he didnt do better than that considering the state of the program when he inherited it

Yeah, he was just letting the program gravitate toward mediocrity.

 

[mrandyk]

You're short-changing Penn State drastically.

People love saying...it's over or that program is done - hell they said it about Nebraska and Notre Dame. My sister went to Penn State...never underestimate their size and influence 1 out of every 5 college grads in the US went to Penn State...I went to games there in the 80's - the place is football - will always be football - State College becomes the 3rd largest city in the State on Saturday. This will not be an alumni-fanbase that acquiesces to forever mediocrity. And they have a good coach. It's actually quite easy to rebound these days in college with scholie limits and parity across the nation. All it takes is one or two monster classes and the ball starts rolling downhill. (And of course, the opposite can happen.) College football success or failure is fragile...

Penn State will be a player the next 100 years in football in the B1G - they're too big to fail - trust me. To say PSU will never be a power again is pretty dramatic and completely baseless.

So...

East Division

Penn State - 2 National Championships (7 perfect seasons)

Ohio State - 7 National Championships

Michigan - 11 National Championships

Michigan State - 6 National Championships

Back the crazy up!

I'm not even sure 1 out of every 5 people in Pennsylvania went to Penn State: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_Pennsylvania

 

[SeeingRedMK]

The problem with the protected crossovers is that it unbalances the division schedule long term by penciling in a permanent opponent. Back in the old setup Michigan had the hardest path of going through the Legends + OSU every year (although I realize that Neb had a harder path the first two years due to you guys getting Wisconsin + Osu and Penn state rotated in, although it lets up in 2013 and 2014). If they did protect the Minnesota game, the situation will be flipped with Michigan getting a weak opponent every year while the rest of the East will have harder match ups (on average).

Not having protected games is the only way to guarantee a balanced schedule over the long run - Indiana/Purdue is getting a break by the crossover, but they aren't expected to compete for a title every year so it's not as harmful to protect that game.

The question I have is, what if these teams become "good"? What if IU or Purdue starts regaining strength in terms of their program? Then for the other school it would be considered a "tough" game. I know it's not the case now. But for some of these rivalries the weaker team will eventually rebound - PSU had a stretch under Joe Pa several years ago where they were under .500. They have come back to become a perenniel winner.

I love the Illinois game but if I had to choose between then and protecting our rivalry then I'm taking the rivalry no question.

How much can the Little Brown Jug mean to Gopher fans? they are 24-71-3 all time. 30 year olds have only seen them win once.

The Little Brown Jug game, IMO, is more about a traditional rivalry. If the game is not played annually, it would be another B10 rivalry with a trophy (Minnesota-PSU; Governor's Victory Bell) that is played less frequently. I would hate to see this happen.

 

[exswoo]

Purdue or Indiana may start getting hot, but I doubt it'll be a permanent move and it's doubtful that both teams will be strong at the same time, especially since they are located in the same state and share the same recruiting base. Indiana, in particular, has been long been the basement football team of the Big Ten, with only 2 Big Ten Championships and 3 Bowl wins over the past 120 years. \

You can probably build stronger cases for the revival of pretty much any other bottom tier FB program than Indiana - at least Rutgers, Illinois, and Maryland have strong recruiting bases and Minnesota has the right mentality (and past glory years).