Of all the pre division announcement guesses...

[MNHawkeyeFreak]

...did anyone on here guess it right?
Close?

There were so many threads the last few days and weeks about the possible division selections that I couldn't keep them straight! Did anyone get it right?

 

[eyekwah]

...did anyone on here guess it right?
Close?

There were so many threads the last few days and weeks about the possible division selections that I couldn't keep them straight! Did anyone get it right?

Yes, I got it correct. See paragraph 3 of my response to WINthe PIG. I posted it the morning of July 8th.

http://www.hawkeyenation.com/forum/...ed-rival-game-should-not-final-weekend-2.html

It was much like a math problem for me. I knew there were 924 possible combinations and you could eliminate most of them. Once you figured out that tOSU and UMi could be be separated for competitive balance that really cut down the possibilities.

If you observe two teams from the eastern time zone moved west and two from the central moved east, which honors geography to some extent. The Michigan schools were the logical choice to move west and Wisconsin and Illinois to move east. (An aside the UP of Michigan actually stretches as far west as the eastern most point of Iowa.)

From there you could look at protecting rivalries. What influenced me is the prospect of a 9 game schedule. If that occurs schools can add another protected rival. Virtually every trophy and rivalry game would be preserved, i.e. Iowa vs Wisconsin. When you dig through the rivalries Illinois has them with tOSU and Purdue so I moved them east rather than NW. Wisconsin was sure to get its Minnesota game and in a 9 game schedule it would get IA.

I checked a number of websites for the same arrangement after coming up with it. I eventually found one on the NW scout board, but that was the only other place to come up with it. I never saw any sportswriter come up with this arrangement. Honestly some of the B10 boards barely had any interest.

 

[CAARHawk]

I was close. I have been saying for days that they should break up the Indiana and Illinois teams. But, I am fine with them just breaking up Illinois and it makes way more sense than what I was going with. However, I must say that I was thrown off a bit by the Wisky and Minny talk to the East. If I hadn't been swayed by that I might have had it.

I had
Nebby
Iowa
NW
Michigan
MSU
Purdue

and
OSU
PSU
IU
Illinois
Wisky
Minny

So, I was one off. I actually would have been bummed if we didn't have that annual game with Purdue. I think it is important to have your footprint across the whole region.