After months of speculation and leaks from various athletic directors, including the Badgers own Barry Alvarez, the Big Ten made it official earlier today. Yep, the Big Ten is splitting into East and West Divisions starting in 2014 and going to a nine game conference schedule starting in 2014.
Of course the long-rumored divisional realignment happened like we all thought it would and the new divisions will look like this:
East: Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers
West: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin
In order to make one of the rivalry splits work the Big Ten will protect the cross-divisional game between Indiana and Purdue on an annual basis, meaning those two will only play one other team from the other division for the first two years and two from then on.
Outside of that it will be easy to keep track of when the Badgers get five conference home games and when they don't as the conference also announced it will be even years for the East and odd years for the West to have five games at home.
As a Badger fan this is about as good as it can get for a few reasons – one of them obvious and the other probably not what you are thinking we're thinking. First off it allows our annual rivalry with Iowa to continue and it adds another layer to the Minnesota game – one that doesn't need many other layers to it.
You may be thinking that the other reason is that it will be a cake walk for the Badgers to win or be at the top of the new division on an annual basis, but that's not it. Why? Well, because Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern are all big time competition (Iowa will be back, it can't stay down for long), they just don't have the same name power that Michigan and Ohio State have. If you think it's going to be a cake walk then you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in the Legends division over the past two seasons, nor what has taken place inside the Badgers own division as we speak.
The other reason to like this alignment? Try not having to witness Michigan vs. Ohio State in back-to-back weekends in "The Game" and in the Big Ten championship game. How exactly does this benefit the Badgers? For one with the other division featuring the two "best" teams in the conference (of course we all know reality doesn't match up with perception nationally) it will mean one more chance for the Badgers to up their resume for the postseason – whether that be a Rose Bowl birth or vaulting them up to the College Football Playoff – it's a win-win situation for the Badgers.
Wisconsin got the best of both worlds if you ask us – keeping important rivalries together (something realignment was killing the old way) as well as making the championship game matter even more for us. Oh, and pissing off Michigan State fans – who seem to think they're the upper echelon of the Big Ten despite a glaring lack of more than one championship in the past 30 years or so, who doesn't love doing that to an already irrational group of fans?
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