News
Big Ten Splitting Up Michigan/Ohio State
By: espn.comPosted On: 09/02/2010 12:08 P
Any Michigan man will tell you, there is nothing quite like beating Ohio State. Every Buckeye agrees, a win over that team from up North is priority No. 1.
Well, now Michigan and Ohio State could get two chances in a season to beat their fiercest rival. What would Woody and Bo have thought of that? A rematch!
The Big Ten announced its divisional breakdown Wednesday night and Ohio State and Michigan will be in different six-team divisions when the league expands to 12 members in 2011.
Neither division has been named but they break down like this: Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern in one. Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana in the other.
Commissioner Jim Delany said creating football divisions with competitive balance was the top priority and No. 2 was maintaining a cross-division rivalry game for each team.
"We felt like we could do equal competition and tradition with this move," Delany said.
Michigan and Ohio State will be a cross-divisional rivalry and continue to play each other each year in the Big Ten regular-season finale, as they have since 1943. That means they could wind up meeting again for the conference championship a week or two later. Not in the Big House or the Horseshoe but on a neutral field.
"Basically, we decided to go with the final season date because that was a way to maintain the tradition," Delany said. "The conference has a wonderful history of not only rivalry games but also trophy games."
Big Ten teams will play eight conference games the next two seasons, but that could increase in the future.
"The athletic directors have the intention of exploring a ninth conference game in 2015," Delany said.
Nebraska will join the Big Ten as its 12th team next year, allowing the conference to split into two divisions and add a lucrative championship game. The first Big Ten football championship game will be played in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, the indoor home of the NFL's Colts.
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