Big Ten Announces Division Re-Alignments
The Big Ten announced Wednesday the divisional alignments for the 2011 and 2012 football seasons. The addition of Nebraska next year allowed the conference to switch to a divisional format and play a conference championship game -- in 2011 it will be played at LucasOil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Northwestern was placed in a division with Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Nebraska. The other division contains Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Purdue, Penn State and Wisconsin.
"We focused on competitive equality, traditional rivalries and geography," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney said. "We considered multiple models and countless permutations in an effort to achieve the most competitively balanced divisions while at the same time respecting our traditions, preserving existing rivalries, and creating opportunities for the establishment and growth of new rivalries. We have listened to the feedback from our institutions, alumni and fans, and while we understand that no final alignments could possibly satisfy all of our constituents, we believe that we have achieved a very exciting result."
Delaney promised competitive balance between the conferences and he sure delivered on that promise. You can argue the big four teams in the conference are Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State. They were split down the middle. The next tier would be Iowa, Wisconsin, Purdue and Michigan State. Split down the middle. You might argue out of the remaining four teams, Northwestern and Minnesota have been the best recently.
In that sense, it feels like the Wildcats are in a harder division. But getting Michigan, at least for now, in the division is a big plus for NU's immediate prospects at having a chance to make the conference title game. With the way the Cats have played under Fitzgerald, you might feel comfortable saying they have the third or fourth best team in the division -- sorry Michigan. NU is in a good position. But of course we will not know anything until we play the games next year.
So here is how the schedule will break down. For the moment, there will still be only eight conference games. Each team will play the five other teams in its division and then three inter-divisional opponents.
There is a protected rivalry included in those three games. Northwestern's protected rivalry is Illinois, guaranteeing the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk Land Of Lincoln Trophy is played for every year. It also preserves the team's biggest rivalry -- at least, until Io_a recognizes NU as a rival and being divisional foes should help that.
"The Big Ten has done a great job of creating two competitive divisions that will feature entertaining football," Coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "I'm excited that we can maintain our Land of Lincoln trophy game against the Fighting Illini. That's a rivalry that both schools really look forward to, and be able to have that game as our protected rivalry is something that we'll look forward to each year."
The 2011 and 2012 conference schedules are set.
The Cornhuskers' first Big Ten game will be at Camp Randall Stadium against the Badgers on Oct. 1, 2011. They open their home slate against the Buckeyes a week later. Quite an entrance for Nebraska.
The Cats will open the 2011 conference slate with that rivalry game against the Illini. Why it was not held until the end of the season, I don't know. Seems like this rivalry should have been saved for the end of the season. But I guess the conference did not want the potential of a rematch of inter-division teams that close to the championship game. But Michigan and Ohio State will still play each other at the end of the year.
Opening the conference schedule with Illinois pretty much ends any thought of making the NU-Illinois game a bi-annual occurrence at Wrigley Field -- unless the Cubs do the right thing and just forfeit all their games after August, when they have been eliminated from playoff contention anyway (you know I am kidding, Cubs fans).
Curiously, the Illinois-Northwestern matchup is returned to the final week of the season in 2012.
The Cats get their first look at the Cornhuskers since the 2000 Alamo Bowl on Nov. 5 when they travel to Lincoln.
The questions about the schedule will have to buzz around for another year. As Pat Fitzgerald says, it is time to flush this news and get ready for Saturday's opener.
