Big Ten announces football divisions

IU preserved its rivalry with Purdue in the finalization of the new Big Ten football
subdivisions.

Big Ten conference commissioner Jim Delany presented the divisions and conference schedules for the 2011-12 football seasons Wednesday, less than three months after announcing Nebraska’s acceptance of its invitation to the Big Ten.

The decision to realign the conference into two divisions came after Nebraska, which officially becomes a part of the Big Ten on July 1, 2011, decided to leave the Big 12.

“We had a lot of issues trying to turn this around in one year,” said Delany, who officially began the expansion search following a release on Dec. 15, 2009. “We came in the room together, we had our differences, but we came out of the room together.”

The subdivisions were unanimously approved by both the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors, which IU president Michael McRobbie chairs, and the conference’s athletics directors.

“We felt they did a very good job of preserving storied rivalries while maintaining a competitive balance across the conference,” McRobbie said. “We’re convinced that these new alignments will bring even more excitement and fan interest to Big Ten football competition.”

Keeping the conferencesequally competitive, maintaining traditions and rivalries and geography were all given due diligence in the decision, Delany said.

“We want to see how it goes,” he said. “We really want to see how the fans respond, how the teams respond. ... We are excited about it.”

Rivalries such as Michigan-Ohio State and Purdue-IU have been preserved. Each will take place at the end of the regular season. Of the 12 “trophy games” in the Big Ten, Delany said nine or 10 will remain per year. The other rivalries will not play out annually.

“That doesn’t mean they’re going away,” he said. “They’ll just occur less frequently.”

IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said he is pleased with the current schedule.

“Our conference is really built on tradition, and that kind of applies to IU as well,” he said. “I like it that the Old Oaken Bucket is the last game of the year.”

Each team will play eight conference games per year under the constraints of the current schedule — all five teams within its division, one cross-division game that remains constant from year to year and two cross-division games that change every two years.

“What that will mean is that you will rotate through that,” Delany said.

In a 10-year period, IU will play each of the five teams in the opposing division.

A nine-game conference season is also being considered following the Big Ten’s obligations. The system appeals to Delany, although the additional matchup wouldn’t begin until 2015 at the earliest.

“We don’t want to play each other less,” Delany said. “We want to play each other more.”

The addition of a conference game would also draw more revenue for teams with five-game home conference schedules and provide Big Ten teams with fewer games than they have to pay non-conference opponents to play.

Out-of-conference teams are paid guarantees, or money in advance, for playing schools in their home stadiums. Glass said guarantees for bringing teams to play in Bloomington can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.

Glass said he supports adding a ninth conference game not only for profits, but also because Big Ten games offer tougher challenges for the teams than non-conference opponents.

“It’s great for us from a revenue perspective, and it’s great from a competition standpoint,” he said.

Delany said he sees the Big Ten subdivisions standing for the next 50 years. However, that would end the possibility of further expansion for the conference.

After Nebraska’s decision to join the Big Ten, Delany said he asked members of the Big Ten Council whether the conference should consider further expansion. The Council decided to take no further action and reconsider the subject this coming December.

“In December. ... we’ll decide if this is a pause, or if it’s a period,” Delany said.