Big Ten Divisions Taking Shape? Alvarez quote

OK assuming the Minn/Ill swap from what Jon wrote:
West: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
East: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mich State, Ohio State, Penn State

I like that. It's not as clean as Illinois in the West and Purdue in the East, but it is close, and it would be more fair if historical records are an indication. It also preserves all rivalries other than Ill/NW and Indy/Purdue. It would be easy to preserve those as cross division rivalries without touching the other 8 teams schedules. Think of it this way, in years when the rotation would have IU play NW (and not PU) and Ill play PU (and not NW) they could just switch. In practice it would result in them maintaining their annual rivalries and no-one else is effected.

I really think stadium capacity should be something to consider. Even if you will be playing everyone except two teams in the league, you really don't want it to look like one division is full of little engines that could.
 
I really think stadium capacity should be something to consider. Even if you will be playing everyone except two teams in the league, you really don't want it to look like one division is full of little engines that could.

I thought i saw somewhere that Lucas Oil could be expanded somehow, does anyone know what they have to do to expand it to a higher capacity?

The stadium, when it will host a Super Bowl, can be expanded to a capacity of 70,000
From wikipedia
 
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I thought i saw somewhere that Lucas Oil could be expanded somehow, does anyone know what they have to do to expand it to a higher capacity?

The stadium, when it will host a Super Bowl, can be expanded to a capacity of 70,000
From wikipedia
I think his point was the capacity of stadiums in the different divisions proposed for the Big 10.
 
Purdue-Indiana is a bigger rivalry than Illinois-NW. That rivalry should be annual, as should Iowa-Wisc, Iowa-Minn, Mich-OSU, Mich-MSU. The East is a bit stronger in a straight geographical split, but is it worth shaking things up trying to make everything exactly even?
 
Purdue-Indiana is a bigger rivalry than Illinois-NW. That rivalry should be annual, as should Iowa-Wisc, Iowa-Minn, Mich-OSU, Mich-MSU. The East is a bit stronger in a straight geographical split, but is it worth shaking things up trying to make everything exactly even?

exactly the point I have been making ... however, I think if just Illinois and Purdue are switched, this can be easily addressed as I said above ... still, I would prefer E/W
 
The A and B divisions outlined is pretty close to what I have said all along it should be....but with Minnesota in the same division as Iowa.
 
If there was a unwrtten rule that said if or when ND joins and they must play in the West, then i would agree with the geographic/historical split wilth Minn, Wisc, Nebby, Iowa, NW and Illinois in a heartbeat.
 
Just to throw this out there for thought. Instead of thinking East and West Divisions, how about North and South Divisions? NORTH 1.Minnesota 2.Wisconsin 3.Northwestern 4.Michigan 5.Michigan St. 6.Penn St. SOUTH 1, Nebraska 2.Iowa 3.Illinois 4.Purdue 5.Indiana 6.Ohio St. That's 425 wins for the North and 416 wins for the South. Plus it looks pretty competitive for Basketball. If you wanted to take it one step further, you could have these locked in Rivalry Games. Iowa/Minnesota Ohio St/Michigan Illinois/Northwestern Wisconsin/Purdue Michigan St/Indiana PennSt/Nebraska. Just another idea.
 
Just to throw this out there for thought. Instead of thinking East and West Divisions, how about North and South Divisions? NORTH 1.Minnesota 2.Wisconsin 3.Northwestern 4.Michigan 5.Michigan St. 6.Penn St. SOUTH 1, Nebraska 2.Iowa 3.Illinois 4.Purdue 5.Indiana 6.Ohio St. That's 425 wins for the North and 416 wins for the South. Plus it looks pretty competitive for Basketball. If you wanted to take it one step further, you could have these locked in Rivalry Games. Iowa/Minnesota Ohio St/Michigan Illinois/Northwestern Wisconsin/Purdue Michigan St/Indiana PennSt/Nebraska. Just another idea.

for the same reason the Big XII didn't go E/W, it makes no sense ... If you wanted to go N/S you'ld have to make the line a diagonal

N: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin
S: Illinois, Indiana, Northwestern, Ohio St, Penn St, Purdue

however, this violates the Alvarez rule, and it requires protected cross-division games
 
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If there was a unwrtten rule that said if or when ND joins and they must play in the West, then i would agree with the geographic/historical split wilth Minn, Wisc, Nebby, Iowa, NW and Illinois in a heartbeat.

exactly the opposite, if ND joins, they will want to play Michigan, Michigan St, and Purdue each year

If ND joins, and the Big Ten stays at two divisions, you will have some fighting, because PSU wants to be with OSU and add more Eastern teams; ND will want to be with the three they play annually; Michigan will want to be with ND, OSU, and MSU; Purdue will want to be with ND and IU, etc. So, I think you end up with a "pod system"
 
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Yeah, I just don't see the Iowa, Nebby, Wisky split happening. Nebby knows what it is like being in a conference where the perceived strength is consolidated in the other division. Can't see them wanting to go there again.
 
it's not the perceived strength from one side to the other that got their panties in a wad- it's the complete dictatorship with no consideration for the north that texas ran... was the issue.
 
IMO, PSU wants no part of the West, and wants to stick with OSU

I think the only way they could get PSU into the West is assurance that when they go to 16, 2 "local" schools will be added (Maryland, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, WVU)
 
The more I think about this, the more I'm convinced it will be an East/West split....at least initially...

Here's the thing: if the Big Ten is going to plan on more expansion within the next 5 or so years, why do the divisions matter all that much? As of right now the West/East split would be pretty competitively balanced, and if the Big Ten brass know they are going to expand further in the next few years, I'm sure they'll just redo the divisions then anyway.
 

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