Alvarez: UW and Iowa to go separate ways

[zppr17j]

deleted

 

[azhawkeyefan]

As a fan, Iowa going to the east with OSU and PSU completely ruins Big Ten expansion for me. I've been all for expansion, as long as we get placed with Nebraska. I believe that will become our biggest rivalry game over time (yes, more than ISU). If we are in the west, Iowa is secured a rivalry game with a major program. This will give us great national exposure. If we are in the east, our rivalry games will be Minnesota and Illinois? Not appealing to me at all, and not appealing to the rest of the country.

 

[WhitUp]

I truly think you are overreacting here Jon. Although you do have me worried. It just makes no sense at all (competetively or rivalry wise) to move Iowa away from all of their natural rivals. It sure as hell would not be fair to fans who want to travel to away games. Iowa would not play anyone close to home.

If Wisconsin somehow conned Delaney into allowing them to have both MN & NE, then the divisions would look something like this:

Minnesota
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Michigan
Mich St
Northwestern


Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Penn St
Ohio St


It just really doesn't make sense, I would have to believe that Iowa could put up enough of a fight to say, hey fine if you won't let us be with MN or WI, but then we get NE. No way we are that terrible at negotiating that we lose all 3. Barry himself said that most rivalries will be kept in tact. Iowa-Nebraska is a natural rivalry wating to happen. Tom Osbourne said they want to be in a division with Iowa, even Ferentz said he assumed we would be with NE. I see the divisions shaking out like this:

Iowa
Nebraska
Michigan
MSU
Illinois
Northwestern


Ohio St
Penn St
Indiana
Purdue
Wisconsin
Minnesota

That's a very even balance and preserves perfectly natural rivalries for each team.

I agree this would make sense for the divisions and then your cross is
OSU-Mich
Iowa-Minn
Wis-NEb
PSU-MSU
ILL-Pur
NW-Indy

I think Wisconsin would go for that and be in seperate divisions if nebby was there rival.

 

[WhitUp]

If Iowa and NEbby are in seperate divisons I think it makes it less of a rivalry. IF were in the same division then that game is bigger, cause could mean division championship.

 

[CAARHawk]

Umm, no. Why? Read my last post for my take on the divisions. This keeps almost every major rivalry intact. Yes, Iowa would lose either WI or MN, but we would add NE to even it out. That makes the most sense.

Okay, your comment here changed a bit. Before you said we lose Minny and Wisky and get Nebby in return. That is what my comment was about. If you have changed that, never mind. Otherwise, here goes.

Um, because Barry's statement was about protected rivalries. Iowa has two - Wisky and Minny. Nebby is a potential rivalry. However, they are a potential rivalry with everyone in the league.

So, if you are going by Alvarez's comment, it would make no sense to make the jump to a Nebby for Minny/Wisky switch. Might be fan wishful thinking, but completely illogical.

The more I think of it the more the Iowa into the East set-up makes sense.

All along I have been worried about being relegated to a Western area, because of recruiting. I also have been saying I wouldn't think Nebby would want it after their B12N experience.

An even geographic split across each division would fix that. Puts a total different spin on geography as a factor. We all thought of geography as proximity. But the could be thinking of geography as an even geographic split.