College Football - Week 1 (Sept. 4th)

[Jon]

One thing to note with these divisions is that they've already spent a lot of time talking about a 9 game schedule in 2015. Perhaps this is the setup that makes the most sense once a 2nd cross-divisional game is added.

[hawkeyecub]

If those divisions are correct, the mostly western division will be wide open next year. Iowa should take a step back after losing a lot of starters and I doubt UM will be great.

[javy knows my name]

I lived in Iowa for the majority of my life and made trips all over the state, into Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas and of course, to Illinois.

 

Central/Southern Illinois is the worst place to drive than I've seen. The drive from Chicago to Macomb seems to take 6x as long as the drive from Chicago to Des Moines or Chicago to StL. Yikes.

[Exile on Waveland]

Mike Carmin is reporting the following cross-division matchups:

 

Michigan - Ohio State

Nebraska - Penn State

Minnesota - Wisconsin

Northwestern - Illinois

Iowa - Purdue

Michigan State - Indiana

 

 

I still don't get it.

 

Those Iowa-Purdue, MSU-Indiana games get crazy man. You've got to experience one.

 

Actually Purdue was a longtime protected rival of Iowa's in the past so there is at least some history. No real rivalry though. Oh well, I'll take it.

 

Indiana may be brutal, but IU has played Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon since 1950. It's one of only two trophy games IU plays in (Old Oaken Bucket with Purdue being the other, of course). It's one of three Big Ten trophy games Michigan State participates in. Indiana-Michigan State may not be the sexiest or most competitive rivalry, but it is a long standing trophy game and it makes sense for the Big Ten to continue it.

[E.J.]

I don't expect them to screw it up aside from moving the Ohio State and Michigan rivalry. Most of the fans that will be upset will be at Michigan and Ohio State, but only minor annoyances elsewhere.

 

Schools with fans that will be upset:

-Michigan

-Ohio State

 

Schools with fans that will be upset because they're losing a rivalry but really should have thought there was a high probability that they'd lose one

-Iowa

-Wisconsin

 

Schools with fans that will be upset because they're in the same division as Ohio State but should have expected it anyways

-Indiana

-Purdue

 

Schools with fans that will be upset because they're in the same division as Ohio State and thought they'd be able to avoid it

-Minnesota

 

Schools with fans that shouldn't be upset:

-Northwestern

-Illinois

-Nebraska

-Michigan State

-Penn State

 

Honestly, I don't think I'm all that upset with the speculated divisions as long as they're keeping the OSU-Mich game at the end of the year. I'm actually looking forward to building a rivalry with Nebraska.

[UMFan83]

Do these divisions have any bearing on basketball at all? If so, that's a mighty tough division that Illinois finds itself in, and an insanely easy division MSU finds itself in.

[hawkeyecub]

Good correction Exile, I forgot about that.

 

By the way here's a mapped out pic I saw linked on the Iowa board that someone. It basically ended up being North/South besides Wisconsin.

 

http://twitpic.com/2kazk3

[hawkeyecub]

Do these divisions have any bearing on basketball at all? If so, that's a mighty tough division that Illinois finds itself in, and an insanely easy division MSU finds itself in.

 

Katz says that they will switch back to a 16 game schedule and each team would play all of their divisional teams twice and teams from the opposite division once. Haven't seen that anywhere else though.

[SpongeWorthy]

At least the Big 10 ended the charade that MSU/PSU was some sort of rivalry that anyone cared about.

[Jon]

Watch the video clip of Katz talking on ESPN. It sounds like he's just making the assumption about basketball. I don't really buy it for many reasons, including why they'd even spend time talking about basketball right now.

[jersey cubs fan]

Indiana may be brutal, but IU has played Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon since 1950. It's one of only two trophy games IU plays in (Old Oaken Bucket with Purdue being the other, of course). It's one of three Big Ten trophy games Michigan State participates in. Indiana-Michigan State may not be the sexiest or most competitive rivalry, but it is a long standing trophy game and it makes sense for the Big Ten to continue it.

 

That's not a very convincing case. 1950 ain't that long ago. Both teams have other more meaningful trophy games.

[UMFan83]

As for me, as a Michigan fan, I find myself mildly annoyed about the division set up.

 

Maybe a little is OSU and Michigan splitting up because I don't just want to play OSU every year I want to compete with them. And that's not gonna happen anymore unless its in the Big Ten Championship game. TBH, I bet if you looked at the last 40 years and actually counted how many of them were for the Big Ten Title, it would probably be less than 6 times.

 

I mostly had the divisions because as a Big ten fan, I identify with all the teams in the other division a lot more than I identify with teams like Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Northwestern. I've been to pretty much all the campuses in the other division besides PSU and I know fans of all of those 6 schools. In UMs division, I've been to Minneapolis once in my life, the state of Iowa twice maybe, Nebraska never, Northwestern a ton but its not a historically exciting team (sorry Jon). At least we have little brother tagging along with us to the frontier.

[SpongeWorthy]

You're still competing with them. It'll only be a little lame when both teams meet and they're already guaranteed a matchup in the championship game. Actually that'd be really lame but probably very rare, especially if Michigan doesn't get its act together.

[CubColtPacer]

Watch the video clip of Katz talking on ESPN. It sounds like he's just making the assumption about basketball. I don't really buy it for many reasons, including why they'd even spend time talking about basketball right now.

 

Indystar says that it's for football only.

[UMFan83]

Watch the video clip of Katz talking on ESPN. It sounds like he's just making the assumption about basketball. I don't really buy it for many reasons, including why they'd even spend time talking about basketball right now.

 

If that were true, based on the last decade MSU is going to year in and year out be seeded higher than a team like OSU or Illinois just based on the fact that everyone in their division has had little or no basketball success over the last decade.

 

Look at this:

 

NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS:

 

Minnesota - 3/10

Iowa - 3/10

Northwestern - 0/10

Nebraska - 0/10

Michigan - 1/10

Michigan State - 10/10

 

Michigan state has 2 more tourney appearances over the last 10 years than the rest of their division combined. And they get to play 10 conference games against these bozos.

 

Michigan State is going to consistently steamroll over that division of powderpuffs.

[SpongeWorthy]

Plus they get to avoid Big 10 Goliath and Perennial Superpower Purdue an additional game.

[UMFan83]

You're still competing with them. It'll only be a little lame when both teams meet and they're already guaranteed a matchup in the championship game. Actually that'd be really lame but probably very rare, especially if Michigan doesn't get its act together.

 

I guess so. I became a Michigan fan watching the Wolverines knock OSU out of the championship game in back to back years. The trill of ruining their championship aspirations is worth dealing with stretches like this when OSU is dominating UM. Now we can still beat them and derail their championship hopes, but they have another game to prove themselves and get back on track. It's possible that there is a year when OSU can win a national title and lose to Michigan in the same season. That's sacreligous

[SouthSideRyan]

Indiana may be brutal, but IU has played Michigan State for the Old Brass Spittoon since 1950. It's one of only two trophy games IU plays in (Old Oaken Bucket with Purdue being the other, of course). It's one of three Big Ten trophy games Michigan State participates in. Indiana-Michigan State may not be the sexiest or most competitive rivalry, but it is a long standing trophy game and it makes sense for the Big Ten to continue it.

 

That's not a very convincing case. 1950 ain't that long ago. Both teams have other more meaningful trophy games.

 

Michigan State joined the Big Ten in 1950

[Guest]

They're going to look back on this divisional alignment and feel pretty dumb about how complicated they made it. Unless they expand and realign within 5 years.

[SouthSideRyan]

Michigan - 1/10

 

Hahahahaha

[UMFan83]

Michigan - 1/10

 

Hahahahaha

 

It was an awesome appearance too. Did you see how we almost beat Oklahoma!!

 

Well we lost by 20 or so but we were only down a couple at half time. I waited a long time to enjoy those 2 games, and I will not be mocked for it.

[Wilson A2000]

When does the College Game Day Live schedule come out?

[EhDubya]

Good correction Exile, I forgot about that.

 

By the way here's a mapped out pic I saw linked on the Iowa board that someone. It basically ended up being North/South besides Wisconsin.

 

http://twitpic.com/2kazk3

 

So... the Red division is clearly taking it from the Blue division, I'm not the only one who sees this, right? A sign of things to come, ya think?

[SouthSideRyan]

You have an oddly shaped penis

[E.J.]

Robert Bolden named Penn State's starting QB.