[NU Sports] Big Ten Divisions appear to be firming up

[Jonathan Hodges]

Big Ten commish Jim Delany said from the beginning that the priorities for
setting Big Ten divisions are as follows, in order of importance:
competitive balance, maintaining rivalries, and (far behind) geography.

Yes, the SEC's geographic plan has worked, but that is mostly thanks to
Alabama/LSU and Florida/Tennessee ending up on opposite sides of the divide
(and do note that they didn't use a pure geographic split as Nashville, home
to SEC East member Vanderbilt, is actually west of Auburn, home to SEC West
member Auburn).

The most obvious situation Delany is trying to avoid is the Big XII which
was essentially doomed to collapse once it became clear most of the power
was concentrated in the south.  Yes, some teams from the north had their day
in the sun, but it was almost a given that Oklahoma/Texas is what really
mattered while Texas Tech/Oklahoma St have done pretty well for themselves
also.  Remember the 2005 Big XII championship game?  (Texas 70 - Colorado
3)  This imbalance of power directly led to the league's collapse, and it's
clear that the goal in the Big Ten is to make an equitable split.

It's also pretty clearly a good idea to split up the big brand names (OSU,
PSU, Michigan, Nebraska) to keep interest pretty even between divisions.  As
noted above, the SEC has this and has worked well for them.  The Big XII has
not (Nebraska was the biggest "name" in the north).

One can also compare this to the ACC, which split up Miami and Florida State
(as well as others).  Although they have had their share of issues, they
recently signed a hefty TV contract with ESPN/ABC and are definitely not in
fear of splitting up.  Their success on the field hasn't exactly been there,
but that's what happens when Miami and FSU have simultaneous downturns.  In
any case, they've been moderately successful, especially considering their
overall lack of a huge football following and their overlap with other BCS
leagues (Big East, SEC).

The problem is that there is no great solution for the Big Ten - the teams
will have to be split somehow.  Personally, I don't like the current setup
where each team misses two others every year, leading to lot of split
championships.  I think Big Ten fans have just gotten used to that over the
years even though it's not a great setup.  At the very least, a championship
game will help settle some of these split titles (think Iowa/OSU in 2002,
both undefeated in conference play).  I still think a true round-robin is
the best option, and we're edging closer to that with a 9-game conference
slate coming soon (expected in 2015 at the earliest).  There will always be
inequities, though (even with a round-robin 11 game slate, teams would have
unequal number of home games, like they also will with the future 9-game
slate).

Let's wait and see, I'm just excited to see what next year's schedule will
look like and when we get our first shot at Nebraska to (hopefully) erase
what happened back in 2000.

Jonathan

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 8:55 AM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog)
<sjtruog at yahoo.com>wrote:

> The Big Ten has made a lot of smart moves in this expansion era - but this
> would undoubtedly be one of the "most stupidest" they could come up with.
>
> Who cares about the last 20-30 years? The Big Ten and college football have
> changed so much within the past decade alone that going on a 20-30 year
> average is foolish. And placing Michigan and Ohio State in opposing
> divisions in the hopes that they will end the year in the title game instead
> of with their usual November game is idiotic, moronic, insipid, stooooooopid
> and D.U.M.B.
>
> Not as dumb as the B(C)S, but close.
>
> Geography is the only logical way to go here. The SEC didn't try and tinker
> with geography and it's worked out well. Some years all the power is in the
> east - now it's in the west. That happens. The ACC tinkered with geography
> and they have no traditions, rivalries or fans in the seats at their title
> game.
>
> The Big Ten overthought this one and apparently came up with the worst
> decision possible. This pretty much negates the good move of adding UNL.
>
> Dumb Big Ten. Dumb.
>
> GO CATS!!!
> -SjT
>
> * * * * * * * * *
> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
> sjtruog at yahoo.com
> GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
> Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
> ==========================
>
>
>
>
>
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