[Husker] Big Ten Divisions appear to be firming up

[Duane Feldman]

Mike, close, but I hear it slightly differently:

West                    East
Michigan              Ohio State
Nebraska             Penn State
Iowa                    Wisconsin (yeah, in the EAST)
MState                Northwestern (looks backwards, but MSU in same conference 
as Michigan)
Illinois                 Purdue
Minnesota           Indiana              

Alvarez put the teams in four tiers:  
Tier 1:  OSU, UM, PSU and NU in the top tier with all having won national titles 
in the last 25 years
Tier 2:  Iowa and Wisconsin as recent powers but not quite at the top (yet?)
Tier 3:  MSU and NWU
Tier 4:  Illinois, Purdue, Minn and Indiana (perennial also-rans)

One of OSU, UM and PSU must go to the West.  UM is evidently the candidate with 
the OSU game preserved by a perenniel "rivalry" game cross divisions.  NU and 
PSU are another continuous "rivalry" game.  This has been proposed in Week 3 of 
the season in back to back games.

Iowa gets to stay in the West according to my sources and Wisconsin goes East.  
Not sure why -- Wisconsin was working hard for an annual NU-UW game somehow.

MSU is in the same division as Michigan to preserve their in-state annual 
rivalry game, so NWU moves East (somehow, East/West doesn't work at all here)

Indiana and Purdue are obvious East teams while Illinois and Minn stay West.

At least that is the logic of my sources.  Was this the final iteration is 
another question.

I don't know more about other rivalry games.  (UW/Minn?, NWU/Ill?).

Duane Feldman

 

________________________________
From: Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com>
To: husker at romaine.tssi.com
Sent: Thu, August 26, 2010 3:27:41 AM
Subject: [Husker] Big Ten Divisions appear to be firming up

Based on various stories circulating and a report on ESPN, it looks like the
Big Ten's divisional structure is pretty close to set.  If so, it may 
leak out soon.

So far it looks like Michigan and Ohio State will be in opposite divisions.
That suggests that Nebraska and Penn State will also be in opposite divisions,
because those are the top 4 teams over the last 20-30 years.

ESPN is reporting that Iowa and Wisconsin will be in different divisions, too.
That news appears to have been confirmed by Barry Alvarez, along with a strong
hint that Northwestern and Illinois will be in opposite divisions.  Alvarez also
said that the Big Ten will go to a nine-game conference schedule in 2015.  

I think it is a virtual certainty that Nebraska and Iowa will be in the
same division.  

Here's my latest guess of how the teams will split up 
based on these reports.

  Division X              Division Y

  Michigan                Ohio State
*  Nebraska                Penn State
  Iowa                    Wisconsin
  Purdue                  Indiana
  llinois                Northwestern    
*  Minnesota              Michigan State

The two lines marked with asterisks are ones that I think could go 
either way, but if one flips then I suspect the other one will too.
--
Mike Nolan

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