A look at the new Big Ten (if rumors come to pass)

In the links today, I linked to a post that sought to determine which teams would be the best fit for the Big Ten if the ACC was again poached. The rumor is out there that an offer had been made to North Carolina, and Virginia was a rumored candidate as well. This would put the conference at 16 teams, and more than likely would create a need for a divisional realignment.

In basketball, I suspect 2 8 team divisions would be in order. Since basketball (and really all non football sports) doesn’t make much money, keeping those schools in conferences dictated mostly by geography makes a lot of sense. If you broke it down into two 8 team divisions, you will get this:

Big Ten West: Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Purdue
Big Ten East: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.

There would certainly be a bit of a talent disparity, with traditional power houses North Carolina and Michigan State, as well as perennially strong, or up and coming teams like Michigan, Ohio State and Maryland in the east, but Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin are a good counterweight on the other side of the conference.

The football divisions would likely be broken down even further, however. There has long been talk of moving to clusters of 4 divisions, which means breaking down our 8 team basketball divisions. The benefit of this would be an extra round of Big Ten playoffs, which obviously means more money. Of course, if you want the big money playoffs, they likely want to ensure that Michigan and Ohio State can play in the post season. Here is how I would envision the 4, 4 team divisions playing out:

Big Ten Division 1: Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Big Ten Division 2: Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana
Big Ten Division 3: Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Rutgers
Big Ten Division 4: Ohio State, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina

Division 2 looks like the obvious weak link, but this alignment is definitely the best way to preserve rivalries of lesser teams while at the same time preserving the chance for an Ohio State-Michigan championship. If you assume that teams are seeded based on their regular season performance, then this year, the playoffs would have been, assuming all teams were eligible and conference records from the Big East and ACC transferred:
Ohio State (Division 4, 1 seed) vs Northwestern (Division 2, 4 seed)
Nebraska (Division 1, 2 seed( vs Rutgers (Division 3, 3 seed)

So that would be fun. Nebraska against Rutgers in a Big Ten football semifinal. This is the age we live in.

I thought I would hate it, but I am actually looking forward to something like this. The only concern I have is the national stage, and that smaller schools still get a place at the table.