Now that 10 = 12 and XII = X . . .

[Jacie]

. . . any word on how the Big 10 will divvie up the conference into two divisions, North vs South or East vs West?

I am imagining how smug the various Big 10 AD's and conference officials are going to feel when the championship trophy is sitting in Dr. Tom's office and nebbish fans are making plans for a trip to Pasadena . . .

Also, is it set that the Big XII will go to a round robin schedule with every team playing all nine of the other teams?

[royalfan5]

East/West would be the most logical grouping. UNL/Iowa/Minn/Wisc/Illinois/NU, Indiana/Purdue/MSU/OSU/PSU/Mich as the groupings.

[rawlingsHOH]

The Big 10 said...
1) competitive balance
2) rivalries
3) geography
was the priority order for dividing up the schools.

[PalmBeachSooner]

East/West would be the most logical grouping. UNL/Iowa/Minn/Wisc/Illinois/NU, Indiana/Purdue/MSU/OSU/PSU/Mich as the groupings.

Wow, OSU, Meecheegan and PSU in the same division? Reminds me of the Big XII south and the step children in the north.

[BudSooner]

. . . any word on how the Big 10 will divvie up the conference into two divisions, North vs South or East vs West?

I am imagining how smug the various Big 10 AD's and conference officials are going to feel when the championship trophy is sitting in Dr. Tom's office and nebbish fans are making plans for a trip to Pasadena . . .

Also, is it set that the Big XII will go to a round robin schedule with every team playing all nine of the other teams?
You are assuming too much grasshoppa, first he has to WIN IT, personally I hope the Big10 mugs 'em at every opportunity.

If dumbass RichRod ever gets his act together, Michigan can be a power once again but not on the same level it once was but enough to mop the floor with the Children of the Corn.

Yes, it is supposed to be round robin play according to what i've read.
Ugh, yearly trips to Ames/Little Apple/Misery.....explain to me why we kept this turd of a conference together??? We should have to be paid a kings ransom to play clunkers like them.

[Dio]

We should have to be paid a kings ransom to play clunkers like them.

If Beebe's Enron numbers are accurate, we will be....for 18 years.

[rawlingsHOH]

one thought...
http://www.hawkeyenation.com/football/finally-big-ten-division-speculation

1. Michigan and Ohio State stay in the same division: I know some of you may not hold this as an anchor rule for divisional alignment, but I do. I don’t think those teams will want the possibility of playing one another more than once per year, but will certainly want to continue to play one another each season, so they stay in the same division. This is one of the 10 best rivalries in all of American sports, so I believe you can bank on these two being in the same division to not only continue the annual end of season rivalry game, but to protect it from being cheapened by playing one another more than once per season.

2. Penn State and Nebraska will be in the division opposite Michigan and Ohio State: Going back to Delaney’s comment on competitive fairness, you put the two other programs with 800 all time wins from your league in the opposite division. (By the way, two other programs have won 800 or more games; Texas and Notre Dame.) I realize this doesn’t satisfy the geographical aspect, but it was listed third by Delaney, and I don’t believe that was an accident. The Big Ten saw what the geographical division in the Big 12 did to the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry, one of the sport’s great annual traditions; it killed it. The Big Ten won’t worry too much about geography when it has to honor its first commitment to competitive fairness, which is why I think the Huskers and Nittany Lions wind up in the same division.

Those are my two tent pole ‘rules’ to begin the rest of this discussion. Now, for the divisions:

DIVISION A

Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois

DIVISION B

Penn State
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern

[GottaHavePride]

That makes sense except for having the two most geographically remote members of the conference (in opposite directions) in the same division.

[royalfan5]

That makes sense except for having the two most geographically remote members of the conference (in opposite directions) in the same division.

However, residual bad feeling between NU and PSU in the fall sports, as well as each schools respective basketball ineptitude would make this a nice fit.

[tfoolry]

one thought...
http://www.hawkeyenation.com/football/finally-big-ten-division-speculation

1. Michigan and Ohio State stay in the same division: I know some of you may not hold this as an anchor rule for divisional alignment, but I do. I don’t think those teams will want the possibility of playing one another more than once per year, but will certainly want to continue to play one another each season, so they stay in the same division. This is one of the 10 best rivalries in all of American sports, so I believe you can bank on these two being in the same division to not only continue the annual end of season rivalry game, but to protect it from being cheapened by playing one another more than once per season.

2. Penn State and Nebraska will be in the division opposite Michigan and Ohio State: Going back to Delaney’s comment on competitive fairness, you put the two other programs with 800 all time wins from your league in the opposite division. (By the way, two other programs have won 800 or more games; Texas and Notre Dame.) I realize this doesn’t satisfy the geographical aspect, but it was listed third by Delaney, and I don’t believe that was an accident. The Big Ten saw what the geographical division in the Big 12 did to the Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry, one of the sport’s great annual traditions; it killed it. The Big Ten won’t worry too much about geography when it has to honor its first commitment to competitive fairness, which is why I think the Huskers and Nittany Lions wind up in the same division.

Those are my two tent pole ‘rules’ to begin the rest of this discussion. Now, for the divisions:

DIVISION A

Michigan
Ohio State
Michigan State
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois

DIVISION B

Penn State
Nebraska
Iowa
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Northwestern

Spot on.

[SoonerMom2]

You are assuming too much grasshoppa, first he has to WIN IT, personally I hope the Big10 mugs 'em at every opportunity.

If dumbass RichRod ever gets his act together, Michigan can be a power once again but not on the same level it once was but enough to mop the floor with the Children of the Corn.

Yes, it is supposed to be round robin play according to what i've read.
Ugh, yearly trips to Ames/Little Apple/Misery.....explain to me why we kept this turd of a conference together??? We should have to be paid a kings ransom to play clunkers like them.

If the Texas Orangebloods site owner is correct, Boone Pickens donation to UT may be the answer. He was on KREF this morning when I was on my way to MWC for a meeting and said that as negotiations went on that the PAC 10 wanted to dump "OSU" and replace them with Kansas, but Texas balked. Then Rusty pointed out that Pickens had made a donation to Texas during this time -- no one seems to know how much. So it looks like that Boone Pickens may have been the one to shut down the move.

Couldn't quit laughing at the thought that PAC 10 didn't want OSU or Baylor! They wanted Colorado and Kansas. If this is correct, Texas killed the deal for a donation!

[rawlingsHOH]

That makes sense except for having the two most geographically remote members of the conference (in opposite directions) in the same division.

they said they'd factor location in last.

though i think it will fit geographically east/west for the most part, with the exception of taking the furthest east school and putting them in the west (probably since PSU has the least amount of traditional attachment) to achieve competitive balance.