The Division Debate Gets A Reset

Recommendations and ideas are many, but the preservation of rivalry games has been the most intriguing angle to watch, especially now. Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon told The Detroit News he expects the Wolverines to be in a separate division from rival Ohio State.

According to Brandon, Michigan is “in a situation where one of the best things that could happen in my opinion in a given season would be the opportunity to play Ohio State twice, once during the regular season and once for the championship of the Big Ten.”

The Wolverines and Buckeyes will still play their annual rivalry game, but division alignment will dictate when they play it.

In an interview with the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State AD Gene Smith confirmed both facts: that the U-M-OSU rivalry wasn’t in any danger, but there is a likelihood of it being played earlier in the season.

Predictable and fair reactions: Michigan and Ohio State fans are not impressed with the surrender to the money grab. (Although I guess to be fair, this whole expansion thing was all a money grab to begin with, and every school has signed off on the process.)

But if you want to be a selfish Penn State fan, there is some good news:

• Most importantly, it eliminates the West+PSU division alignment, which was stupid.
• It keeps Penn State and Ohio State together annually since they are now almost certainly in the same division.
• It softens the focus on the OSU-UM game. I don’t want less attention on the game, of course, but I can see the benefit from the other schools’ perspective—especially with a new round of Nebraska games on the slate.  There’s going to be a lot of good stuff to go around regardless of the split.
• With league games being moved back into the winter, having the rivalries in Octoberish eliminates the WEATHER DEATH that changes the strategic nature of the game and generally levels out talent. This should keep all the people crying about an outdoor CCG content (although I was certainly not one of these people).

So what seemed like the  frontrunner—West+PSU—is dead and I shed no tears.  This still seems like a harmful way to solve that model’s problems, though.