Will the Big 10 ever rebalance their divisions?

[NittanyChris]

Of course it’s all cyclical but the East and West remain horribly imbalanced. Having OSU, PSU, Michigan and Michigan State all on the same side is so absurd. Fine, they want to keep OSU and Michigan on the same side, but do some shifting around. In the West only Wisconsin has been consistently pretty good. Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern are all mediocre programs with only Nebraska having a strong history.

So, will they ever rebalance?

 

[Beachwineguy]

No unless they move Penn State to the west. They tried separating Ohio State and Michigan once, with a locked in crossover game, and that wasn’t a great result. I don’t think they would do it again.

 

[BobPSU92]

How about the west get their shit together and play better football?

 

[NittanyChris]

No unless they move Penn State to the west. They tried separating Ohio State and Michigan once, with a locked in crossover game, and that wasn’t a great result. I don’t think they would do it again.

I wouldn’t expect them to separate OSU and Michigan but would the exchange PSU and a lesser team from the west?

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

Of course it’s all cyclical but the East and West remain horribly imbalanced. Having OSU, PSU, Michigan and Michigan State all on the same side is so absurd. Fine, they want to keep OSU and Michigan on the same side, but do some shifting around. In the West only Wisconsin has been consistently pretty good. Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern are all mediocre programs with only Nebraska having a strong history.

So, will they ever rebalance?

Nope. Blame Michigan and Ohio State for that. Especially Michigan. They are insistent that their game with each other be the last week of the season and they are not willing to move it to earlier in the season. Michigan also has to play MSU every year, so if Michigan moved to the West so would MSU. (If MSU remained in the East, Michigan would have two protected cross division rivals and that would not work) Having the OSU/Michigan game the last game of the season is fine, but if they were both to win their divisions a rematch in the Big Ten Title game one week later would be lame. Most of my life the rivalry has not been close. Ohio State wins most of the time and even when I was a kid the few times Michigan won it was a monumental upset.

I'm sure many feel PSU moving to the West would be a solution, but PSU is one of the Eastern most schools in the BIG and that would a lot of travel.

How would you structure the divisions....keeping in mind all the rivalries? I think Purdue and Indiana are the only teams in different divisions with a protected game.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

I wouldn’t expect them to separate OSU and Michigan but would the exchange PSU and a lesser team from the west?

So you would give up playing OSU and Michigan annually to play Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin?

That's not just loss for PSU, but the conference. PSU vs OSU and PSU vs Michigan are some of the most watched and biggest games all season in all of college football.

 

[psuno1]

PSU just needs to get better and Beat OSU, UM and Michigan State, No Excuses. No, they will not rebalance the divisions.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

How about the west get their shit together and play better football?

Or How about Michigan and Penn State actually beat Ohio State.

Penn State fans that want to shake of up the divisions or leave to the ACC. Get out of here with that crap. Just beat Ohio State.

 

[MtNittany]

I think moving Reuters to the west would improve things. Wait...maybe not.

 

[NittanyChris]

You could all say just get better and beat OSU but that doesn’t address the fact that the divisions are significantly unbalanced in terms of competitiveness and that is a problem.

Does anyone really deny this imbalance?

 

[doctornick]

The divisions are set up in a logical way due to geography. If they wanted to try to just make schedules more even/fair the best way to do it is to eliminate divisions, play a more rotating schedule and just pair the top two teams in terms or record in the CCG.

 

[MtNittany]

The divisions are set up in a logical way due to geography. If they wanted to try to just make schedules more even/fair the best way to do it is to eliminate divisions, play a more rotating schedule and just pair the top two recorded teams in the CCG.

Maybe the B1G could realize that there should be separate divisions for football based on talent - maybe even on a rolling basis. The volleyball, soccer, etc. divisions could stay the same. Everyone is flying anyway. It isn't about geography at this level.

 

[Nitt1300]

The SEC isn't exactly balanced, either.

 

[AWS1022]

The divisions are set up in a logical way due to geography. If they wanted to try to just make schedules more even/fair the best way to do it is to eliminate divisions, play a more rotating schedule and just pair the top two recorded teams in the CCG.

This is what they need to do. And make sure every team plays at least comparable schedules …I could see OSU getting a schedule with Nw, Rutgers, Illinois, Maryland, Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

You could all say just get better and beat OSU but that doesn’t address the fact that the divisions are significantly unbalanced in terms of competitiveness and that is a problem.

Does anyone really deny this imbalance?

I mean it's imbalanced because of Ohio State success the last 20 years.

Just look at Michigan and Penn States record against Wisconsin and Iowa in that time frame. PSU just lost to Iowa not sure how we as a fan base can talk about the imbalance of the divisions.

 

[fastlax16]

So you would give up playing OSU and Michigan annually to play Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin?

That's not just loss for PSU, but the conference. PSU vs OSU and PSU vs Michigan are some of the most watched and biggest games all season in all of college football.

We’d still play osu quite frequently in the championship game.

 

[MtNittany]

I mean it's imbalanced because of Ohio State success the last 20 years.

Just look at Michigan and Penn States record against Wisconsin and Iowa in that time frame. PSU just lost to Iowa not sure how we as a fan base can talk about the imbalance of the divisions.

Hasn't PSU owned Wisconsin the past 10 years?

 

[creamery freak]

Nope. Blame Michigan and Ohio State for that. Especially Michigan. They are insistent that their game with each other be the last week of the season and they are not willing to move it to earlier in the season. Michigan also has to play MSU every year, so if Michigan moved to the West so would MSU. (If MSU remained in the East, Michigan would have two protected cross division rivals and that would not work) Having the OSU/Michigan game the last game of the season is fine, but if they were both to win their divisions a rematch in the Big Ten Title game one week later would be lame. Most of my life the rivalry has not been close. Ohio State wins most of the time and even when I was a kid the few times Michigan won it was a monumental upset.

I'm sure many feel PSU moving to the West would be a solution, but PSU is one of the Eastern most schools in the BIG and that would a lot of travel.

How would you structure the divisions....keeping in mind all the rivalries? I think Purdue and Indiana are the only teams in different divisions with a protected game.

One idea that wouldn't be perfect but would help the balance in the divisions would be to flip flop the 2nd place teams in each division every year.
My example would be if PSU finished 2nd in the east and Wisky or Iowa 2nd in the west, PSU moves to the west and Wisky or Iowa moves to the east.
It would create a scheduling nightmare but it would definitely help balance the divisions.

 

[doctornick]

Maybe the B1G could realize that there should be separate divisions for football based on talent - maybe even on a rolling basis. The volleyball, soccer, etc. divisions could stay the same. Everyone is flying anyway. It isn't about geography at this level.

The geography is about playing teams closer to you that you’d have more of a history/rivalry with them. Not about travel. And they don’t use divisions in other sports IIRC, only football.

 

[fastlax16]

I mean it's imbalanced because of Ohio State success the last 20 years.

Just look at Michigan and Penn States record against Wisconsin and Iowa in that time frame. PSU just lost to Iowa not sure how we as a fan base can talk about the imbalance of the divisions.

What? We’ve got winning records against both. We’re 4-2 against Iowa under Franklin and 3-0 against the badgers. We haven’t lost to Wisconsin since 2011 and that was after the wheels fell off that season.we’ve won 7 of the last 10 against them.

 

[MtNittany]

The geography is about playing teams closer to you that you’d have more of a history/rivalry with them. Not about travel. And they don’t use divisions in other sports IIRC, only football.

I think the scheduling for the olympic sports is affected by the divisions. Could be wrong.

 

[BeaverLion]

They will have to after Nebraska leaves.

 

[psuguy43]

Stick Michigan in the west and make OSU vs UM an annual crossover game.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

Hasn't PSU owned Wisconsin the past 10 years?

PSU has won a lot of really close games against Wisconsin. I guess the definition of "owning" is different for everyone.

 

[NittanyChris]

I mean it's imbalanced because of Ohio State success the last 20 years.

Just look at Michigan and Penn States record against Wisconsin and Iowa in that time frame. PSU just lost to Iowa not sure how we as a fan base can talk about the imbalance of the divisions.

Seriously? You’re using one loss against Iowa this year without our QB as evidence that the two programs are equally competitive? How about looking at their performance over the last five years, ten years or twenty? In other words, sample size matters. That’s just common sense.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

What? We’ve got winning records against both. We’re 4-2 against Iowa under Franklin and 3-0 against the badgers. We haven’t lost to Wisconsin since 2011 and that was after the wheels fell off that season.we’ve won 7 of the last 10 against them.

PSU is 17-14 all time against Iowa. They won a lot of games against Joepa and currently have more players in the NFL. PSU has done well against Wisconsin, but Michigan has not.

All is I'm saying is PSU/UM vs Wisconsin/IA isn't that big of gap. PSU/UM recruit a ton better, but it's not like they dominate them on the field and put in that much more players in the NFL.

 

[MtNittany]

PSU has won a lot of really close games against Wisconsin. I guess the definition of "owning" is different for everyone.

Seems the goal is to win the game. Scores don't matter.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

Seriously? You’re using one loss against Iowa this year without our QB as evidence that the two programs are equally competitive? How about looking at their performance over the last five years, ten years or twenty? In other words, sample size matters. That’s just common sense.

All time series is 17-14 vs Iowa. 2021 Iowa won. Yeah it would have been different with Clifford, but that final score isn't changing.

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

Seems the goal is to win the game. Scores don't matter.

It is for sure. I guess that's why some Nebraska say they own PSU since they have joinied the BIG. 4-1 against PSU.

 

[fastlax16]

PSU is 17-14 all time against Iowa. They won a lot of games against Joepa and currently have more players in the NFL. PSU has done well against Wisconsin, but Michigan has not.

All is I'm saying is PSU/UM vs Wisconsin/IA isn't that big of gap. PSU/UM recruit a ton better, but it's not like they dominate them on the field and put in that much more players in the NFL.

What Iowa did against Joepa coached teams 20 years ago is irrelevant. In recent history they haven’t won that division since 2015.

Since the big ten switched to divisions, we’ve beaten both programs more often than not. All that said, we’d probably keep the tradition of a western champ losing to OSU alive and well.

 

[AWS1022]

One idea that wouldn't be perfect but would help the balance in the divisions would be to flip flop the 2nd place teams in each division every year.
My example would be if PSU finished 2nd in the east and Wisky or Iowa 2nd in the west, PSU moves to the west and Wisky or Iowa moves to the east.
It would create a scheduling nightmare but it would definitely help balance the divisions.

Well, as a person who’s done a lot of scheduling throughout the years, I think it would be a nightmare to make sure one team has their conference opener on the road 14 years in a row, but the Big has managed that pretty well, so they obviously could figure it out.

 

[doctornick]

The simple proposal would be no divisions. Each team has (say) 3 or 4 designated teams they play every year. Then you rotate all the other teams which would enable you to play home and away versus every team regularly.

the one thing is how to work it out if you keep 9 conference games. as an odd number that means teams have uneven numbers of home games - which is not fair in any given year. The Big Ten handles this correctly now by having all teams in each division have the same number of home/away games each season. I’d probably go to 8 conference games if they went with the system I propose so that each team always plays 4 home/4away each year.

 

[bison13]

Get two more schools and do 4 pods of 4. Play 3 schools in your pod, rotate yearly against other pods, keep a rivalry game for 8th conference games if not in that years rotation

 

[Beachwineguy]

Since the big ten switched to divisions, we’ve beaten both programs more often than not. All that said, we’d probably keep the tradition of a western champ losing to OSU alive and well.

Since the Big Ten switched to East and West divisions, the East has won the conference title every year, correct?

 

[PennsylvaniaPride]

Since the Big Ten switched to East and West divisions, the East has won the conference title every year, correct?

Yes Ohio State has won it every year save 2015 and 2016.

 

[Cpeplion]

Yeah they will. The west will be Wisconsin, the East will be everyone else.

 

[Wallace Breen]

I still think the most likely realignment will come via playoff expansion where we end up with four 18 to 22 team conferences with the conference championship games serving as the first round the playoffs.

 

[NittPicker]

The simple proposal would be no divisions. Each team has (say) 3 or 4 designated teams they play every year. Then you rotate all the other teams which would enable you to play home and away versus every team regularly.

the one thing is how to work it out if you keep 9 conference games. as an odd number that means teams have uneven numbers of home games - which is not fair in any given year. The Big Ten handles this correctly now by having all teams in each division have the same number of home/away games each season. I’d probably go to 8 conference games if they went with the system I propose so that each team always plays 4 home/4away each year.

All that could very well be on the table if the schedule alliance comes to pass. There would need to more flexibility in creating fresh compelling match ups from year to year.

 

[We Are . . .]

Of course it’s all cyclical but the East and West remain horribly imbalanced. Having OSU, PSU, Michigan and Michigan State all on the same side is so absurd. Fine, they want to keep OSU and Michigan on the same side, but do some shifting around. In the West only Wisconsin has been consistently pretty good. Iowa, Nebraska and Northwestern are all mediocre programs with only Nebraska having a strong history.

So, will they ever rebalance?

My super-secret source inside Big Ten headquarters says realignment is on a future agenda right after putting Joe's name back on the trophy and giving back Penn State's bowl money.

 

[heckmans]

The geography is about playing teams closer to you that you’d have more of a history/rivalry with them. Not about travel. And they don’t use divisions in other sports IIRC, only football.

Only sport with a 9 game schedule