Future Big Ten Realignment

[AreWeThereYet]

I happen to like the current East- West divisions even though they are lopsided, but there may come a point when something else has to be tried. Here is the scenario. 5-6 years from now Rutgers and Maryland get totally fed up with having no chance in a division with Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan & Michigan State. They have been lobbying for years behind the scenes to get a little more breathing room or exit the Big Ten.

What are your ideas for Big Ten realignment with or without either Rutgers, Maryland or both. Remember that any conference with 12 teams is required to have divisions and a championship game.

A possible alignment I come up with would be North - South divisions. It would try to keep together teams that fit together geographically and are rivals.

North
Michigan
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Illinois

South
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Rutgers
Northwestern
Purdue
Indiana

One designated cross over game per team:
Ohio State - Michigan
Northwestern - Illinois
Wisconsin - Penn State
Iowa - Purdue
Michigan State - Maryland
Minnesota - Rutgers
Nebraska - Indiana
Scott Frost gets his wish to play a team like Indiana every year.

I would have rather have had Northwestern than Illinois in the North, but thought that it made for too many weak teams in the South. On the other hand too many weak teams in the south might keep Maryland and Rutgers happy.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Drop only Rutgers and add Notre Dame.

I don't see Notre Dame playing in the Big Ten West, so this is what I come up with.

North
Michigan
Michigan State
Wisconsin
Iowa
Northwestern
Minnesota
Nebraska

South
Ohio State
Penn State
Maryland
Notre Dame
Purdue
Indiana
Illinois

One designated cross over game per team:
Ohio State - Michigan
Northwestern - Illinois
Wisconsin - Penn State
Iowa - Notre Dame
Michigan State - Purdue
Minnesota - Maryland
Nebraska - Indiana

 

[DDThompson]

No. Don’t like it.

Your south is weaker by far than the current west with the two of the State Us and 5 basketball schools.

The current alignment is only lopsided because of one team — OSU

 

[Fryowa]

Realignments are dumb. What are you going to do when they get lopsided again? And again? And again?

Currently each division has one really good team, two pretty good teams, and four shit teams. It’s as close as you’re going to get it.

 

[hawkinn3]

I see no problem with the current alignment. You can’t have balance because OSU is so much better they make any division the best.

If I had complete control I’d kick out little red and Maryland.

 

[guffus]

My prediction is that starting in the 2022 season, the NCAA will pass a rule change for conference championship games. This change will allow conferences to get rid of divisions and just have the top 2 teams make the CCG.

The Big Ten will then vote to get rid of divisions and go with a schedule of 5 permanent rivals that you play every year and play the other 8 teams 50% of the time.

The 5 permant rivals will be

Iowa - Neb, Minn, Wisc, NW, ILL
Neb - Iowa, Minn, Wisc, NW, PSU
Minn - iowa, Neb, Wisc, Mich, Indy
Wisc - Iowa, Neb, Minn, NW, MSU

NW - Iowa, ILL, Pur, Wisc, Neb
ILL - Iowa, NW, Indy, Pur, OSU
Pur - NW, ILL, Indy, Mich, Rut
Indy - ILL, Pur, MSU, MD, Minn

MSU - Wisc, Mich, PSU, Indy, MD
Mich - Minn, Pur, MSU, OSU, Rut
OSU - ILL, Mich, PSU, Rut, MD

PSU - Neb, MSU, OSU, Rut, MD
Rut - Mich, OSU, PSU, MD, Pur
MD -MSU, OSU, PSU, Rut, Indy

 

[racerhawk]

The interesting thing right now is that the big ten west is pretty darn good, and getting better. We know Iowa, Wisky (lol on their game yesterday, but I digress), and Minny are strong currently. NW, Purdue, and even Illinois will likely be reasonably strong in the future. I suppose Nebraska won't suck forever, but who knows.

Looking at recruiting, a lot of the West division teams are recruiting at a pretty high level right now as well.

OSU is the outlier. Minny beat PSU, and Wisky destroyed Michigan. MSU was mostly garbage this year.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

No. Don’t like it.

Your south is weaker by far than the current west with the two of the State Us and 5 basketball schools.

The current alignment is only lopsided because of one team — OSU

and i would think you'd have to keep UM/OSU in the same division for "the game" each season because if you don't, it's possible that they could meet back to back in "the game" and then the B1G game and that would kind of suck. both games would be cheapened. ND/PSU/PU/ILL/IA/kNU/jNW would not be a bad division. and i think ND would love to not be in the same division as OSU and be in the West. easier path to B1G game and potentially the playoff.

 

[guffus]

The main problem with the east-west is not the overall records in cross-division games, which have been amazingly balanced almost every year except 2017. In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 the tow divisions have finished within 2 games of each other in overall cross-division games.

Instead there are 2 main problems.

Problem #1
The east team has won the CCG every year, which helps the argument that the best team always comes out the east. So even if there is a year when PSU, Mich, or MSU may be down, there is never a year when they are all down. Plus OSU has never been down since the east-west divisions have been set up.

Problem #2
Cross-over schedules limit the number of times every school plays where you you only play some teams at home once every 6 years. For example Iowa's game at Columbus in 2020 will be Iowa first game in Columbus since 2013. This problem could be solved by either getting rid of divisions or splitting into 3 divisions. Both would require a NCAA rule change for CCG.

 

[ssckelley]

People may not realize this but the divisions are perfectly balanced right now. Just look at the records, they damn near play .500 against each other, the difference is Ohio State. Either division you put Ohio State in will create make that division the stronger division.

If Maryland and Rutgers really are bitching about the alignments then they can both go find new conferences. Neither school will find another conference that generates the amount of TV revenue like the BTN does, I can't imagine the SEC would take either school.

 

[Fryowa]

People may not realize this but the divisions are perfectly balanced right now. Just look at the records, they damn near play .500 against each other, the difference is Ohio State. Either division you put Ohio State in will create make that division the stronger division.

If Maryland and Rutgers really are bitching about the alignments then they can both go find new conferences. Neither school will find another conference that generates the amount of TV revenue like the BTN does, I can't imagine the SEC would take either school.

The only “realignment" that would ever make sense is to kick Maryland and Rutgers to the curb, let Nebraska go back to the LessThan 12, go to a ten game conference schedule and play everybody, alternating home/away every year.

 

[ssckelley]

The only “realignment" that would ever make sense is to kick Maryland and Rutgers to the curb, let Nebraska go back to the LessThan 12, go to a ten game conference schedule and play everybody, alternating home/away every year.

I wouldn't hate this but our schedule gets tougher by letting Nebraska go.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

Realignments are dumb. What are you going to do when they get lopsided again? And again? And agin?

Currently each division has one really good team, two pretty good teams, and four shit teams. It’s as close as you’re going to get it.

I think the Big Ten is pretty stable for now. What grumbling there is does seem to come from the bottom of the east division. Rutgers really isn't in a financial position to pull out of the conference even if they desired to do so. The school went through a huge system wide expansion back in the 90's and 00's. There's a huge multi-generational debt to pay for all of that, and they need all that Big Ten money. There's also going to be the usual complaining from Michigan and and to a lesser extent Penn State about playing brides maid to Ohio State, but that's a problem for them to figure out.

 

[Xerxes]

I happen to like the current East- West divisions even though they are lopsided, but there may come a point when something else has to be tried. Here is the scenario. 5-6 years from now Rutgers and Maryland get totally fed up with having no chance in a division with Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan & Michigan State. They have been lobbying for years behind the scenes to get a little more breathing room or exit the Big Ten.

I'd have to see some sort of evidence in order to believe a shred of this. Maryland and Rutgers are lucky as hell to be in the B1G. I don't believe for a second they are lobbying or having second thoughts about joining because if they would inexplicably leave, where are they going to go? The ACC may take back Maryland because of their basketball brand but there is still butthurt feelings about them leaving.

They may take beatings on 9 fall Saturdays but that also allows them to have full men's and women's athletic programs.

The only way Maryland and/or Rutgers is leaving the B1G is if they would somehow get kicked out.

 

[JRD90]

The East is better only because of Ohio St. Whichever division has Ohio State will win the majority of the BIG championship games. I don't think you can say Penn St and Michigan are clearly better than the West teams. This year Michigan beat Iowa by 3 and was blown out by Wisco. Penn St beat Iowa by 5 and lost to Minnesota. It's just an easy excuse for Michigan to say they would have better records if they weren't in the "tougher" East division.

If you tweak the current divisions at all, I would swap Purdue & Michigan St. This move would still have the East top heavy with OSU, PSU, Mich, but the West would have 6 teams (not Illinois) who can/think they can compete for the division title each year.

 

[AreWeThereYet]

People may not realize this but the divisions are perfectly balanced right now. Just look at the records, they damn near play .500 against each other, the difference is Ohio State. Either division you put Ohio State in will create make that division the stronger division.

If Maryland and Rutgers really are bitching about the alignments then they can both go find new conferences. Neither school will find another conference that generates the amount of TV revenue like the BTN does, I can't imagine the SEC would take either school.

The problem is if Maryland and Rutgers go elsewhere, the current situation changes for everyone, like it or not. Right now, I really don't think they are going anywhere. They both have too much invested, literally. The problem is they're both are in over their heads.

 

[ssckelley]

The problem is if Maryland and Rutgers go elsewhere, the current situation changes for everyone, like it or not. Right now, I really don't think they are going anywhere. They both have too much invested, literally. The problem is they're both are in over their heads.

The Big Ten would survive just fine without them. The only reason why they are in the conference to begin with is for their TV markets with Rutgers bringing in the New York market and Maryland the DC and Baltimore market. That landscape is rapidly changing with TV moving towards streaming services.

The bottom line is they need to recruit better players in order to compete with the likes of Michigan & PSU. Playing Iowa and Wisconsin every year wouldn't be much easier for them. Right now Rutgers would be a bottom feeder in the MAC, which is the conference they'd probably wind up in if they ever left the Big Ten.

 

[Fryowa]

I think the Big Ten is pretty stable for now. What grumbling there is does seem to come from the bottom of the east division. Rutgers really isn't in a financial position to pull out of the conference even if they desired to do so. The school went through a huge system wide expansion back in the 90's and 00's. There's a huge multi-generational debt to pay for all of that, and they need all that Big Ten money. There's also going to be the usual complaining from Michigan and and to a lesser extent Penn State about playing brides maid to Ohio State, but that's a problem for them to figure out.

Every team will regress at some point, even OSU. Bama isn't what it was, nebraska, FSU, Miami, etc.

Clemson were afterthoughts 10 years ago, Florida had bad years under Muschamp and McElwain. Michigan sucked under Hoke and Rodriguez, Penn State had down years towards the end of Pedoterno and O'Brien/Franklin were shit for about 6 years in a row. And we've all seen what's happened with MSU.

Would they realign the AFC because the Patriots win the East every single year?

If you start realigning divisions you're constantly going to be chasing your tail and in 6-8 years everyone's going to be whining about it again. That's the shitty part of having so many teams...you need divisions and there's no way to make them equal. The Big Ten would be perfect now with 9 game seasons because you could play everyone and alternate home/away. But that won't happen.

On the flip side, realigning divisions is most definitely not the answer.

 

[Stanzi]

I wish we could kick Rutgers out. They are an absolute dumpster fire. I don't mind Maryland but they don't really fit in the Big 10 so they can go as well. Keep Nebraska so that we have an even number of teams plus they fit a lot better with our midwestern conference. In an ideal world Nebraska and Northwestern leave as well and we actually have 10 teams but that's not going to happen.

 

[okeefe4prez]

In an ideal world Nebraska and Northwestern leave as well and we actually have 10 teams but that's not going to happen.

I suspect Northwestern will leave in the next few decades. I think football has the potential to go the way of boxing and if a P5 gets rid of football, they will be among the first to do it, particularly if Fitz retires and their program reverts to a punching bag.