[Husker] Making sense of Big Ten divisions (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

> Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune has an interesting article about how
> the Big Ten may set up their divisions:http://bit.ly/dthIqq. He supports SI's
> Stewart Mandel's<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/06/22/expansion-divisions/index.html>idea
> of a "West Division" comprised of: Nebraska,
> Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota...and Penn State!

Putting Penn State and Nebraska in one division with Ohio State and
Michigan in the other division makes sense to me based based on the past
25 years of records, but as a Northwestern alum I think I would hate 
this alignment, as our natural rivalries are against Illinois, Iowa 
and Wisconsin, and possibly Minnesota.  (Illinois-Northwestern is a trophy
game that goes back quite a few years, though the trophy itself recently
changed for political correctness.)  

Figuring out the middle and lower tiers of both divisions is interesting.  
Indiana has been the doormat of the Big Ten more frequently than 
Northwestern, at least since 1995.  Purdue and Michigan State have had 
their good and their bad years, as have Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.  
Penn State had a down cycle, as did Nebraska, and Michigan is still 
working to get out of its current slump.  (Rich Rod is going to be on 
the hot seat this year, at least as far as the media is concerned.)  The 
most consistent teams have been Wisconsin and Ohio State.  

However, Northwestern has always gotten the shaft from the Big Ten
when it comes to scheduling, so this strikes me as another opportunity
for the conference to stick it to the Cats.  

I did see one post from an Iowa fan that struck me as funny, he was commenting
on the possibility of Northwestern being in the other division with one
protected cross-division rivalry per team so that the teams see 
their cross-division opponents only 4 times a decade (meaning only two 
home games a decade) as being a big plus for them , since Northwestern 
has a winning record in Iowa City over the past 15 years.  In fact,
if the Cats only came to Iowa City once a decade, that would have been OK
with him!
--
Mike Nolan