Big Ten to Add 5 Teams? How Would The Conference Be Divided

ACSS reporter Derek Wilson is reporting

"A source in St. Louis familiar with the situation told NewsCenter 16 Thursday afternoon that Missouri will leave the Big XII and soon join the Big 10. Other schools expected to follow the Tigers are Syracuse, Pitt, Rutgers and Nebraska."


Now should we believe this or not, is one thing. Instead of debating the merits of whether this is a good thing or this will actually happen, Derek and I debated how the conference should be arranged. Here’s what transpired


DerekWilson
you believe it...?
i'm guessing its not 100% true. 16 would be gigantic

Stephen Noffke
to become the big 16?
so what, for football, you have two 8 team divisions, and they'd play each of the 7 schools in their division and 1 from the other
or would you do 4 4-team divisions
that's a lot of school

DerekWilson
I like the 4 4 team divisions...but how do you pick the champ?
my guess is they move to a 9 or 10 game conference season
I wouldn't mind 10 (for IU)...two crappy non-conf teams to warm up
for OSU and those teams it makes it hard to want to play a good non conf team
...and what happens to IUs agreement to play mizzou in a few years..? haha

Stephen Noffke
well, I guess we are still agreeing to play them

DerekWilson
haha yea
how would you map out a two division conference though...

Stephen Noffke
Here’s a picture of the schools locations


you have to do east/west break up right? for travel purposes

DerekWilson
yea, i was thinking that
i got to Nebraska, Iowa, Mizzou, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin
and Pitt, Penn state, Rutgers, Syracuse, Indiana, Purdue
not sure what to do with OSU/MSU/Mich

Stephen Noffke
I was thinking IU Purdue would be the split
there's that natural gap between MSU/OSU/MU
and NU, PU, and IU

DerekWilson
so we wouldn't play Purdue every year?
I feel like they would have to be in the same division
Stephen Noffke
so you put us both in the east?

DerekWilson
its weird geographically

Stephen Noffke
I feel like we can't split up OSU/MU/MSU. MU has to be in the same conference as MSU and OSU

DerekWilson
yea
it looks like by that map IU would be out east
DerekWilsonCFM 8:51 am
we have no natural rivals in the east

Stephen Noffke
could we send NU out east?

DerekWilson
kinda in the same boat then...

Stephen Noffke
so, are we saying it's 8 team divisions, 10 leauge games, one permanent opponent, and 1 rotating across divisions?

DerekWilson
that i could see
for sure
then you can do IU out east (and i wouldn't go to any games)...I’d day move Purdue out east. good bye
or northwestern

Stephen Noffke I’d go to Columbus, Ann Arbor or East Lansing

DerekWilson
yea
thats true
and we would have a shot at beating Syracuse!

Stephen Noffke
and Rutgers
talent wise, the east would be stronger

DerekWilson
yea
especially basketball I think


(Derek and Steve decided on this split up and the cross division game every year.)


West
Iowa
Minnesota
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Mizzou
Purude
Northwestern
Illinois


East
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Indiana

Cross Division
Indiana Purude
Michigan Minnesota
Michigan State Wisconsin
Iowa Pittsburgh
Ohio State Nebraska
Penn State Mizzou
Rutgers Northwestern
Syracuse Illinois


Stephen Noffke crap, I found a flaw with my 4 4-team conferences
how would you get a champ game (Editor’s note: Steve completely missed Derek’s comment earlier)

DerekWilson
yea, that's exactly what i was thinking
you could do a BCS formula....haha
what you could do is big 16 conference...east - west divisions
then sub-divisions
something weird like that

Stephen Noffke
and then whoever had the best confrence record in each division (regaurdless of sub-division) would go to the title game
Here’s how the schedule would break out for each team. 8 Conference games. Of these 8 games 3 would be playing the 3 teams in your region. 3 games would be against teams that finished in the same place as you in the other three divisions. 1 rivalry game across regions (Indiana vs Purdue, Michigan vs Ohio State, Illinois vs Northwestern etc.) and 1 game rotating game.

DerekWilson
yea i guess


Stephen Noffke
The only problem with that, is what Michigan was in the same sub-division as MSU, NU and PU, so they get to play those three every year, while Nebraska has to play Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota every year.
maybe not a great example, but Nebraska plays a harder schedule and MU gets an easy one?
I guess that's just luck of the draw

DerekWilson
I think at this point its MSU #1 in that division
and they have an easy road
Michigan’s defense is going to be REALLY bad this year

Stephen Noffke
yea they are
or, Michigan plays OSU every year, will Purdue gets to beat up on IU every year

DerekWilson
haha, but don't forget that IU is going to go 13-0 this year

Stephen Noffke
of course

DerekWilson
wait, how did you pick sub-divisions? there is almost a natural geographic division that kinda works out...

Penn State Pittsburgh Rutgers Syracuse
Illinois Indiana Mizzou Purude
Michigan Michigan State Northwestern Ohio State
Iowa Minnesota Nebraska Wisconsin



Stephen Noffke
here is what I have

East/Lake Erie: Penn State Pittsburgh Rutgers Syracuse
South/Ohio River: Illinois Indiana Mizzou Ohio State
North/Lake Michigan: Michigan Michigan State Northwestern Purude
West/Mississippi River: Iowa Minnesota Nebraska Wisconsin

Yes I renamed the regions. North/South/East/West are generic, and yes I know, Rutgers/New Jersey Doesn’t touch Lake Erie and Nebraska isn’t on the Mississippi River.



so you went like, far east, near east, near west and far west in the divisions
DerekWilson
haha i guess
yea, i didn't take into account any cross divisional rivalries or anything

Stephen Noffke
yeah I didn't either, the only difference between us in OSU and PU

DerekWilson
yea, true


My Cross Division Games


Illinois Northwestern
Indiana Purude
Ohio State Michigan
Michigan State Penn State
Iowa Pittsburgh
Mizzou Nebraska
Syracuse Minnesota
Rutgers Wisconsin



So that's what Derek and I came up with. Clearly there is a lot to have to happen before this becomes reality. Even if it does happen there is a lot different ways one could break up the confrence. We just through out our ideas, but how would you guys out there break up the confrence? Any other ways besides the 8 and 4 team divisions?


Update:

Here is ESPN.com's Big Ten Blogger Adam Rittenberg's stance on the 4 4-Team Divisions

Chris from Kansas City, Mo., writes: Adam, what are your feeling on the recent report of the 4X4 plan? In this plan you would see the big ten take Missouri/Nebraska/Syracuse/Pittsburgh/Rutgers. Then put all 16 teams into four, four-team divisions?

Adam Rittenberg: The division argument has gained some traction among fans and media members, but I haven't heard much about it from legitimate Big Ten sources. This format likely would require two weeks of playoffs to determine a league champion, unless they had a way of selecting the top two division winners to meet in one championship game. Two weeks of playoffs seems pretty tricky scheduling-wise, especially for a league that saw plenty of resistance to moving the regular season after Thanksgiving. It would be important to create competitive balance within the divisions, and as I've said all along, geography shouldn't be the overriding factor in creating divisions. If putting Penn State with some new schools from the East makes sense, great. But if it screws up the competitive balance in the other three divisions, I'd rather see Penn State in the same division with an Iowa or a Wisconsin.