Division 1: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern
Division 2: Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana
Is this a good alignment? Well, yes. Of course. HOWEVER, there's two groups of people who are upset about the alignment: Ohio State fans and Michigan fans. Let's look at why they're so damn angry.
For many many years, "The Game" has been played at the same time each year. This divisional alignment could potentially alter that and force "The Game" to be played as the Big Ten Conference Championship Game. So why is that such a bad thing? Well, for Ohio State, it really doesn't. For Michigan, different story. Since the take-over of Rich Rodriguez, Michigan has been terrible. Really terrible. So to be honest, if Michigan and Ohio State don't play every year, so what? That rivalry means nothing now, because it has almost always culminated in Michigan getting stomped on and having the country laugh at them.
So yeah Michigan fans go ahead and complain "But, but, The Game is important". No it isn't. It ultimately right now just culminates in one more loss in your loss column. And, that likely will be the case for many years [unless you get someone in there that's like....good]. Now, does this mean all the great rivalries in the Big Ten are in ruins?? Of course not!! The Big Ten wouldn't do that. The Big Ten does listen, so calm down. The Big Ten established protected rivalries...SO!
Purdue and IU, Minnesota and Iowa, AND Michigan and Ohio State will all still play each other. So before you get your panties in a bunch, remember, those rivalry games are important to the conference.
So who comes out the winner in the split? Next season? Probably Nebraska. The play every one of the bowl teams next season. Ouch. But Nebraska is a great football team, they'll get through that relatively unscathed.
Ummmmmm........except......
What about basketball? If you haven't noticed, for basketball, Division 2 is ridiculously loaded. I think the smart thing to do (although they wouldn't listen to me) is to only divide the conference for football only. Besides basketball, the conference is pretty well balanced in every other sport (ummm.....it'd be a wasted point to talk about volleyball though, Penn State hasn't lost in like 3 years). So, ultimately, splitting the conference into two divisions; good for some, bad for others, I don't know. I just think it's gonna be interesting to see how teams treat Nebraska next year and the following years. I mean, that's one of the best defenses in the country.
But all that aside, strap on your seat belts, the 2010 season is about to start.
