Welcome to BIG TENish Country

After months of speculation the Big Ten has officially given us our first glimpse of what the new conference will look like.  Upon initial review there's nothing to be upset about despite how much the Michigan Wolverines fan base may moan and groan.

The conference will be separated into two six team divisions that break down like so:

          Division 1: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa,
          Michigan State, Northwestern and Minnesota

          Division 2: Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin,
          Purdue, Indiana and Illinois

Alot of the worry around how the Big Ten decided to align itself into divisions was based on how much tradition the conference lost.  Unfortunately, there was no way to guarantee that all of the rivalries would be preserved. Under the circumstances though, the Big Ten did a stand up job. If you look at a list of the conferences rivalry games, listed below, you can't help but realize how well the conference did in keeping tradition alive.

          Illinois vs. Northwestern for the Land of Lincoln Trophy
          Illinois vs. Ohio State for the Illibuck
          Illinois vs. Purdue for the Purdue Cannon
          Indiana vs. Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket
          Indiana vs. Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon
          Iowa vs. Minnesota for the Floyd of Rosedale
          Iowa vs. Wisconsin for the Heartland Trophy
          Michigan vs. Michigan State for the Paul Bunyan Trophy
          Michigan vs. Minnesota for the Little Brown Jug
          Michigan vs. Ohio State, no trophy
          Michigan State vs. Penn State for the Land Grant Trophy
          Minnesota vs. Wisconsin for the Paul Bunyan's Axe
          Ohio State vs. Penn State, no trophy

Of the 13 longstanding rivalries the Big Ten enjoys every year, 7 are preserved by the yearly divisional match-ups.  The Big Ten has taken another step to ensure 4 more rivalries by pairing each conference member with a parnter from the other division to form a guaranteed match-up every year. Those match-up's are as followed:

          Michigan vs. Ohio State, Illinois vs. Northwestern,
          Purdue vs. Iowa, Michigan State vs. Indiana,
          Penn State vs. Nebraska, Wisconsin vs. Minnesota

This means that only two standing rivalries are not guaranteed to happen every year, Michigan St. vs Penn St. and Iowa vs. Wisconsin.  Although attribution can not be provided as to why these match-ups were chosen as the sacrificial lambs, it doesn't take an expert to realize that tradition is the answer. 

We'll begin with Iowa vs. Wisconsin.  This has only been an official trophied rivalry since 2004, easily the least historically significant official rivalry.  After Iowa vs. Wisconsin, the two least historically significant rivalries are Penn St. vs. Ohio St. and Penn St. vs. Michigan St.  The more marketable match-up with the Buckeyes is preserved by way of realignment which leaves Penn St. match-up against the Spartans on the chopping block.

What this realignment also does is create a few new rivalries as well.   Nebraska vs. Michigan and Iowa instantly becomes a very marketable rivalry while the Huskers cross division game against Penn St. allows for a very marketable rivalry as well.  So by my count the Big Ten sacrificed two of its shortest tenured match-ups in favor of three instantly marketable games the conference can build on.

The most important detail to remember here is the importance of the Big Ten Championship game in the overall scheme of things.  The conference's cash cow has always been U of M vs. OSU and splitting the two teams into different divisions creates the possibility that fans might be able to see this game twice a year.  This also gives the Wolverines a second chance at winning the Big Ten despite constantly losing to the Buckeyes year in and year out.  At the end of the day, the Big Ten made itself stronger by doing what many considered unthinkable in separating the Wolverine's and Buckeye's.