I thought I would post some sports related news since it appears to be breaking and a long time coming. The Big Ten has broken the conference into two divisions.
Division 1
*
* Michigan
* Nebraska
* Iowa
* Michigan State
* Minnesota
Northwestern
Division 2
*
* Wisconsin
* Ohio State
* Purdue
* Penn State
* Indiana
Illinois
According to ESPN.com, the conference is also expected to announce a consistent crossover game in football that will be played each season. Longtime rivals Wisconsin and Minnesota playing every season, according to the report.
I personally would of switched Wisconsin with Michigan.
would have.
You would HAVE switched Wisconsin and Michigan.
I would also have switched Michigan State and Illinois
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/13862295/big-ten-splits-michigan-ohio-state-in-separate-divisions
it has switched slightly
Personally, I think something along these lines makes more sense goegraphically (while also preserving some in-state rivalries):
Division 1
* Wisconsin
* Illinois
* Nebraska
* Iowa
* Minnesota
* Northwestern
Division 2
* Michigan
* Ohio State
* Purdue
* Penn State
* Indiana
* Michigan State
I agree completely zach. Sometimes the geniuses over think things.
Why have a cross over game. put Ohio State with Michigan , Wisconsin with Mn. Zach’s division makes much more sense.
Yeah, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the way they divided up the teams. Dividing up a rivalry like Michigan-Ohio State is just stupid.
Gotta have that Paul Bunyan axe rivalry!!!
Heck yeah!
Really, Wisconsin got screwed over on this. And it’s not about getting a tougher draw vs easier – it’s not just whining. With anything of this nature, there’s no such thing as perfect and I expected everyone to have to accept a little disappointment, but c’mon. I’m a huge Badger fan. For most of us, Wisconsin’s biggest rivalries are Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and Northwestern, probably in that order (though some might swap Michigan and Iowa). These are natural rivalries that interest fans in in the larger sense – irrespective of the ebb & flows of win/loss records. Given the addition of Nebraska, that looked to be an attractive match up for a variety of reasons as well. We get exactly none of those top 5 rivals in the same division. Though Minnesota will get the protected status in order to preserve the most played rivalry in D-I football, that’s it. One out of five – no other team lost that many rivalry games or even close to it. I haven’t done the math, but it looks like our travel mileage got worse – I’m pretty nobody’s changed for the worse as bad as Wisconsin’s did.
Of the 11 currently protected rivalry games, only 3 will no longer happen. Iowa vs. Wisconsin, MSU vs. PSU and Northwestern vs Purdue. And the MSU/PSU matchup was manufactured and has only been a rivalry since 1993 so really not a huge loss there.
Here’s something to really bring the issue home. As it currently stands, Wisconsin will play Iowa and Michigan at Camp Randall only 2 times over the next 10 years!
The interesting thing in all of this – on the surface, it looks like Barry got steamrolled. All things considered, as a tremendously successful coach and should be among the more influential athletic directors in the conference. So for Wisconsin to come out so poorly is…interesting. For those who like conspiracy theories, there’s speculation that this alignment is quite temporary. Further addition to the conference will come in 2013. It’s no secret Barry really wanted to see the UW Nebraska match up as a regular occurrence. Wisconsin does get Nebraska as their other division opponent the first two years. So maybe after that, 2 more schools will be added & the divisions will be re-done, putting UW, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa together.