Conference realignment sends IU to East Division

IU football will play in the Big Ten’s East Division as part of the conference’s realignment starting in 2014, the Big Ten announced Sunday.

Joining the Hoosiers in the East will be Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Rutgers. IU will play Purdue, a West Division school, every year in the only protected cross-division game.

“For me, it was a deal breaker. If we weren’t playing Purdue every year, I would’ve opposed the realignment,” IU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass said. “And as a fan, I’m thrilled. Being able to have those traditional, upper-tier teams in our rotation every year is something I’m embracing and looking forward to.”

The West Division includes Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue and Wisconsin.

In 2014 and 2015, each school will play the other six schools in its division and two teams from the opposite division. The Big Ten will move to a nine-game conference schedule in 2016, when each school will play three teams from the opposite division in addition to its division foes. The Purdue game will remain a protected cross-division matchup.

“Big Ten directors of athletics concluded four months of study and deliberation with unanimous approval of a future football structure that preserved rivalries and created divisions based on their primary principle of East/West geography,” Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said in a press release. “The directors of athletics also relied on the results of a fan survey commissioned by BTN last December to arrive at their recommendation, which is consistent with the public sentiment expressed in the poll.”

When the nine-game conference schedule starts in 2016, teams in the East Division will play host to five conference home games during even-numbered years, while West Division teams will do so during odd-numbered years.

The realignment plan was unanimously recommended by conference athletic directors and was supported by the Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors.

“Hopefully this is going to be the configuration for a long, long time,” Glass said. “From my view, I think we belong in the East. We’re in the Eastern time zone, and we in Indiana tend to look more to the East than we do the West.

“Sure, we’re playing those tough teams, but the flip side of that is those are the teams our fans want to see and our recruits want to play against.”