Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi told Sports Headliners he expects the Big Ten Conference to announce its realignment within “30 days” of football schools. New schedules need to come ASAP because all schools must remake their home and away dates with Nebraska joining the league in 2011 as a 12th member.
Maturi won’t speculate on the specific grouping of schools into two six-team divisions but did acknowledge that Big Ten officials will value both competitive balance and historic rivalries in making a final decision. Led by commissioner Jim Delany, league officials have comprehensively researched performances by Big Ten teams and Nebraska dating back to 1993 when Penn State joined the conference.
Maturi said the results show Ohio State is No. 1 during that period, while Michigan and Nebraska come next. Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa are also performance leaders. Purdue, Michigan State, Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana have been less successful.
Sports Headliners suggests this grouping: Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa, Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana in an “East Division.” The “West Division” members would be Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois and Minnesota.
Maturi acknowledged the likelihood that traditional rivals Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin won’t all be in the same division. Each Big Ten team is expected to play five games against division rivals and three more conference games against teams from the opposite division.
One of the three conference games is likely to be designated a cross division rivalry game but even that might not assure the Gophers, Wisconsin and Iowa playing each other annually, Maturi said. In the Sports Headliners grouping of teams Iowa is in the opposite division of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Following this example, some seasons the Hawkeyes might not play both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
League teams may eventually play nine conference games, not eight. The addition of a ninth game likely figures to boost TV ratings for the conference including on the Big Ten Network. However, the addition of a ninth game isn’t expected for at least a few years and if it does happen schools will during alternate years have either four or five home conference games. A ninth league game also means one less nonconference game which may result in less revenue for a school.