As expected, the Big Ten messed up divisional alignment

The Big Ten announced their divisional alignment starting in 2011, and as one might have predicted, the divisions made almost no sense:

Division A) Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern
Division B) Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana.

The claim was made that they wanted to look at three things when creating their divisions, in this order: competitive balance, traditional rivalries and geography. Well great, you screwed up all of them. Let’s review what they did wrong addressing all three of those factors, in reverse order.

Geography: This should be pretty office. An East-West split would have preserved a truer geographic balance. Have fun with your inter divisional game against Penn State, Wisconsin, as you pass through Northwestern on your way to get there! But really, this wasn’t as bad as it could have been, as two teams in the middle of the Big Ten — Wisconsin and Illinois — were swapped with the two teams from Michigan.

Traditional rivalries: Most traditional rivalries are best preserved by a true East-West split, and as a result, most of the broken rivalries are because of the 4 teams that got swapped, like Minnesota and Iowa vs Wisconsin, Illinois vs Northwestern, Michigan vs Ohio State and Michigan State vs. Penn State. Realizing how important these rivalries are, the Big Ten, in their infinite wisdom, will have a set, cross divisional rivalry for every team. They are: Minnesota-Wisconsin, Michigan-Ohio State, Illinois – Northwestern. After that, it gets fun. Iowa – Purdue, Indiana – Michigan State (because this is basketball) and Nebraska – Penn State. So much for geography. And if they go with the 8 game schedule as is common, they will play their 5 divisional games, the 6th crossover game and 2 rotating games. This means that there will be 1 team that you won’t see on the schedule for 3 seasons. That’s pretty awesome for traditional rivalries, like Iowa-Wisconsin. Of course, there is the chance another conference game is added to the schedule, which may yet happen, but hasn’t been confirmed to my knowledge.

Competitive Balance: I have discussed this at length. A true east-west division would be just as competitive as whatever monstrosity this is. Actually, probably more so. Putting Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin in the same conference would have assured a deep western conference. Furthermore, Illinois has been to a BCS game within the past few years, making this conference extraordinarily deep. On the other side, you have Ohio State and Penn State who have fielded any sort of talented roster in the past 5 years. Michigan and Purdue have been BCS teams, but it’s been a very long time for each of them. Instead, Michigan was decreed to be just as high quality as Ohio State, and they were split up. Give me a break. When did Michigan become Notre Dame? Do we really need to coddle them and tell them they are pretty even though they haven’t been relevant for several years? How long until Michigan is viewed as what they are, a relic of history? 

Let’s face the facts, this was done for money. Michigan-Ohio State is the cash cow of the Big Ten. The split of those two teams drove the entire alignment. Congratulations, Nebraska, you left a conference that responded to the whims of Texas for one that responds only to Michigan and Ohio State.