Big Ten Divisions Announced for 2011 Season: How did Illinois fare?
by Jonah Puls on Sep 1, 2010 9:18 PM CDT
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PrintThe wait, anxiousness, and constant analysis have finally been put to an end.
The divisions for the 2011 Big Ten college football season were announced this evening via the Big Ten Network.
Much speculation has been put into which teams will go into which division, how the rivalries will be maintained, and how evenly the divisions could be split up.
But all of that speculation was ended tonight.
And without further adieu, here is a look at the new divisions (for now they are just called division X and O):
Division X:
Ohio State
Penn State
Wisconsin
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Division O:
Michigan
Nebraska
Minnesota
Northwestern
Michigan State
Iowa
With the format of the divisions, the schedule will consist of eight conference games—five of those will be all your intra-division opponents.
And within the three crossover games, one of them will be a protected game to keep rivalries and old traditions going, and the other two will be rotated.
The two division winners will then meet up for a championship game during September in Indianapolis.
Discussion has started on the Big Ten looking into a nine-game league schedule starting in 2015.
The Fighting Illini football schedule for 2011 looks like this:
10/1 Northwestern
10/8 @IU
10/15 OSU
10/22 @PUR
10/29 @PSU
11/5 BYE
11/12 MICH
11/19 UW
11/26 @MIN
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Northwestern opens the Big Ten schedule? Damn. Not used to that.
Also not going to get used to the LOLTrofy only being played for once every two years. But I’ll get over it.
As far as the divisions are concerned football-wise, Illinois got fucked. OSU, Wisconsin, Penn State. Every year. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
northwestern is the protected rivalry game for us
When I was a kid, I didn't want to be a doctor or a fireman. I wanted to be Super Mario. It's the most literal pipe dream I've ever had.
Yeah, but also Indiana and Purdue every year
So maybe it balances out?
"They say the glee team has lured stragglers into sniper traps with cheery renditions of hit songs." "Really? And people fall for that?"
I like what they've done, will be interesting to see how it all works out.
Hope he’s not writing the 2011 White Sox Anal too. -Sox Machine
Division X
is far superior in both basketball and football historically
follow me on twitter for fantasy sports analysis @http://twitter.com/DrewDinkmeyer or get the full analysis at www.fantistics.com
by DartmouthCubsFan on Sep 2, 2010 1:34 PM CDT reply actions
I thought it did
2 versus division teams and 1 versus non division teams each year? And going back to a 16 game schedule? Nothing in stone but just speculation
The divisions are pretty well balanced
If you consider that Michigan will be back to their usual level of success in the not to distant future, the pairings are pretty obvious.
Tier 1 teams:
Michigan/Ohio State
Nebraska/Penn State
Tier 2 teams:
Iowa/Wisconsin
Tier 3 teams:
Michigan State/Purdue
Northwestern/Illinois
Tier 4 teams:
Minnesota/Indiana
Because of the balance, I don’t see how anyone can really complain. All the important rivalries are protected so that’s not going anywhere. All in all I’m happy with the new setup.
How soon do you expect Michigan to be back?
They have Rich Rodriguez as their coach, for fuck’s sake.
St. Louis Game Time . . . I need another beer.
And I can also write things in 140 characters or fewer.
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