Big Ten division alignment announcement tonight?

• krambman

  

  karen lotz;468366 wrote:Outside Indiana and Purdue no. You just proved my point. Everyone on here is saying OSU/Michigan is the biggest rivalry in sports, and to them it may be true. But the rest of the country doesn't feel the same way. Each team has a rivalry that to them, is the most important.

  
  But Indiana and Purdue fans would tell you that OSU/Mich is a bigger and more important rivalry than IU/PU is! Have you ever watched any national sports media or picked up a national sports magazine? Every national sports outlet and sports personality has OSU/Mich in their top three rivalries in sports, if not #1. We don't have an over-inflated view of our rivalry. We believe that it's the biggest because national objective personalities tell us that it's the biggest. Was anyone talking about the possibility of any of the other Big Ten rivalries being split up and how awful that might be? No. All anyone nationally has been talking about for two weeks with Big Ten divisional alignment is the possibility that OSU/Mich may be in different divisions and may not play at the end of the season anymore. No one has been discussing Wisconsin being in a different division than Iowa and Minnesota meaning they likely won't play the final week anymore. ESPN hasn't done polls about people's feelings of this possibility. If you don't realize the place that this rivalry holds not just in this region but nationally then you're clueless or you're deluding yourself.
• lhslep134

  

  karen lotz;468366 wrote:Outside Indiana and Purdue no. You just proved my point. Everyone on here is saying OSU/Michigan is the biggest rivalry in sports, and to them it may be true. But the rest of the country doesn't feel the same way. Each team has a rivalry that to them, is the most important.

  
  Obviously here it's the biggest.
  
  Objectively, it's also one of the biggest, but you can't really distinguish it from Army/Navy, Auburn/Alabama, EXCEPT for the fact that the OSU/UM has had a direct hand in deciding the conference champion some 30+ times (not to mean it's come between OSU and UM 30+ but the outcome of that game has affected the Big 10 title 30+ times), which is moreso than any other rivalry.
  
  
  
  Note, I looked up that statistic last year so I don't remember it for sure, but I know for a fact the number is at least above 20.
• the_system

  mallymal614;468361 wrote:So let me get this straight, say both Ohio State and Michigan are undefeated heading into their final game. Both teams has their division locked up so they KNOW they will play each other again in the Big Ten championship the following week. So now they would have to beat the same team twice, back to back weeks, in order to play for a National Championship?

  
  Yes it could happen. As dominant as OSU and Michigan have been throughout the history of the Big 10 though how many times have both ever been undefeated when they met at the end of the year? Twice maybe?
  
  Other conferences go through the same thing. Those conferences always argued that the Big 10 had a better chance of going undefeated because they DIDN'T play in a conference title game. If I remember right Kansas State was ranked 2nd one year and lost to Texas A&M in the B12 title game, a team they beat earlier in the year, and lost their chance at the national title because of it.
• lhslep134

  

  the_system;468405 wrote:Yes it could happen. As dominant as OSU and Michigan have been throughout the history of the Big 10 though how many times have both ever been undefeated when they met at the end of the year? Twice maybe?
  
  Other conferences go through the same thing. Those conferences always argued that the Big 10 had a better chance of going undefeated because they DIDN'T play in a conference title game. If I remember right Kansas State was ranked 2nd one year and lost to Texas A&M in the B12 title game, a team they beat earlier in the year, and lost their chance at the national title because of it.

  
  
  Yeah but what about the time when KSU beat Oklahoma and Oklahoma played for the title game anyways?
• the_system

  lhslep134;468386 wrote:Obviously here it's the biggest.
  
  Objectively, it's also one of the biggest, but you can't really distinguish it from Army/Navy, Auburn/Alabama, EXCEPT for the fact that the OSU/UM has had a direct hand in deciding the conference champion some 30+ times (not to mean it's come between OSU and UM 30+ but the outcome of that game has affected the Big 10 title 30+ times), which is moreso than any other rivalry.
  
  
  
  Note, I looked up that statistic last year so I don't remember it for sure, but I know for a fact the number is at least above 20.

  I would argue that Nebraska and Oklahoma won or shared 74 conference championships over the years and a vast majority of them came down to the last game of the year when they met up. The Big 12 had no problem squashing that rivalry, which was arguable one of the biggest ever, so be thankful Michigan is still on the schedule consistently.
• enigmaax

  krambman;468380 wrote:But Indiana and Purdue fans would tell you that OSU/Mich is a bigger and more important rivalry than IU/PU is! Have you ever watched any national sports media or picked up a national sports magazine? Every national sports outlet and sports personality has OSU/Mich in their top three rivalries in sports, if not #1. We don't have an over-inflated view of our rivalry. We believe that it's the biggest because national objective personalities tell us that it's the biggest. Was anyone talking about the possibility of any of the other Big Ten rivalries being split up and how awful that might be? No. All anyone nationally has been talking about for two weeks with Big Ten divisional alignment is the possibility that OSU/Mich may be in different divisions and may not play at the end of the season anymore. No one has been discussing Wisconsin being in a different division than Iowa and Minnesota meaning they likely won't play the final week anymore. ESPN hasn't done polls about people's feelings of this possibility. If you don't realize the place that this rivalry holds not just in this region but nationally then you're clueless or you're deluding yourself.

  
  Just going to tell you, I'm in Madison WI this week. There has been absolutely zero talk about what is going to happen with OSU and Michigan. The rumor here is that one division will be: Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue. And they are ticked that they don't get Iowa, Minnesota, or Nebraska and can only have one of those teams as their permanent crossover.
• FatHobbit

  

  the_system;468405 wrote:As dominant as OSU and Michigan have been throughout the history of the Big 10 though how many times have both ever been undefeated when they met at the end of the year? Twice maybe?

  I googled it and I think it has happened 5 times. 1944, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 2006. I did not verify those numbers though.
• the_system

  lhslep134;468414 wrote:Yeah but what about the time when KSU beat Oklahoma and Oklahoma played for the title game anyways?
  
  Of course they got smoked by arguably the 2nd or 3rd greatest college team of all time, but that's irrelevant.

  
  
  It happened. They lost and the teams below them that should have jumped them lost as well if I remember right. Everyone was talking about LSU, USC, and Oklahoma all year. People forget that LSU and USC also had losses that year. It just came down to which 1-loss teams do you put in the title game because none were flawless.
• lhslep134

  

  enigmaax;468428 wrote:Just going to tell you, I'm in Madison WI this week. There has been absolutely zero talk about what is going to happen with OSU and Michigan. The rumor here is that one division will be: Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue. And they are ticked that they don't get Iowa, Minnesota, or Nebraska and can only have one of those teams as their permanent crossover.

  
  I must say I'm truly shocked that in the home of the Badgers they're not talking about OSU/UM. I believe Krambman was talking about the rivalry from a national media standpoint, not from a fan standpoint in Madison, WI.
  
  :rolleyes:
• OneBuckeye

  

  ^ Not often. And Michigan is a long way away from getting back to that point, the big 10 could add teams and realign any time too.
• mallymal614

  lhslep134;468377 wrote:Only if both teams have more than a 1 game game lead, then yes, that would be true. Fucking shitty situation if it ever came to fruition.

  
  How about this.....If both teams have a 1 game lead and it's already Guaranteed they would play in the Big Ten Championship, how about canceling the regular season meeting and have them just go at it in the Championship game? Or would that be asking for too much?
• lhslep134

  

  the_system;468435 wrote:It happened. They lost and the teams below them that should have jumped them lost as well if I remember right. Everyone was talking about LSU, USC, and Oklahoma all year. People forget that LSU and USC also had losses that year. It just came down to which 1-loss teams do you put in the title game because none were flawless.

  
  Ah I'm thinking of the wrong year.
  
  In the '04 season when Oklahoma got smoked by USC it was the year that USC, OU, and AUB went 12-0.
  
  
  But in the year we're talking about, it wasn't necessarily that everyone behind them lost, it was that Oklahoma was so far ahead in the flawed formula that losing didn't hurt them, they were guaranteed to make the title game regardless of the result of the b12 title game, a flaw that the current BCS system has accounted for.
• lhslep134

  

  mallymal614;468441 wrote:How about this.....If both teams have a 1 game lead and it's already Guaranteed they would play in the Big Ten Championship, how about canceling the regular season meeting and have them just go at it in the Championship game? Or would that be asking for too much?

  
  So basically you're saying if they both have a 1 game lead but both hold every tiebreaker? I guess that's the same exact scenario as having more than a one game lead. So yes, they'd play twice in a row.
• the_system

  FatHobbit;468434 wrote:I googled it and I think it has happened 5 times. 1944, 1970, 1973, 1975 and 2006. I did not verify those numbers though.

  
  1944: No. Michigan had a loss
  1970: Yes
  1973: Yes
  1975: OSU yes, Michigan had 2 ties, so I guess technically undefeated.
  2006: Yes
  
  So 3 times, 4 if you throw in ties ever. The chance is always there, but it sounds like from here on out you'll have to beat who they put in front of you if you want to win the conference or national title.
• hrspeedmerchant

  Ohio State and Michigan playing two weeks in a row? So what.
  
  Put the two schools in separate divisions and keep THE GAME in its rightfull place in the final week of the season. It isn't like the two teams would meet every year in the Big Ten Title Game. And on those years they would meet for the Championship it would not lose any luster just because they played the week before.
• the_system

  hrspeedmerchant;468463 wrote:Ohio State and Michigan playing two weeks in a row? So what.
  
  Put the two schools in separate divisions and keep THE GAME in its rightfull place in the final week of the season. It isn't like the two teams would meet every year in the Big Ten Title Game. And on those years they would meet for the Championship it would not lose any luster just because they played the week before.

  
  I can see a LOT of OSU vs. Nebraska title games in the near future.
• FatHobbit

  

  the_system;468473 wrote:I can see a LOT of OSU vs. Nebraska title games in the near future.

  
  In the near future I wouldn't rule out Iowa, Wisconsin or Penn State.
• FatHobbit

  

  the_system;468450 wrote:1944: No. Michigan had a loss
  1970: Yes
  1973: Yes
  1975: OSU yes, Michigan had 2 ties, so I guess technically undefeated.
  2006: Yes
  
  So 3 times, 4 if you throw in ties ever. The chance is always there, but it sounds like from here on out you'll have to beat who they put in front of you if you want to win the conference or national title.

  
  Wow, that site sucked. I did say that I hadn't verified the numbers.
• enigmaax

  lhslep134;468438 wrote:I must say I'm truly shocked that in the home of the Badgers they're not talking about OSU/UM. I believe Krambman was talking about the rivalry from a national media standpoint, not from a fan standpoint in Madison, WI.
  
  :rolleyes:

  
  Poster A: "Each team has a rivalry that to them, is the most important."
  Poster B: "But Indiana and Purdue fans would tell you that OSU/Mich is a bigger and more important rivalry than IU/PU is!...
  No one has been discussing Wisconsin being in a different division than Iowa and Minnesota meaning they likely won't play the final week anymore....If you don't realize the place that this rivalry holds not just in this region but nationally then you're clueless or you're deluding yourself."
  
  Just saying, I'm hanging with Wisconsin fans - they don't feel OSU/Michigan is bigger and more important than Wisconsin/Iowa. Why would Indiana or Purdue fans be any different?
  
  I do see where that line about Wisconsin may have been taken out of context since he was talking about national broadcasts, but still, add that with the last line and I'll maintain that OSU/Michigan isn't as important to other fans as you guys sometimes like to think. Yes, it gets the press. Yes, it usually has more of an impact on the conference and national title scenes. But the response that I quoted was a direct response to Person A's statement that fans of other teams see their own rivalries as more important. And that is true, regardless of what someone on TV is talking about.
• wildcats20

  

  Penn St/Nebraska is a protected game....
• wildcats20

  

  And Delaney says the OSU/UM game will be played the final regular season game of the season.
• KnightXC1

  

  Just announced that Michigan and OSU will continue to play on the final week of the season for at least the first two years in the divisions but it seems that it will stay that way for the forseeable future.
• GoPens

  

  The divisions will be OSU, Indiana, Penn State, Illinois, Purdue and Wisky
  
  Then Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Michigan State.
  
  5 division games, 1 locked in rival crossover and 2 other rotating crossovers
  
  And yes, OSU-Mich will be the final week, so could play back to back.
• slingshot4ever

  So OSU will always play the following each year:
  
  PSU
  Wisky
  Purdue
  Indiana
  Illinois
  
  Michigan - crossover
  
  I found the 2011 and 2012 schedules to find the other two cross over games and we have MSU and Nebraska (bigten.org)
• krambman

  

  GoPens;468659 wrote:The divisions will be OSU, Indiana, Penn State, Illinois, Purdue and Wisky
  
  Then Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Michigan State.
  
  5 division games, 1 locked in rival crossover and 2 other rotating crossovers

  
  This is for 2011 and 2012. It's possible that things may change after that, though it's likely they'll sign another two year contract because it's been said that a nine game conference schedule wouldn't start until 2015 at the earliest.