The Big Ten announced divisional alignment Wednesday for the conference starting in 2011 when Nebraska officially becomes a participating member. Since Nebraska officially joined the Big Ten in June, there has been much speculation and anticipation as to how a divisional setup would look.
Wisconsin will be in a division with Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana, Purdue and Illinois. The other division will include Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Minnesota and Northwestern.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has said the divisions would be created based on three main factors: competitive balance, traditional rivalries, and geography. Although Wisconsin is not in the same division as Minnesota, the two schools will continue to play for Paul Bunyan's Axe every year.
Not all rivalries could be saved, however, and the Badgers will no longer play Iowa on a yearly basis. In a teleconference Wednesday night, Delany said the possibility for a second annual crossover game would be considered if the league moves to a nine game schedule, but it is not likely.
The new divisional alignment will likely mean that the Badgers, and their well-traveled fan base, will be logging more miles each year, as UW is not in the same division as any of the three closest schools (Minnesota, Northwestern and Iowa).
Each school has one protected rivalry game, and Wisconsin/Minnesota was chosen over Minnesota/Iowa, in part because UW is essentially isolated in the western part of the league.
""Wisconsin, really, is far more geographically stretched than Iowa,"" Delany said in his Wednesday teleconference. ""There was a real effort there to have Wisconsin play Minnesota.""
Division champions will be determined by overall conference record, and division records will serve as a tiebreaker in the event that two teams finish with the same league record. The second tiebreaker will be based on BCS ranking, but Delany said the league was still looking into exactly how to implement that feature.
The divisions have not yet been named, a detail Delany said would be worked out in the coming months.
Along with the unveiling of the divisional alignment, conference schedules for the next two years also came out. Nebraska will make it's conference debut on October 1, 2011 against the Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers then open the 2012 Big Ten slate in Lincoln, Neb.
While they open each of the next two seasons against the Cornhuskers, Wisconsin plays Penn State on the last weekend of conference play in 2011 and 2012.
""This is a two-year schedule, but this is a pretty special game I think,"" Delany said. ""I don't know. This is not a 50-year commitment. We'll listen, we'll look and we'll either maintain or make an adjustment.""
Delany also talked about how the new alignment would affect other sports, notably basketball.
""It's such a different sport with multiple teams going to the NCAA Tournament and all comers in the (Big Ten) Tournament,"" he said. ""I, personally, at this juncture, don't see any compelling reason for divisions.""
He said if the athletic directors and presidents pushed for divisions in basketball, the current alignment for football would have no bearing on how basketball divisions would be set up.
