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An Unorthodox way to Form Big 10 Divisions

August 5, 2010 By paulmbanks 3 Comments

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Big Ten Conference

As Conference Commissioner Jim Delany noted at Media Day, BIG changes are on the way in the Big Ten. There will be a conference championship game in 2011, a nine game conference schedule will be here soon, and we’ll need to split into two divisions in order to make that happen. So how will be go about forming these two divisions?

By Paul M. Banks

Here’s what Delany said about how they’ll go about creating those divisions.

“If you’re going to have two divisions and the divisional champions are going to get a chance to play for the championship, that divisions need to be as balanced as they can possibly be made. And I think competitive fairness from the perspective of the coach, the player, the fan, media, it’s got to be seen in those divisions. But they also have to be constructed in a wise way that does everything we can within that first principle or consistent with that first principle to preserve traditional rivals.”
Obviously, the one rivalry that will be given precedence is Ohio State vs. Michigan. Because it’s one of the best bloodfeuds in sports. But what maintaining that competitive balance?

How will they go about doing that?

“After you look at the data — and one of the things we’re really looking at is all of the data, just like you would look at it in a basketball committee room, where you’re looking at national championships, you’re looking at BCS games, conference championships, conference won-and-loss records, nonconference won-and-loss records, nonconference records that are influenced, how many BCS opponents did you play, Sagarin ratings, composite BCS ratings.

So all of those data points will be absorbed by our athletic directors. We think probably the appropriate time frame for measurement probably starts around 1993 when Penn State came into the conference.

We moved from 95 to 85 scholarships back in those years. It was the beginning of the Coalition, Alliance, BCS Continuum. And we think that’s sort of the modern Big Ten. So we’re looking at that 17-year stretch and trying to assess where institutions fall out, what they’ve accomplished and using that sort of as the basis to determine what would be a balanced and fair, competitive segmentation of divisions,” Delany said.

You’ve probably seen plenty of division scenarios already, mostly going with an East-West or North-South division. And those projections usually make sense, but I’m here to offer you something different. I’m creating my two divisional proposals in a more unorthodox manner.

My first proposal is to divide them up by size of market. We’ll have urban vs. rural, the culture of hip-hop vs. the atmosphere of country music. This scenario includes two programs in big cities: Minneapolis and Columbus, two in suburbs bordering a city (Evanston and Ann Arbor) and two “tweeners” in Madison and East Lansing. These last two locations are not “towns,” but they’re not “cities” either. Coincidentally, they’re both the capitals of their state.

So here we have:

Kanye West Division

Minnesota
Northwestern
Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan State
Wisconsin

Kenny Chesney Division

Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
Purdue
Indiana
Penn State

Works out pretty well doesn’t it? At least from a competition standpoint? I have no idea how this will affect television revenue, if at all, when you put all the population centers together.

My second proposal is by concentrating all the traditional football powers in one division, all the basdketball in the other. Obviously, this is the complete opposite of what they’ll do or try to do, but I have a feeling this will actually even out over time, and the lopsidedness will disappear. No, I don’t know why I named my divisions after two of the conference’s all-time worst miscreant thugs

Jamar Smith Division

Illinois
Indiana
Michigan State
Purdue
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Maurice Clarett Division

Ohio State
Penn State
Michigan
Iowa
Northwestern
Nebraska

Of course, that will never happen, but imagine the hilarity that would ensue under these circumstances? A football title game featuring a 10-2 team versus a 5-7 squad every year? A basketball conference tournament title game with a 27-5 team taking on a 17-14 unit? It sounds idiotic, but it could be interesting.

Written by Paul M. Banks, President and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com

You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru

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Filed Under: The Bank Tagged With: big ten commissioner jim delany, big ten division, big ten division split, big ten divisional split, big ten divisions, Big Ten expansion, big ten realignment, big ten realignment projections, Jim Delany Big Ten, Jim Delany Big Ten commissioner

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Charley Davis says

    August 6, 2010 at 10:29 PM

    Wow, your first attempt was almost spot on. It nearly hits all of the commissioner’s bullet points. There are really three regions of fourtems that need to divided equally among the two divisions to achieve the competitive balance the conference desires. NW is Minnesota & Wisconsin, SW is Nebraska & Iowa. N-Central is Northwestern & Illinois with S-Central being Indiana & Purdue. NE is comprised of Michigan & Ohio St, while SE is Penn St and Michigan St. NW+NC+NE = Great Lakes, SW+SC+SE =Great Plains. NW & SW are cross-protects as would be NC & SC as well as NE & SE. That alignment protects all the trophy games except the Governor’s Bell game between Minnesota & Penn St, which is the most infrequent series in the Big Ten now.

  2. paulmbanks says

    August 7, 2010 at 11:40 AM

    Wouldn’t that first one be the perfect scenario for competitive balance

  3. Charley Davis says

    August 7, 2010 at 2:34 PM

    Perfect is switching Illinois and Michigan State in your scenario and playing a nine game schedule.

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