New Big 10 Divisions

[ChickenMan]

ESPN.com's Andy Katz is first with official confirmation that Ohio State and Michigan will be in separate divisions in the newly-aligned Big Ten. The divisions will be as follows:

Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota

Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Rep ... sions.html

[DJH]

Seems pretty balanced to me.

OSU=Michigan

Penn St=Nebraska

Wisconsin=Iowa

[dbackjon]

Does look balanced.

I assume each team will keep one inter-division "rival" - like OSU-Michigan, Ill-NW

[89Hen]

Does look balanced.

I assume each team will keep one inter-division "rival" - like OSU-Michigan, Ill-NW

Not sure of any rivals past that though.

[CitadelGrad]

I'm not saying this is inaccurate, but the official announcement doesn't happen until this evening. Until then, you have only speculation.

[93henfan]

Does look balanced.

I assume each team will keep one inter-division "rival" - like OSU-Michigan, Ill-NW

Not sure of any rivals past that though.

I was just watching CSN-Philly and they said that Penn State's annual rival game will be Nebraska.

[clenz]

Each team has one "protected" rival that will be played every year (Michigan/OSU, Iowa/Purdue [what the hell, I didn't realize that was that big of a rivalry], Nebraska/Penn State, Wisconsin/Minnesota, Northwestern/Illinois, and what not.), and then the school will play the 5 other teams in their division. Along with those 6 every year there will be 2 rotating games.

So for example Michigan's schedule the next two years looks something like this

October 1 Minnesota
October 8 @ Northwestern
October 15 @ Michigan State
October 29 Purdue *
November 5 @ Iowa
November 12 @ Illinois *
November 19 Nebraska
November 26 Ohio State **

* cross over games. 2 year rotation. UM will play these teams in 2011 and 2012, then these teams will drop off of the schedule for 2 other teams in the other division
** is protected rival

[Franks Tanks]

Penn State and Nebraska each year will be great. Two of the sports most traditional and cleanest programs will build a great rivalry I suspect.