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

[Paul Dalen]

After reading what seems like a hundred articles about this, I have to think
that they all boil down to a lot of sound a fury signifying nothing.  As I
understand it, the only read decision to be made is whether to put UM and
OSU in the same division.  Once that decision is made, there seem to be only
one realistic course of action for the league to follow.

There's a lot of talk about if you split them up then they could meet in the
championship game.  Uhhhh....Hello.  Any two teams that play out of division
could conceivably meet in the championship game.  Why is this such a big
issue for these two schools?  It looks to me like the Big Ten has an
unhealthy regard for the UM OSU rivalry game, which may be just as
destructive as the complete disregard paid to NU OU rivalry.  In the end,
it's important, but it's still just a game.  Let's keep it in perspective.

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com> wrote:

> > 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
>
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