The new X's and O's of the Big Ten

On the eve of the 2010 college football season, we are already abuzz about the 2011 season.

Tonight the Big Ten unveiled the much anticipated and debated divisional alignment to be introduced next football season when the conference welcomes Nebraska, its twelfth member. The divisions, with their Big Ten Network temporary names intact, are:

Division X:
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Division O:
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern

The first conference championship game will be played in Indianapolis at the Lucas Oil Stadium. There is still speculation as to whether the game will hop around to different sites or stay put in Indy, much like the conference’s basketball tourney.

Introduced into Big Ten argot are “protected crossover” and “rotating crossover.” Protected crossovers are cross-divisional games, mostly traditional rivalries, that will be played each year. Rotational crossovers are home-and-home deals with two cross-division teams. Each team will play their five divisional brethren, two rotational crossovers, and one protected crossover — at least until 2015, when the Big Ten potentially begins scheduling nine or 10 conference games.

My thoughts: though I bemoan the motivation behind expansion and the two-division structure (money), I like it. I think the Big Ten did an excellent job of balancing tradition and incorporating everyone’s wishes. The Game, the Axe, and the Pig are protected. There is competitive equality (though Division O looks a little stronger) and, surprisingly, geographic continuity.

As a Hawkeye fan I am ecstatic our rivalry with Minnesota is intact. The annual battle for Floyd of Rosedale, I felt, needed to be preserved. Though I wanted the Hawks to continue playing Wisconsin every year for the Heartland Trophy, I’m down with the rivalry becoming occasional. According to conference commish, Jim Delany, the trophy games not permanently protected will not be discarded; they will continued to be played, albeit on a less frequent basis. Whichever team wins the brass bull this year will be keeping it until at least 2013; also released tonight was the conference schedule for the next two years, and the Hawks and Badgers will not play each other in either ’11 or ’12. (The only downside to the current Iowa-Minnesota pairing is that the game won’t be the last of the season.)

This alignment may also foster new rivalries. A yearly border war between the Hawks and Huskers has been introduced, and Nebraska also has a protected crossover with Penn State.

Iowa’s protected crossover? Purdue. Whatever. I’m not too stoked about that. Nothing against the Boilermakers — they had a strong decade and the Danny Hope era is just starting — but I have no feeling for Purdue. It has the potential to become another emotional match-up, but right now it doesn’t evoke any feelings. I think the Hawks got the short straw in the protected crossover business, but it was really for the sake of the conference and tradition. Our secondary rivalry with Wisconsin rightly took a back seat to Paul Bunyan’s Axe (Minnesota-Wisconsin), the oldest and most-played rivalry in Division I football. Plus, given the other protected, cross-divisional rivalries — Land of Lincoln Trophy (Illinois-Northwestern), Old Brass Spittoon (Indiana-Michigan State), The Game (Michigan-Ohio State), and the new Expansion Bowl (Nebraska-Penn State) — everyone else was unavailable.

Schedule-wise, the Big Ten is stacked for ’11 and ’12. Each week features a marquee match-up and I think this bodes well for the conference.

Now, with the major decisions regarding expansion made, let’s not get any more ahead of ourselves. It’s time for the 2010 season.