[NU Sports] The Big Dozen - Divisions

[Jim Leonard]

I personally think that going by geography is overrated, but that may be how it plays out. Below are a few ideas and potential rivalry pairings - for entertainment purposes only. 

I'm not sure how many constraints you can put on the scheduling model. Clearly you can make it work where you play everyone in your division every year. Additional constraints like one rivalry in the other division AND a set game at the end of the season for rivalry weekend might be harder to schedule. 

Option #1 - Preserve all existing tropy games

DAIRY Division: (Michigan, Ohio State), (Michigan State, Wisconsin), (Iowa, Minnesota)
CORN Division: (Northwestern, Illinois), (Purdue, Indiana), (Nebraska, Penn State)

Option #2: East-West, which could be temporary if we expand again



EAST Division: (Michigan, Ohio State), (Michigan State, Penn State),  (Purdue, Indiana)
WEST Division: (Northwestern, Illinois), (Iowa, Nebraska), (Wisconsin, Minnesota)

The problem is that no one has a good rivlary with MSU. I prefer the first option because I think Penn State vs. Nebraska is the best national TV match up after Michigan vs. Ohio State. It also won't create a 'Dallas in the NFC East' scenario if we pull in Maryland or Syracuse in the future. 

Go Cats!
Jim