There's another report that The Game will stay as the finale to the regular season, even with the teams on opposite sides.
Can you handle the reported division setup to be announced by commissioner Jim Delany and the Big Ten tonight?The Big Ten will officially announce its division alignment during a show on the Big Ten Network starting at 7 p.m.
According to ESPN's Andy Katz, this will be the divisional split:
* Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota
* Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana
This is 30 days since Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said the league had a 30 to 45 timetable to make these decisions, so the timing is right. Whether the divisions are right is another questions.
With an eight-game league schedule for now, the split will allow teams to play the five teams in their division and three on the other side. Each team will have a protected cross-division rival, which is how the Ohio State-Michigan will be played every season.
The question that matters now is when that game will be played, and radio station 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit is reporting that The Game will remain as the final game of the regular season. The league is expected to announce the 2011 and 2012 schedules tonight as well.
The placement of The Game had become a focus point as signals grew in recent weeks that Ohio State and Michigan would be in opposite divisions. There had been a reluctance among some league officials to play on the last weekend and risk an Ohio State-Michigan repeat in the Big Ten Championship game. But it appears that tradition has won out over that risk.
Otherwise, the divisions make sense from a competitive standpoint. Ohio State, Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State were the four best teams in the 17-year time period, starting with Penn State joining the Big Ten in 1993, used by the conference as a gauge. So those teams were split two and two. Iowa and Wisconsin were clearly the next best teams, so those teams were split. Then rivalries were preserved as much as possible.
So does this work for you? I'd prefer Ohio State and Michigan in the same division, but failing that, if they do in fact play the last week, I think this setup is as good as the league could have done.