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Big Ten announces realignment

Wed 1st, September 2010

Park Ridge, IL (Sports Network) - The Big Ten unveiled its plan for divisional realignment Wednesday and the controversial split of longtime rivals Michigan and Ohio State is in place.

There will be two divisions of six teams each starting with the 2011 season, with the winners meeting in the inaugural Big Ten Football Championship Game, scheduled for December 3, 2011, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. As in the past, the Big Ten champion will either participate in the Rose Bowl or BCS National Championship Game should that be the case.

The divisional splits for football is as follows:

Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota will make up one division while the other will house Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany made the announcement live on the Big Ten Network and cited competitive equality, geography and preserving rivalries in making the decision process.

With regard to the altering of annual rivalry games, which have caused a firestorm in some football circles, Delany laid out that there will be three games against schools from the opposite division in a given year and one protected "crossover" game to be played on an annual basis in addition to games within teams' own divisions.

The protected games include annual matchups between Ohio State-Michigan, Penn State-Nebraska, Illinois-Northwestern, Purdue-Iowa, Wisconsin-Minnesota and Indiana-Michigan State.

"We focused on competitive equality, traditional rivalries and geography. We considered multiple models and countless permutations in an effort to achieve the most competitively balanced divisions while at the same time respecting our traditions, preserving existing rivalries, and creating opportunities for the establishment and growth of new rivalries. We have listened to the feedback from our institutions, alumni and fans, and while we understand that no final alignments could possibly satisfy all of our constituents, we believe that we have achieved a very exciting result," Delany said.

Delany added that the conference hopes to unveil names for the divisions some time in the next 10 months. The Big Ten also announced updated conference schedules for the 2011 and 2012 football seasons as a result of the realignment.

While the changes are expected to be fully implemented for football, it remains unclear whether the divisions will be used for basketball or rather a single 12-team division.