The Big Ten Blows It

When it comes to how not to divide a football conference into divisions for a championship game, the ACC wrote the book. So when the Big Ten divided the other day, what league did it emulate? It was the ACC, of course.

The addition of Nebraska for next year left the Big Ten with a nice geographic split with Chicago at the center: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Wisconsin in the West with Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue in the East.

The Big Ten chose to split as such: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin in an unnamed division, let's call it the "Eastern Indy Dells Division." Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Northwestern make up the other unnamed group, which we'll call the "Big-shouldered Corn Motors Division."

Instead of following the logic of geography, commissioner Jim Delany (pictured) sought "competitive equality" in divisions. Oh? How does he anticipate the long-term quality of any football member other than Ohio State? Every other team has had at least one season with five or fewer wins during the decade just ended.

The mistakes the ACC made are three-fold:

It chose out-of-the-way pro stadia for its half-attended title games

It wrongly anticipated Florida State and Miami would top the league every year and thus were split despite their neighboring status

It ignored geography, so hardly anybody outside ACC athletic offices can remember who plays whom for division titles.

The Big Ten:

Chose a pro stadium (Indianapolis' Lucas Oil) in its weakest football state for the first title game in 2011

Long-time, influential kingpins Michigan and Ohio State were placed in separate divisions. Do Delany and Friends project those two in the title game every year? Michigan might have to start all over with a new coach and system by 2012 and might not see success for years.

Without looking above, what division does Indiana play in? Nebraska? Wisconsin? There is nothing worse for national credibility—which every BCS-era league needs—than muddled division groupings.

The Big Ten's new alignment could have been worse. Windy City rivals Northwestern and the University of Chicago might have gone to separate divisions. Chicago's Maroons left the Big Ten in 1940, you say? Perhaps current-day leaders didn't know that; they knew little else.

--Bob Boyles