It's that time of year again...the start of press conferenc season. Oops, I mean football season, and what better way to kick it off than Media Day. Just like the rest of the offseason the new football season starts with that same old topic...expansion.
This time the talk wasn't necessarily about adding more teams, but rather hwo to arrange the teams you already have. With Nebraska entering the Big Ten after this season there will most likely be a change in the allignment of the conference.
Will the Big Ten have an east and west divisional setup? Or will we see a north and south divisional allignment in the conference? Do you set up the conferences based on regions? Or perhaps we look at basing it on competitive balance?
The answer from Monday....we'll let you know.
The Big Ten has not many any decisions on what the conference will look like now that Nebraska is joining. And the questions about how to set up the conference are more than valid.
If the Big Ten goes for a east and west divisional set up the conference many look like this.
East: Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Indiana
West: Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
That setup would allow for the main rivalry games to remain intact. What Minnesota would do for the "Battle for the Little Brown Jug" game against Michigan remains to be seen. But Ohio State and Michigan would remain in the same conference, as well as Wisconsin and Minnesota. Perhaps the conferences most prestigous rivalries. Let's not forget about Purdue and Indiana as well.
The other set up on the other hand would perhaps be a little more complicated.
North: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, and Northwestern.
South: Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, and Ohio State.
This set up would be perhaps the most difficult for the conference to pull off. The biggest question of all...will Michigan and Ohio State continue to play every year? The answer of course will be yes, but what does that do for competitive balance for the conference.
On the otherside of the argument there would be nothing better than those two playing in the conference championship game against eachother. Because the possibility would be completely lost if they were to play in the same conference.
Keep in mind that all of this is speculation right now. For all we know Jim Delany could do anything when it comes to conference allignment. Because let's be honest...did anybody truly think that Nebraska would be the twelfth team to enter the Big Ten. Was anybody else betting on Notre Dame...
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