Big Ten expansion update

With those teams I would much rather have 2 divisions split something like this to maintain rivalries

West
Iowa
Nebraska
Mizzou
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Nortwestern
Indiana

East
OSU
Michigan
MSU
Penn State
Pitt
Purdue
Rutgers
Syracuse

This would also work well for BB start times with the East starting at 6PM CST (7PM local time for the schools) and the West starting at 8PM CST
 
Better Divisions:

Iowa
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Mineesota

Missouri
Illinois
N'Western
Purdue

Indiana
Michigan State
Michigan
Ohio State

Penn State
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
 
With those teams I would much rather have 2 divisions split something like this to maintain rivalries

West
Iowa
Nebraska
Mizzou
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Illinois
Nortwestern
Indiana

East
OSU
Michigan
MSU
Penn State
Pitt
Purdue
Rutgers
Syracuse

This would also work well for BB start times with the East starting at 6PM CST (7PM local time for the schools) and the West starting at 8PM CST

I don't think they'll do that...the east is overloaded as far as football goes...it's the same conference, they can overlap the divisions if they want to...they don't "need" to save money on travel...and the 8pm games already hurt the crappy teams' attendence...like Iowa.
 
What is the timetable on this?

If they really get moving on things, we could see this in place for the fall of 2012. More likely that it will be the fall of 2013 since the Big East schools must give 27 month notice that they're leaving...
 
I think the 8pm time just sucks. I live 1.5 hrs away and have kids. This basically means I can't go. Through in the DM and QC crown and it really screws us.
 
I don't think they'll do that...the east is overloaded as far as football goes...it's the same conference, they can overlap the divisions if they want to...they don't "need" to save money on travel...and the 8pm games already hurt the crappy teams' attendence...like Iowa.

The only reason it is overloaded for football is because Ohio State is in that division. If Ohio State was in the West for Wisky then the West would be a much stronger football division based on the last 20-25 years.
 
I wonder if Nebby joins if they would somehow preserve their Oklahoma rivalry in the preseason. It has recently been a bit overshadowed by Texas-Okie, but long term has been one of the biggest rivalries in the country.
 
The only reason it is overloaded for football is because Ohio State is in that division. If Ohio State was in the West for Wisky then the West would be a much stronger football division based on the last 20-25 years.

I'm not looking at the last 25 years...you're still looking at 4 of 8 teams being mediocre or below in the west while 7 good/great teams are in the east, with Syracuse.
 
I wonder if Nebby joins if they would somehow preserve their Oklahoma rivalry in the preseason. It has recently been a bit overshadowed by Texas-Okie, but long term has been one of the biggest rivalries in the country.

It would actually give them a better chance at rebuilding that rivalry HD...they don't get to play OU every season anymore, because of the divisions.
 
1 Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Penn State
2 Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota
3 Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois/Northwestern
4 Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois/Northwestern

I like this!

But somebody explain to me how four divisions are going to work? If we do a playoff, when and where are those games going to be played?

Maybe the schedule will look like this:
Year 1: play everybody in our group, plus group 1
Year 2: play everybody in our group, plus group 2
Year 3: play everybody in our group, plus group 3
Year 4: play everybody in our group, plus group 1
. . .

:confused:
 
This sounds so dumb. 16 teams is ridiculous. Notre Dame needs to get off it's high horse and join the Big 10 and call it good. Anything over 12 teams is just going to ruin the Big 10 as we know it.
 
Those divisions are guesses. The triangle of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota will not be broken up. Missouri's natural rival is Illinois. I would also think that Nebraska might want to be lumped with Missouri because they have a long term relationship. I would be more inclined to think Northwestern gets lumped with the IA, WI, MN group.

I tend to agree with you. It makes a lot of sense to me. I would enjoy playing Misery and Nebraska, though.
 
Bruce Feldman of ESPN on KOMC has said that Missouri to the B10 is pretty much done.

Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com Tweeted the following:

"Big Ten expansion buzz has league adding Mizzou, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers and Syracuse and splitting into four, four-team divisions. "

Then tweeted the break down:

1 Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Penn State
2 Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota
3 Ohio State, Purdue, Indiana, Illinois/Northwestern
4 Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois/Northwestern


I think that is complete garbage if it actually happens. I don't like adding any of those teams to the Big Ten. If this is the alternative I would much rather keep things the way they are and not expand at all. Garbage!
 
Any plan that doesn't have Iowa v Wisky and Minn along with Ohio State v Mich every year is = Automoatic FAIL.

You just can't do that. You also can't have a 4 team playoff to decide the B10 title. Thats beyond idiotic.

Two 8 team divisions is fine.
 
I could definitely live with those teams- a number of solid programs and several natural geographic rivals for Iowa.

For the people talking about 2 X 8 team divisions, the problem with that is you would be locked into playing the other seven in your division every year, then if you played 9 conference games a year, 2 from the other division-- that means if you're Iowa that Michigan is only on your schedule 2 times every 8 years and only comes to your stadium once. Lots of people would find that not ideal.

The 4 X 4 alignment makes it a little more flexible. I would group them like this:

East
PSU, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse

Central
Mich, MSU, OSU, Indiana

North
Minnie, Wisky, Iowa, NW

West (looks like the weakest division on paper, but always paired w/ one of the other 3 as you'll see below)
Nebbie, Mizzou, Illini, Purdue

Then give each team a permanent rival in each of the other 3 divisions that they will play every year. Here's what I came up with:

PSU-- tOSU, Iowa, Nebraska (definitely on of the hardest if not THE hardest currently
Pitt-- Michigan, Wisconsin, Mizzou
Rutgers--MSU, Minnesota, Illini
Syracuse-- Indiana, NW, Purdue (pretty bland, but will still have good schedules)

Michigan-- Pitt, MN, Neb (struggled w/ giving them Minnie, they have a rivalry game)
MSU--Rutgers, Iowa, Missouri (Iowa rivalry has been fairly even recently)
tOSU-- PSU, Wisky, Illini (fairly tough, all these teams have given them some trouble)
Indiana-- Syracuse, NW, Purdue

Iowa-- PSU, MSU, Nebraska (get the future border war + PSU)
Wisky-- Pitt, tOSU, Missouri
NW-- Syracuse, Indiana, Illinois
MN-- Rutgers, Michigan, Purdue (gave them Michigan for little brown jug)

Neb-- PSU, MI, Iowa (obvious game vs Iowa, have a legitmate rivalry w/ PSU)
Missouri-- Pitt, MSU, Wisky
Illini--Rutgers, tOSU, NW
Purdue-- Syracuse, Indiana, MN

So as another poster put it you play all 3 in your division + another division + your remaining 2 protected rivals for a total of 9 conference games. You would rotate thru all the teams in the conference every 6 years.

So Iowa's rotation could look like this:
year 1 & 2 vs the East
PSU/Pitt/Rutgers/Syracuse/MSU/Wisky/NW/Minnie/Nebbie
The East/North winner would play the Central/West winner in conf. title game

year 3 and 4 vs the Central
PSU/Mich/MSU/tOSU/Indiana/Wisky/NW/Minnie/Nebbie
The North/Central Winner would play the East/West winner

year 5 and 6 vs the West
PSU/MSU/Wisky/NW/Minnie/Nebbie/Mizzou/Illini/Purdue
the North/West winner vs the East/Central winner for the title

So looking at my proposed format, the only rivalry that I know of that would get broken up is PSU vs MSU for the land grant trophy (and is that REALLY considered a big rivalry?)[ok just looked it up, I found 17 named rivalry/ trophy games between teams in this 16 team conference; my alignment scheme would preserve all but 2 on an every year basis-- the 2 are the Land Grant Trophy above and the 'Governor's Victory Bell game between PSU and MN, both of these 'rivalries' have only been around since 1993.
 

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