Big 10 Division Thoughts...

Well, it's been hitting all the blogs hard and I figured it was finally time for me to add my 2 cents to the discussion - even though at the end of the day it won't amount to a hill of beans....

Greg at Mvictors.com has a pretty good analysis along with a great observation by Craig Ross that put the thought that was lurking in the back of my mind into clear words.

Here's what the divisions are probably going to look like:

Look to Mvictors for the details on what trophy games and rivalries are protected....

My biggest issue? The Craig Ross observation. If you are Michigan or Ohio State, you're screwed. You are going to have to play the 5 teams in your division. No exceptions. Then, to get to 9 games, you have to pick 4 teams from the other division. So, Michigan has to play OSU every year. No exceptions. My guess is Nebraska somehow becomes a "regular game" for Michigan as well. So, that leaves Minnesota (The Oldest Trophy in College Football), Illinois and Northwestern on a rotation in and out of Michigan's schedule. I'm sure there will be some odd ball year where we don't play Nebraska, but expect that to be about once every 10 years.

OSU is in the exact same boat. Figure that MSU, Indiana, and Purdue get the rotation nod with Michigan and Wisconsin as the premier protected games. What does this mean?

If either Michigan or OSU end up winning their division, they will have played a much tougher conference schedule - without question based on historical evidence. Which is fine if you win your division. But here's the rub scenario that scares the hell out of me and makes this look and smell and awful lot like the Big 12 fiasco that we had with Texas - Texas Tech - Oklahoma in 2008:

Michigan beats Sparty by 59-0. Michigan barely loses to Ohio State and PSU, one in OT and the other by a last second Figgie.... Sparty beats everyone else on their schedule (but hasn't yet played West Division Champ OSU) and goes 8-1 conference. Michigan is 7-2.

Who's the Champ? Clearly, head to head Michigan DESTROYED SPARTY. Emasculated them. Ripped the old stones off right at the root....And somehow, Sparty manages to squeak out 8 victories and seals the Eastern division championship....

I know - This begs the question of "How often will that REALLY happen??" Well, it happened quite a bit in the former Big 12 where the head to head matchup didn't mean diddly...

Yep...This is the problem I see. I'm sure it will go along fine until we have an issue and there has to be some rule or some provision in there for head to head match-ups vs. a single win or loss separating the top two teams. If you somehow get lucky enough to upset the division champ but lose three other Big 10 contests, go home...You've got no bitch. But, in the case where we're talking about a single game separating the two...Well, no I have a big Problem. And I'm not sure how I make it go away. But head to head has to count for something in the system. One extra point if you're both in the top two? Craig suggested counting division games as two points and cross division as 1 point...No good. It seems like it's too confusing and opens up the possibility of an undefeated division champ with up to 3 losses in cross division (you would be 10-3) and then a 2nd place division team could have the better record with two division losses (7-2) and be 9-4...Or is Craig thinking the points are cummulative and not a "record" per se?

It's going to get confusing folks...Just letting you know...