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

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

Well, it appears we have some football spirit - you can tell the season's approaching. :)

>>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.

I realize that - I just think that (much like the BCS), it will be the worst of both worlds. We'll get stuck with non-geographical divisions that don't really give us competitive balance.

That's why I said that the last 20-30 year thing is a silly argument because it doesn't take into account how much college football has changed. An east-west split would actually have the WEST being the tough division at this time and over time it might swing back to the east. You can't futz with competitive balance because that changes. Geography and rivalries do not.

>> 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 

That's reaching a tad.:) It's a geographic split - everyone is clumped together on a map and with their main rival. And when Alabama went into the tank, it was far from competitive - remember those years of Arkansas and Mississippi State being the best in the west while Florida, Georgia and Tennessee were top 10 teams? But it's lasted because they kept the geography and kept the rivalries (aside from Bama-Tennessee).

>> 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 

The geographic divisions are waaaay down on the list of why the Big XII failed. And if that's what they're trying to avoid, then don't follow the Big XII's biggest mistake in destroying it's greatest rivalry (OU-UNL). The Big Ten of the 1980s might have been in danger of that - but the Big Ten today has solid programs in the east and west (the Big XII was never close to being as deep as the Big Ten). Why stretch the travel budget (another problem of the Big XII) to try and tinker with something that changes year to year?

>> 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 

Well, as we saw when I went back through the "what if" title games in the Big Ten east vs. west, there probably might have been 2-3 years at the most since 1993 where the two best teams would not have met in that format. That's happened in the SEC as well, but they realized that the divisions and title game aren't something you change every 2-3 years based on some percentage of winning formula --- look at the long haul and keep the rivalries there and put fans first with geographical divisions.

And that's another of the big problems I have. Big Ten and SEC fans travel waaaaay more than Big XII fans or Pac 10 fans. It's not just unnecessary travel cost for teams, but also for fans. Putting Minnesota and PSU or Nebraska and Michigan State in the same division just doesn't make sense when you can have geographic divisions.

>> 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 

But there is a perfect solution - the east/west split. It makes sense geographically and it is competitively balanced if you look at "modern era" programs -- Iowa, Wisky and UNL in one division / PSU, OSU and Michigan in the other. All the major rivalries (save the brown jug and turtle) are kept and you get a final weekend of the regular season that looks like this:

- Michigan vs. Ohio State: This simply MUST be the last game of the season
- Indiana vs. Purdue: The bucket is a great tradition
- Penn State vs. Michigan State: Land Grants and some good games lately
- Iowa vs. Nebraska: This game should already be a rivalry!
- Wisconsin vs. Minnesota: The axe is the best trophy out there
- Northwestern vs. Illinois: Our annual trophy game

It makes sense in all categories - geography, competition, rivalry. It's as obvious as having Indianapolis host the title game. I just think the Big Ten brass tried to overthink this one and struck out. Big time.

THE ONE EXCEPTION could be Mike's comment about leaving the door open to future expansion ... then it might make some sort of sense. But Notre Dame ain't walking through that door, to paraphrase a sleazy basketball coach. The league we have now should be every bit as good as the SEC unless we ruin it by over-tinkering. We should have looked at the SEC as a model instead of worrying about the Big XII - a league that would have folded no matter what divisional alignment they did. The Big Ten, of course, will survive no matter what alignment they choose - but we made a dumb move when a smart one was gift wrapped with a compass rose bow.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT