Davisions

For the last year I have been preoccupied with the topic of Big Ten expansion and now divisional alignment.  Upon listening to the commissioner’s comments at the introductory news conference announcing Nebraska’s addition to the league and more recently Big Ten media day, I have finally arrived at an alignment that meets all of the Big Ten’s criteria.  They are insistent that competitive balance is the chief aim of divisions.  The next priority is the maintenance of long-standing rivalries and then achieving some geographic contiguity in order to reduce travel expenses for teams and fans.  The newest wrinkles revealed on Monday were that the metric being used to judge the relative strength of division is conference record for the last 17 seasons, which coincides with Penn State’s first year of Big Ten football.  Secondly, Mr. Delany was certain that once schedules could be cleared to eliminate the fourth non-conference game that the league would move back to a nine-game conference slate, which is long overdue in my book.  Nine games is the key to achieving the scheduling fairness while respecting continuous rivalries.  That means each member of a six team division would play the other five teams plus two protected cross-rivals and then rotate the other four teams so they would play twice in a four year span. 

The number of conference wins for each team since 1993 is as follows; tier one Ohio State-106, Nebraska-98, Michigan-94 and Penn State-86, tier two Wisconsin-79, Iowa-71, Michigan State -63 and Purdue-63, tier three Northwestern-59, Illinois-45, Minnesota-44 and Indiana-33.  The consensus though is that the historically strong powers should be divided up; so as Ohio State and Michigan must be in the same division., then Penn State and Nebraska must be in the other.  Next Wisconsin and Iowa would be divided, so Wisconsin and Minnesota go with OSU & UM, while Iowa would be paired with Nebraska.  Michigan State would remain Penn State’s rival (barring future expansion), so Illinois and Northwestern would join the northern contingent while Indiana and Purdue would head south.  The resulting division would be The Great Lakes with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio State, totaling 427 wins and the Great Plains with Nebraska, Iowa Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State and Penn State totaling 414 wins.   

My assumption is that the current protected games would form the basis of the cross-divisional rivalries.
Wisconsin and Minnesota would always play Nebraska and Iowa, Illinois and Northwestern would square off against Purdue and Indiana, finally Michigan and Ohio State would maintain their association with Michigan Sate and Penn State.  Consequently the typical strength of schedule of the Great Lakes Division would be 2874 wins whereas the Great Plains teams would have a combined S.o.S. of 2924 wins. 

This divisional alignment provides for the continuous play of eleven of the twelve trophy games. 
The longest-lived rivalry in all of college football would still be awarded Paul Bunyan’s Axe to the winner of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Minnesota would still play for the Little Brown Jug versus Michigan and Floyd of Rosedale versus Iowa.  Wisconsin still has a protected cross rival game with Iowa for the Heartland Trophy.  Michigan State would still continue the blood feud with Michigan for the Paul Bunyan trophy.  The Spartans would maintain the Land Grant game with Penn State and also get the Old Brass Spittoon with Indiana on a regular basis.  Indiana also maintains its finale with Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket.  Most importantly, the Fighting Illini of Illinois get their three trophy games back annually, The Land of Lincoln (formerly the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk) versus Northwestern.  The Cannon game with Purdue and the incomparable wooden turtle Illibuck with Ohio State. 

In conclusion, we have achieved competitive balance by diving the traditional powers equally, maintained geographic integrity with protected cross-rivals and brought trophy games unique to the Big ten back into consideration.