Question: Let's say the Big Ten west gives the nation somebody like

[Reality Man]

Iowa (ferentz coached) or Wiscy (not the Alvarez era) or Nebraska (not Osborne) and these teams gets the ___________'s handed to them for the next 2-3 years.

Do you think the Big Ten makes an adjustment...like splitting up OSU and UM?

Lets be unbiased here. Completely unbiased...if possible. Meyer and OSU are going to be consistently very good to great. That isn't going to change. Got the entire state of Ohio and Meyer.

Harbaugh is without a great coach and has the UM name to recruit nationally with a great staff. I would assume a reasonable person sees great things on the horizon for UM.

Dantonio is a GREAT coach. He is going to field a tough hard nosed team with talent and on some years going to surprise the traditional powers. This will not be the last time you will see MSU in the playoffs.

PSU isn't going to be down forever. They have PA.


Nebraska, Wiscy, Iowa, Northwestern. Right now..these are tier 2 programs. Not recently with Wiscy but you get my point. The balance is completely out of whack and does it serve the interests of the Big Ten to be humiliated against other fine schools.

The Big Ten is basically setting itself up to have it's 2nd banana to get smacked in prime time. Is this a problem for the conference to consider? Maybe I don't quite understand the tie-ins but it looks like the representative from the Big Ten west is going to be given frequently a big time bowl game. I guess the other side of the coin is the better teams from the Big Ten east get dropped down and then win their bowl games...see UM and OSU.

The Big Ten East is now the most concentrated power 1/2 of any conference in football. Anything can happen in a 1 game conference championship too. Iowa (good team) was 'this' close to playing Alabama.

The 3 best teams in the Big Ten are in the East. Is that a problem? What happens when it's 4? Delaney must have been closing his eyes watching the RB and the playoff game. Not the proudest moment of his conference alignment/expansion creation.

The Big Ten is 5-4 so far...right? Does it feel like 5-4 after being down in those two major bowls by a score of 76-0 combined at one point?


RM

 

[57varieties]

I know it sucks but the old divisions were stupid too. What do you want a north south split in a conference that spreads from east to west?

 

[JRforUM]

Send sparty to the West and pull Purdue to the East.

Go Blue!

 

[Reality Man]

Here is what I would do...don't structure divisions by geography necessarily because why is Maryland or Rutgers in the Big Ten and not Pittsburgh or Cincinnati.

UM and OSU are the traditional juggernauts. PSU is coming back. MSU is strong. This is not some sort of fantasy projection but more likely that not and geography will just create problems. I think moving MSU and PSU makes sense.

Put Iowa in the East along with Northwester and I think you have a solid balance. It is entirely possible than within 3-4 years the best 4 teams will be in the same division (East).

I don't know the answer but I can tell you it's going to be problem. The SEC has much more balance based on traditional success. Long term perspective. Make adjustments as time goes one. Nothing wrong with that option.



RM

 

[CinciBlue]

Here is what I would do...don't structure divisions by geography necessarily because why is Maryland or Rutgers in the Big Ten and not Pittsburgh or Cincinnati.

UM and OSU are the traditional juggernauts. PSU is coming back. MSU is strong. This is not some sort of fantasy projection but more likely that not and geography will just create problems. I think moving MSU and PSU makes sense.

Put Iowa in the East along with Northwester and I think you have a solid balance. It is entirely possible than within 3-4 years the best 4 teams will be in the same division (East).

I don't know the answer but I can tell you it's going to be problem. The SEC has much more balance based on traditional success. Long term perspective. Make adjustments as time goes one. Nothing wrong with that option.



RM

Cause Cincinnati and Pitt stink.

Osu will never let Cincinnati in the big and that is a good thing for the league.

 

[tarun262]

There won't be any more restructuring because that was based on rivalry games and must have games. Michigan will always play MSU and OSU, every single season. OSU will always want to play Michigan and Penn State every season. Those rivalries pretty much predicate that Michigan, MSU, Penn State, and OSU stay in the same division because there is meaning and implications there. Same with Iowa who will always play Nebraska and Wisconsin. Northwestern and Illinois will always play each other, etc.

It sucks right now because the East is so much better then the West in both sports but don't forget that Wisconsin and Nebraska are no walk-over programs either. You could argue that Michigan, OSU, and Nebraska are historically the 3 best storied programs in the BIG. It can change over time so you don't adjust based on rankings today. Wisconsin has had the 2nd best record over the past 2 decades besides OSU so where should they be? They beat up a really good USC team this year as well. They are legit.

The challenge is if you rank the Top teams in both sports right it looks lopsided:

Basketball

• MSU (East)
• Maryland (East)
• Purdue (West)
• Michigan (East)
• Indiana (East)
• Iowa (West)

Football

• Ohio State (East)
• Michigan State (East)
• Iowa (West)
• Michigan (East)
• Wisconsin (West)
• Penn State (East)

I think it's fine the way it is personally. To be the best you have to beat the best and everyone on your schedule. I don't but this - teams in a weaker division have an advantage. At the end of the day you have to beat every team you play regardless of what your schedule is like. For those that think Iowa is a joke of a team - they beat up a very good Wisconsin team and a peaking Nebraska team (that beat Sparty and spanked UCLA). They were one play away from beating Michigan State (which beat Oregon, Ohio State, and Michigan). You can not tell me that they did not deserve to go to the Rose Bowl regardless of how poorly they played there - they deserved to be there because they beat every single team every week on their schedule. They passed all the eyes test leading up to the Rose Bowl and they had a really good SOS. That is what matters. Shit Iowa spanked Northwestern who spanked Stanford. What gives?

 

[Reality Man]

Yes. Iowa did deserve to go the RB. Why can't OSU play PSU outside of the conference division.

Here is my main point. A direct question to you. If you were a betting man...how would you project the Big Ten power rankings over the course of the next 10 years based on teams/coaches.

1. OSU
2. UM
3/4. PSU/MSU
5/6. Wisconsin/Nebraska
7. Everybody else.

I think that is fair and reasonable. Don't be disrespec(K)ted MSU.


That is a problem.



RM

 

[Joe Gory]

Cause Cincinnati and Pitt stink.

Osu will never let Cincinnati in the big and that is a good thing for the league.

+1.

Onlky good thing to come out of Cincinatti is the Skyline Chilli

 

[Reality Man]

Look what the SEC did. They pretty good balance...A&M, LSU, Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas and then on the other side Florida, Tenn, Georgia and lets throw in South Carolina. Not as strong but the long term balance is there going forward.

Now having Florida in the East is pretty funny with Missouri but their 'history' made it easier. The Big Ten is going to have a problem for the next decade because is Nebraska going to rise to power under Riley and with the population migration to the South? Wisconsin is fine. I think the Big Ten west has 'paper' tigers.

No disrespeKt to the fine people of Nebraska and their great great football tradition. Is Nebraska going to be a power going forward? Who should people fear more....Nebraska or Oregon? Texas or Baylor? You get my point.

The Big Ten West is a lot of fluff. I don't know the answer but I would strongly consider moving either UM, MSU or OSU...probably one of UM and MSU and I think you have more tangible/concrete balance. Nothing wrong with restructuring.

All I know is in 2 years you will hear a lot more noise about the lack of balance because the 3 best coaches in the Big Ten are all in the East which is in a top heavy Big Ten conference. A mushroom conference so to speak.

Look at the recruiting of PSU...in fact for those star gazers...check out where the talent is going.


RM

 

[ArrowheadBlue]

Too bad Franklin can't coach.

 

[raisedonwoody]

Ohio State is a rival of Penn State, Penn State is just a Big Ten game for the Buckeyes,Wisconsin and Nebraska are closer to being a rival. IMHO.

 

[ThatsMrSpartan2U]

I think the division should and will stay this way until the B1G thinks about getting even bigger. My guess is, some day, we may Pitt and Mizzou on board. Both schools have B1G academic chops and geographically fit. PSU might have issues with Pitt, but really, PSU needs a fire breathing rival in the conference the way UM, OSU and MSU do.

I'm not so down on the West. I'm thinking Nebraska will be the big cheese out there in time. Maryland will be better, good recruiting grounds. The West will be OK.

Did anybody notice that not a single kid from michigan played in the under armour HS game? I think 1 kid from Ohio ( Notre Dame recruit) and 1 from Wisconsin ( UM lineman) was there. New Jersey and Maryland had several and the vast majority were from SEC country, Texas and California. To me, that's the reality of it all. You gotta be able to get down in those areas and find players. As great as Saban is, it's a lot easier to coach 5* s into a juggernaut than a bunch of 3s.

 

[JRforUM]

"I'm not so down on the West. I'm thinking Nebraska will be the big cheese out there in time. Maryland will be better, good recruiting grounds. The West will be OK."

Maryland is in the East, not the West. I say swap sparty to the West for Purdue to the East.

Go Blue!

 

[ThatsMrSpartan2U]

I k

"I'm not so down on the West. I'm thinking Nebraska will be the big cheese out there in time. Maryland will be better, good recruiting grounds. The West will be OK."

Maryland is in the East, not the West. I say swap sparty to the West for Purdue to the East.

Go Blue!

I know Maryland is in the East. I was just trying to point out that the current underperforming programs have something going for them that will level things out over time. The West isn't that far behind and the East will only get tougher. Can't see the divisions being rearranged any tine soon.

 

[jemblue]

Do you think the Big Ten makes an adjustment...like splitting up OSU and UM?

Not this crap again. The Leaders/Legends setup was terrible to both Michigan and OSU. We were the only Legends team guaranteed to play OSU, and vice versa. And there was the possibility of playing on back to back weeks. That must never happen again. Keep all rivalries contained within the divisions.